Problem with avatars with spaces in the name

Newbie Joined: Nov 03, 2007 Posts: 57

I have problems with avatars with spaces in the name like Charlie Brown.gif

The RewriteRule is:

RewriteRule ^account-avatarsave-([a-z]*)-([\.a-zA-Z0-9_-]*).html modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=avatarsave&category=$1&avatar=$2 [L]

If I change to spaces like this:

RewriteRule ^account-avatarsave-([a-z]*)-([\.a-zA-Z0-9_- ]*).html modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=avatarsave&category=$1&avatar=$2 [L]

I get errors and this alternative can't be used. Grateful for suggestions!

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 867

Would you please expound upon what you mean exactly by "I get errors"? Thanks.

Newbie Joined: Nov 03, 2007 Posts: 57

Sorry. For instance Porky Pig.gif gives this link:
http://www.mysite.com/account-avatarsave-gallery-Porky.html%20Pig.gif

If I click on it to choose it, as avatar I get this error message:
Error: Wrong avatar format! Avatars can only be gif, jpg, or png format.

If I use ([^.]+)

I get:

http://www.mysite.com/account-avatarsave-gallery-Porky Pig.html.gif

Closer, but not perfect.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 867

Ok, we are kind of having to design/code/test on the fly. What I am thinking is that we might have to break this up differently. With both the GT file and .htaccess, try something along these lines instead:

RewriteRule ^account-avatarsave-([a-z]*)-([\.a-zA-Z0-9%_- ]*).html modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=avatarsave&category=$1&avatar=$2 [L]

It looks like phpBB is encoding the space or maybe that is browser/Apache based... I added the "%" into the mix to see what happens. The odd thing is that the period is escaped like this "\." which should also take into consideration the file extension. But, one thing at a time.

Newbie Joined: Nov 03, 2007 Posts: 57

This gave server errors, because of the blank space in
[\.a-zA-Z0-9%_- ] and without the blank space, it did not give the correct result.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 867

Hhmmm... sorry, try the blank space in the GT file, but then with the .htaccess rule escape it like this:

[\.a-zA-Z0-9%_-\ ]

Newbie Joined: Nov 03, 2007 Posts: 57

I tried that, but the \ gave server error in .htaccess, unfortunately, but blank space in GT file did not give that.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 867

I don't understand why the difference. The escaped space works just fine for me.

Moral of the story? Don't use spaces! LOL.

Ok, just kidding. Will have to continue to dig into it...

Newbie Joined: Nov 03, 2007 Posts: 57

This seems to work on the test server [.a-zA-Z0-9+=\ ] but I have to test it tomorrow night on my site, when people are sleeping.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 867

Ok, I don't think that will work either on your production system as it wouldn't capture the %20? I guess we'll see.

Newbie Joined: Nov 03, 2007 Posts: 57

I have just tested it and it worked on the site, but I have modified a little to capture - [-.a-zA-Z0-9_+=\ ]. Many thanks for your help!

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 867

Thanks! I will make this thread a Sticky.