url encoding in links

Question

Level 1

9 points

url encoding in links

OK So I am trying to add a link using some basic URL encoding to allow a user of an exported PDF to share a message with a link in it on WhatsApp.

The link looks something like this:

https://wa.me/?text=Hi%20have%20a%20look%20at%20this%20awesome%20link%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2F%3Futm_source%3Dsomesource%26utm_medium%3Dsome_medium

So it turns out that adding this kind of link works just fine in pages 5.6.2.

However, in pages 8.0 it insists on trying to decode the url I have embedded in the text element of the link breaking the Google Analytics utm tracking which contains special characters like ? and &.

This is so frustrating. I am forced to maintain outdated OSs because I am worried I will keep losing valuable functionality like this. Starting to feel a bit like Windows user.

Can you stop pages from autocorrecting this?

Apple if you are listening please stop breaking excellent tools like this. I can't even add links in Preview anymore. sad face.

Any sensible solutions to this would be most welcome.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 22, 2019 1:51 PM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

60,194 points

May 22, 2019 7:51 PM in response to obbila

"Apple if you are listening…"

Neither Apple or Apple representatives or employees actively monitor these user-to-user discussions. Request to Apple should be sent via the feedback channel, accessible for Pages feedback via the Provide Pages Feedback item in the Pages menu.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

126,650 points

May 23, 2019 4:51 AM in response to obbila

What your link is attempting to do is invoke an unregistered URI protocol (whatsapp://) in Safari and the browser is rejecting it. It is also referring to a secondary URI within that URL which may or may not be supported in this context. The primary problem is that unregistered protocol which is a different problem from URL percent encoding which as encoded, Pages passes into the exported PDF.

Firefox 67 is more informative:

Tested with Pages 8.0 on Mojave 10.14.5. I do not have any WhatsApp application installed, if there is one for macOS.

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Answer 3

obbila Author

Level 1

9 points

May 23, 2019 5:34 AM in response to VikingOSX

If you open this on an iphone or an android device when the link is encoded properly it works fine and WhatsApp is opened with the message and the appropriate link in the message (PDF generated using pages 5)

An iphone also shows you the link before you open it. In the text region for the nested link you can see that the % encoding has been converted to standard text (PDF generated with pages 8) !!! This is the link in the PDF. Anyway as Barry mentioned I should send Apple feedback, will do.

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url encoding in links

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