Exclamation mark links

[chadon]

I have been searching the forum and didn't find any topics related to my problem but I have been using SMF 2 for years and always used the "Pretty Url mod" and had problems with links being generated correctly when they contain an exclamation mark. The same happens with external links using this character.


I would like to know if this is a know bug for SMF 2 or if it's due to one of the many mods I have on my forum?


Example:
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/page-name

[chadon]

I guess the bug is only on my forum.

Here is a post where you can see it:
http://www.mustangv8.com/fr/restaurations/restorationpreparation-'67-phoenix-project'/msg474861/#msg474861


Edit:

If it can help, here is a list of the mods installed on the forum:


1.   Global Headers Footers   2.0.1   [ Désinstaller ]
2.   SMF 2.0.3 Update   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
3.   Tapatalk SMF 2.0 RC4/RC5/Final Plugin   3.2.0   [ Désinstaller ]
4.   News Letter Mod for SMF2   1.14   [ Désinstaller ]
5.   PMx-SubForums   1.35   [ Désinstaller ]
6.   Drafts   1.1.4   [ Désinstaller ]
7.   SA Chat   RC1 Rev58   [ Désinstaller ]
8.   SEO Sitemap   2.2   [ Désinstaller ]
9.   SMF Quiz   1.1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
10.   Stop Forum Spam   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
11.   Adk Back To Top   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
12.   Bookmarks   2.5   [ Désinstaller ]
13.   Highslide 4 SMF   0.7a   [ Désinstaller ]
14.   Simple .htaccess Cache Mod   2.6   [ Désinstaller ]
15.   InLine Attachments   1.11   [ Désinstaller ]
16.   nCode Image Resizer   1.3.1   [ Désinstaller ]
17.   SMF 2.0.2 Update   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
18.   SMF Garage   2.2   [ Désinstaller ]
19.   Topic Descriptions   1.2   [ Désinstaller ]
20.   Smush.it!   0.1   [ Désinstaller ]
21.   SMF 2.0.1 Update   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
22.   Curve mobile mod   1.1.1   [ Désinstaller ]
23.   Treasury   2.10   [ Désinstaller ]
24.   PaypalDonations   2.0   [ Désinstaller ]
25.   Enhancements to purge inactive members   1.2.2   [ Désinstaller ]
26.   Single Category   2.1.9   [ Désinstaller ]
27.   Related Topics   1.4   [ Désinstaller ]
28.   Member NotePad   2.0.2   [ Désinstaller ]
29.   Team Page   1.1.6   [ Désinstaller ]
30.   VigLink   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
31.   Birthday Posts   0.12.1 Beta   [ Désinstaller ]
32.   Ultimate Profile   0.9.1   [ Désinstaller ]
33.   SMF Arcade   2.5 RC1   [ Désinstaller ]
34.   Resize Attached Images   2.3.1   [ Désinstaller ]
35.   Contact Page   3.0   [ Désinstaller ]
36.   BlogBridger   1.1.4   [ Désinstaller ]
37.   PM Attachments   1.6   [ Désinstaller ]
38.   Custom BBCode   2.03   [ Désinstaller ]
39.   vBulletin Style Meta Tags   1.1   [ Désinstaller ]
40.   Off-Topic BBC Tag   1.1.2-rc3   [ Désinstaller ]
41.   Google Member Map   2.0.7   [ Désinstaller ]
42.   EzPortal   0.5.1   [ Désinstaller ]
43.   Aeva Media   1.4w   [ Désinstaller ]
44.   Pretty URLs   1.0RC5.2

[Kindred]

The best suggestion that I can make is

install a test forum and confirm it works correctly
then one by one, install your mods and test after each install

[Storman™]

I don't see an exclamation mark in that topic you gave as an example?

Anyway, I'm guessing that Pretty UrL's is changing them to another character (no idea what as I don't use it) which is why the url appears differently.

Personally I would get rid of Pretty Urls, it's a waste of time these days and is not necessary anymore.

(You have a lot of mods by the way    )

[chadon]

The best suggestion that I can make is

install a test forum and confirm it works correctly
then one by one, install your mods and test after each install

That will be a lot of work but if nobody can help me, I will do it. Thank you.

I don't see an exclamation mark in that topic you gave as an example?

Anyway, I'm guessing that Pretty UrL's is changing them to another character (no idea what as I don't use it) which is why the url appears differently.

Personally I would get rid of Pretty Urls, it's a waste of time these days and is not necessary anymore.

(You have a lot of mods by the way    )

The exclamation mark is on the Facebook link and when you click on it, the link doesn't generate with what is after the exclamation mark. It has nothing to do with Pretty URLs as the mod doesn't modify the links in the posts.

I don't need Pretty Urls today but search engines would send traffic to dead links and they would have to crawl the site all over again. I don't want to loose too much traffic.

About the mods, I know there is too many but that's what makes the forum popular so I can't remove them without having members protesting. 

[Storman™]

Ah, I see what you mean. Infact it's not an exclamation mark it's a shebang or hashbang, i.e. a (#!)

If I remember correctly both Facebook, and Twitter for that matter, use them to assist indexing by Google.

Still think it's Pretty Urls messing with them.

[chadon]

No, it's not the shebang/hashbang thing, it's the exclamation mark. I posted a new link two posts below the I posted earlier with just the exclamation mark and the same thing happens.

[Storman™]

Is this the one you mean ?

Code Select Expand

https://www.facebook.com/home.php!/pages/Racing-mustang-1967-67-phoenix-project/450867631647034

If so, then it appears ok as a full url in post preview, but not when posted.

I'm not sure why this happens as an exclamation mark is a valid character in a url, guess the code in SMF just works like that for some reason. (It does the same on my plain test board by the way so I don't think you have a fault).

[chadon]

Yes this one.


Users have to use bb code for it to generate properly, like this:

Code Select Expand

[url=https://www.facebook.com/home.php!/pages/Racing-mustang-1967-67-phoenix-project/450867631647034]https://www.facebook.com/home.php!/pages/Racing-mustang-1967-67-phoenix-project/450867631647034[/url]


But not when someone just copy and paste the link.

[Storman™]

I have sneaky feeling this is part of a bug fix thats planned for 2.1 but I can't seem to find anything about it at the moment.

[Arantor]

I have sneaky feeling this is part of a bug fix thats planned for 2.1 but I can't seem to find anything about it at the moment.

Well, it's not a bug fix per se (depends on your point of view), since ! was never supposed to be used in URLs, but since a lot of places do so, SMF had to relax its checks to allow it.

[chadon]

I have the same bug with the Facebook link on a different forum.


Here are the mods both forums have:

2.   Contact Page   3.0   [ Désinstaller ]
3.   News Letter Mod for SMF2   1.14   [ Désinstaller ]
5.   SA Chat   RC1 Rev59   [ Désinstaller ]
6.   Drafts   1.1.4   [ Désinstaller ]
8.   Stop Forum Spam   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
11.   SMF Garage   2.2   [ Désinstaller ]
12.   Custom BBCode   2.03   [ Désinstaller ]
13.   Ultimate Profile   0.9.1   [ Désinstaller ]
14.   PM Attachments   1.6   [ Désinstaller ]
17.   Highslide 4 SMF   0.7a   [ Désinstaller ]
18.   Google Member Map   2.0.8   [ Désinstaller ]
19.   Team Page   1.1.6   [ Désinstaller ]
21.   VigLink   1.0   [ Désinstaller ]
22.   Resize Attached Images   2.3.1   [ Désinstaller ]
24.   EzPortal   0.5.1   [ Désinstaller ]
25.   Pretty URLs   1.0RC5.2   [ Désinstaller ]
26.   Aeva Media   1.4w   [ Désinstaller ]
27.   InLine Attachments   1.0 Alpha 5   [ Désinstaller ]

I have sneaky feeling this is part of a bug fix thats planned for 2.1 but I can't seem to find anything about it at the moment.

Isn't Simplemachines using the same version as the public one?

[Arantor]

SMF here is using 2.0.3, it is not using 2.1 yet on this site.

[chadon]

OK, my forums too so we can say it's not a bug from SMF itself.

[Arantor]

It's a condition that occurs in SMF 1.0 through 2.0.3. It is SMF code doing it. But when that code was written, links weren't supposed to have ! in them. Strictly speaking they're still not supposed to.

[chadon]

But they are so we can call it a bug.

Anyways, I still don't understand why it would occur on my forums and not here.

[Arantor]

Because they've specifically patched the one line that fixes it already - a fix that never made it into the mainline SMF for 2.0.x.

It has been discussed here in the past and I'm sure someone (maybe even me) explained the fix that was needed.

[chadon]

I have found a topic where you participated with a related problem and a bug report but there doesn't seem to be a fix.
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=438989.msg3243577#msg3243577

[Arantor]

Similar but not the one I had in mind; the change is in the same piece of code IIRC.

I wasn't able to find it with a few searches though

[Sleezy]

I have been searching the forum and didn't find any topics related to my problem but I have been using SMF 2 for years and always used the "Pretty Url mod" and had problems with links being generated correctly when they contain an exclamation mark. The same happens with external links using this character.


I would like to know if this is a know bug for SMF 2 or if it's due to one of the many mods I have on my forum?


Example:
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/page-name

I didn't even know SMF 2.0 has been out for years
Sorry for off topic.