Reporting Services Open Link In New Window and Issue with Closing Speechmark Being Converted to HTML

Question

Hello

I have a report where I want to embed a hyperlink to link to another system and I have tried various approaches but with everything I try either both the starting and ending speechmarks/tick marks/back ticks are automatically converted to the equivalent HTML character code which is then passed to the URL being opened resulting in an error.

An example URL I want to open is:

[http://SERVER/ProMonitor/ilp/meetingscomments/meetings.aspx?academicyearid=2223&pmstudentid=kYtgI8P%2b9GA%3d]

This should be able to be achieved with the following:

javascript:void(window.open('http://SERVER/ProMonitor/ilp/meetingscomments/meetings.aspx?academicyearid=2223&pmstudentid=kYtgI8P%2b9GA%3d'))

However it gets inserted as (from hovering over the link or right-clicking and selecting the copy link option):

javascript:void(window.open('http://SERVER/ProMonitor/ilp/meetingscomments/meetings.aspx?academicyearid=2223&pmstudentid=kYtgI8P%2b9GA%3d%27))

This passes a spurious %27 on the end which then causes the record it should load not to be found.

If I remove the speechmark then the link does not work and nothing happens. If I replace the ' with " then I end up with %22 at the start and the end. If I replace with the back tick then I end up with %60 at the start and the end.

I have tried:

• Using speeckmarks, tick marks and back ticks
• Putting the JavaScript part in the expression where the database field contains only the URL
• Combining the JavaScript and URL into the database field
• Creating a user defined function in the report code where I can pass the URL to the function

Whatever I try, the output is identical and at least the closing speechmark is converted to its HTML equivalent and passed to the URL

This is an example of a user defined function I created:

Function OpenURL(ByVal URL As String) As String
    Return "javascript:void(window.open('" & URL & "','_blank'))"
End Function

Any help would be appreciated as I feel I have exhausted all options on what I thought would be something really quick and easy.

EDIT

I had a further idea which was to add & to the end of the URL so the pmstudentid parameter ends up intact and then it ends with &%27 however this still errored

Upon further checking, if I disable my internet connection (as the URL results in an instant redirect to an error page on the target application) I end up with the code at the end being translated from:

&pmstudentid=kYtgI8P%2b9GA%3d

To

&pmstudentid=kYtgI8P+9GA=

So it would appear this is actually the real issue although if I copy and paste the URL in Edge it still shows the + as %2B as it should.

I just need it not to convert back and forth between HTML character codes and ASCII codes

This is the reference I used to double check the character encoding:

https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.ASP

Thanks
Robin

Answer 1

I have now found a solution to this which is to use:

System.Uri.EscapeDataString

Used as a user defined function it then becomes:

Function OpenURL(ByVal URL As String) As String
    Return "javascript:void(window.open('" & System.Uri.EscapeDataString(URL) & "','_blank'))"
End Function

Then in the URL expression on the report you can reference it on the Go To URL expression with:

=Code.OpenURL(Fields!URL.Value)

This then stops any conversion of HTML character codes and the links all work as intended and originally specified