Question

Redirecting Page based on URL

Asked by: wcameron

I  am creating a database of information on parks and tourism destinations. Then, visitors will be able to learn more about these destinations using ASP pages. So far so good. In the case of major destinations I want to create entire sections of the website specific to the destination. In these cases, I want visitors to be directed to these pages rather than the database served pages.

Here is what I mean.

For most destinations, the database record will include a short description, contact information and a list of things that you can do there.

In other destinations, I may have dozens of pages detailing the site.

I use a step-by step approach visible on http://www.mountainnature.com/Destinations/ (Destination/Park Finder). However, when you get to the results page at ParkFinderResults.asp, I would like to have the ability to redirect key destinations to a different page.

Here is my idea. Have a yes/no database field called redirect and another one with the url. When the ParkFinderResults.asp page is loaded, if the redirect field is yes, than the page wil be redirected to the page in the url field.

I hope this makes sense. If there is a better way to handle this I would appreciate your help. I can easily pass the Redirect AND the URL parameters from the page prior to ParkFinderResults.asp.

I've got the process working (sort of). I want the UN-redirected page to continue to the asp page using the DestID to identify the record and also passing on the fDestName field. This final field is the name of a destination and may have spaces in the name. Unfortunately, these are converted into %20 rather than + signs. This totally screws everything up. Here is my current code:

<%
RedirectURL = Trim(Replace(Request.QueryString("URL"),"'", "''"))
If Request.QueryString("Redirect") = "True" then
   response.redirect (replace(request("URL"), "'", "")) & "?DestID=" &  Request.QueryString("DestID")
else
   response.redirect("ParkFinderResults.asp?DestID=" &  Request.QueryString("DestID") & "&" & Request.QueryString("fDestName"))
end if
%>

The redirected url works perfectly, but the UN-redirecte url is translated as follows:

http://www.mountainnature.com/Destinations/ParkFinderResults.asp?DestID=9&'Elk%20Island%20National%20Park'

Obviously it's not passing on the field name for fDestName, but it is passing on the value. How can I get rid of the %20 and replace with + AND remove the single quote around the field value

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2006-12-11 at 00:51:00ID22088874
Topic

Active Server Pages (ASP)

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
4

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. redirecting a parked domain?
    I have another domain parked in my account. ex: my account domain name is example1.com my parked domain name is example2.com can i redirect the parked domain in the sub-dir of my account using cgi/perl? ex. example2.com --> example1.dom/example2
  2. redirecting email and url
    hai i am having users in my website(mydomain.com) and their email address are as follows 111@mydomain.com 222@mydomain.com now i want to redirect all mails comming to these address to 111@hotmail.com or 111@usa.net how to do this i also want to redirect url address mydo...
  3. Visitors Country?
    Hi, is there a way using Javascript (or any other scripting) that it could be possible to detect the country of a visitor and redirect them? Is the visitors country held in a variable in IE/NS? Or woudl it be possible to get their IP and determine that way (if blocks of IPs...
  4. Visitor redirection problem
    Usually visitor can be redirected by this header: Location: http://www.site.com\n\n but I have problem to redirect visitor to page on his own computer like page "about:blank" Ex. Location: local://about:blank\n\n shows error page :-( Are there any way without us...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: PreecePosted on 2006-12-11 at 07:31:54ID: 18115210

strURL = replace(strURL, "'", "")
strURL = replace(strURL, "%20", "+")

Preece

 

by: ThinkPaperPosted on 2006-12-11 at 11:29:01ID: 18117054

just an add-on to what preece posted: =)
this may be useful if you're looking to do a little bit more..
http://www.aspnut.com/reference/encoding.asp#urldecode

 

by: wcameronPosted on 2006-12-11 at 12:28:00ID: 18117573

Thanks guys. Preece's solution solved part of the problem, but I realized the main point was that I had not added the following: "&fDestName=" so I wasn't giving my fDestName field a string name.

I changed the line that was causing problems to the following:

   response.redirect("ParkFinderResults.asp?DestID=" &  Request.QueryString("DestID") & "&fDestName=" & replace(Request.QueryString("fDestName"), "'", ""))


I tried using the strURL = replace(strURL, "%20", "+") line as well, but it didn't do anything. I still got the %20 in the url, but it doesn't seem to be causing problems. You can try it by going to www.MountainNature.com/Destinations and then select Alberta in the Destination/Park finder. This will bring you to a list of Parks. since Banff is a major destination, I'm creating a mini site around Banff so selecting that link will redirect you to the home page of this section. If instead, you click on Elk Island National Park, you'll be taken to a simple Database page that lists details about that park. This allows me to combine the simplicity of a database driven site while still building richer material around key destinations.

I'll give the points to Preece but thanks thinkPaper for the code. I'll keep that handy as I do use this more and more.

 

by: ThinkPaperPosted on 2006-12-12 at 09:57:16ID: 18124397

>>I tried using the strURL = replace(strURL, "%20", "+") line as well, but it didn't do anything. I still got the %20 in the url, but it doesn't seem to be causing problems.

np =) just wanted to clarify this since I'm not sure if you understood..
http://www.domain.com/my space/my page.html               is the same as:
http://www.domain.com/my%20space/my%20page.html

It will ALWAYS translate this way in the URL. Any special characters are automatically encoded in the URL bc of security purposes. It's part of the RFC standard or something. special characters are considered "unsafe" so it's automatically converted over.

"...Only alphanumerics [0-9a-zA-Z], the special characters "$-_.+!*'()," [not including the quotes - ed], and reserved characters used for their reserved purposes may be used unencoded within a URL."
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm

This doesn't affect locations of a file or webpage. Only time it would effect something is if you are grabbing the URL and changing/using it for other purposes (i.e. if you want to grab the full URL and display on page so it doesn't show the %20s, etc..)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...