Re: LYNX-DEV Lynx - problem with cuadra pages

[Klaus Weide]

On Wed, 17 Sep 1997 address@hidden wrote:

> Dear Developers,
> 
> I am writing from the American Printing House for the Blind.  We are
> installing a database for persons who are visually impaired.  It will contain
> directory information for locating books and materials in accessible media
> (braille, large print, sound recordings, and computer files).  We will be
> putting this database on the Internet so teachers, students, adult readers,
> and administrators can find these rare materials.  We are a nonprofit
> company.
> 
> I am not on your mailing list, so please send a response to this e-mail to
> address@hidden
>
> We have chosen Star software, by Cuadra Associates for the database. Earlier
> versions of Star worked fine with Lynx.  This was a real plus for us, since
> Lynx is one of the most popular browsers for blind/visually impaired persons.
>  However, I am writing to you because the most recent release of Star for the
> Internet is not working with Lynx.  We're hoping you have some clue as to
> what is happening.  
> 
> To see what I'm referring to (if you are willing to take this question on)
> please go to URL http://www.cuadra.com  Select the "Movie" database.  You
> will notice that you can enter searches, but when you select "submit" nothing
> happens.  If you type in the command
> 
> "http://www.cuadra.com:80/cgi-bin/starfinder/20921/moviestar.txt?action=2+0+6+
> 1+0+0+moviestar.linkfilm+|+FILM%3D%22THE+SILENCE+OF+THE+LAMBS%22+AND+YEAR%3D19
> 91
> 
> it will search.
> 
> Another URL to try is http://www.nara.gov/nara/jfk/jfk_search.html
> The same problem occurs - nothing happens when you try to search.  And, all
> the information does not display properly.
>  
> The programmer at Cuadra thinks that Lynx may be having trouble with the
> non-alphabetic characters.  Is this the case?
> 
> Please let me know if this question is in your realm.  If not, do you know
> who else I could contact?  

You have come to the right place, as far as the Lynx side of this is
concerned.

Some testing with the JFK site shows the following.
The HTML forms generated by the cuadra software have fields like this:

  <input type=submit name="action 1 0 15 1" value="Help" ...>

(The ... is for other attributes irrelevant for Lynx.)

(1) What Lynx makes of this when the form is submitted:

     ...&action%201%200%2012%201=Help...

(2) What the cuadra software apparently expects, at least in some cases:

     ...&action+1+0+12+1=Help...

That is, spaces in the NAME attribute values of form fields should be
encoded as '+' and not as '%20'.  It seems Cuadra is right here and Lynx
is wrong, since at least RFC 1866 (the HTML 2.0 spec) says:

8.2.1. The form-urlencoded Media Type
 ....
        1. The form field names and values are escaped: space
        characters are replaced by `+', and then reserved characters
        are escaped as per [URL]; that is, non-alphanumeric
        characters are replaced by `%HH', a percent sign and two
        hexadecimal digits representing the ASCII code of the
        character. [...]

That is, "space characters are replaced by `+'" seems to apply to values
_and names_, not just to values (as implemented in recent Lynx versions).

This will be corrected in the development code (it is a trivial change,
replacing a few calls to HTEscape() in one file GridText.c with calls to
HTEscapeSP()), unless someone gives a good reason for not doing so.
Brief testing shows that with this change Lynx can communicate with the
cuadra pages.

Making the change now in the Lynx code will of course not help all those
Lynx users, unless they upgrade to the latest development code.  Since
you are already in contact with the Cuadra programmer, you should suggest
that they make the parsing of form submissions more robust by
always decoding a '%20' the same way as a '+'.  As far as I can see this
would not introduce any ambiguity, and is already done for form _values_.

     Klaus

> I would really be appreciative of any assistance you could give.
> 
> As fate would have it, we are hoping to launch this database at our user's
> meeting on October 16, 1997.  So, any immediate help would be very
> appreciated!  
> 
> Thank you,
> Christine Anderson
> Resource Services Manager
> American Printing House for the Blind

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