internet search and %20

[iankerry]

Hi

I have a button on my form which when pressed goes to imdb.com and does a search for the film name that is on the record. This used to work but now I get a %20 instead of spaces when I arrive at the imdb site. (127%20Hours instead of 127 hours)

I think I have to use underscore in the film name to make it work again?

Dim imdb
Dim searchterm
imdb = "http://imdb.com/find?q="
searchterm = imdb & filmtitle.Value
Application.FollowHyperlink searchterm

If this is the only option, how can i turn any spaces into underscores? Or any other ideas gratefully accepted!

Ian

 

[James Deckert]

I typed http://www.imdb.com/find?q=127 hours on the url line of the browser and it worked, but it gave me several choices. Spaces are normally converted to %20 in this kind of thing.
Stop the code in debug on the followhyperlink and look at searchterm. Copy and paste it into browser and see if it works.

 

[iankerry]

Hi James

Most interesting. When I clicked your link it worked - but on mine i get the %20 in the imdb search box. But ONLY on IMDB, in other search engines it works ok.

My search term has spaces in it = "http://imdb.com/find?q=127 Hours"

So it seems I need to get a %20 instead of the spaces in the film title? But this seems a weird thing to try and have to do - or is there something else going on that I am missing, James?

Thanks

 

[iankerry]

Anyone any ideas? Have been looking around the internet but can't seem to find an answer that works.

Thanks

Ian

 

[gemma-the-husky]

no expert, but I assumed %20 was just internet speak for a space

space is chr(32), which is Hex20.


does the search yield anything, or nothing?


I would dim as string, and maybe send trim(variablename)
dimming as you are makes the variable a variant rather than a string, which may or may not be important

[edit - just tried it

got this reply

No results found for "127%20Hours"

the ie title bar showed this - I do not know where the extra "25" came from.

http://www.imdb.com/find?q=127%20Hours

 

[gemma-the-husky]

result. I got it to work with this

searchterm = imdb & "127+Hours&s=all"

 Sub testweb()
Dim imdb As String
Dim searchterm As String
 imdb = "[URL]http://imdb.com/find?q[/URL]="
searchterm = imdb & "[COLOR=red]127+Hours&s=all[/COLOR]"
 Application.FollowHyperlink Trim(searchterm)
End Sub

possibly replace spaces with +characters and add the "&s=all".

 

[iankerry]

Thanks Jemma, that does indeed work.

Not sure why this is only a problem on IMDB as all the other buttons work for searching amazon and google etc.

I just need to research how to make spaces into +'s now. but thanks for your help, you have got me on my way!

I.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

mystring = replace(mystring,"__"," ") 'replace double spaces with single - may or may not be needed - you need two spaces in the first expression, not underscores- I had spaces, but the site changed it a single space!
mystring = replace(mystring," ","+")

 

[iankerry]

Perfect Dave, thanks very much.

And sorry for calling you after your dog.

Best regards
Ian

 

[gemma-the-husky]

no probs. that's my user name.

by the way - the code itself was interesting. followhyperlink is deceptively powerful, isn't it.