5

Background

Links to documentation are great. It's always great if you can link and have the navigation open since a ton of sections are just kind of introductions to other sections, which are tough to find without the navigation side bar.

I can get a link to do this, i.e.

http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_Left.htm#CSHID=apex_data_intro.htm|StartTopic=Content%2Fapex_data_intro.htm|SkinName=webhelp

However, when I put a link in an article it escapes the pipes and I end up with this

http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_Left.htm#CSHID=apex_data_intro.htm%7CStartTopic=Content/apex_data_intro.htm%7CSkinName=webhelp

Which unfortunately doesn't work.

The Pipes

How can I prevent StackExchange from escaping pipes in my links so that I can link directly into the API docs with the navigation open?

| |
  • Looks like a "common" issue with MadCap's system and has been plaguing developers for a while - I wonder if any other characters are accepted by the parser? forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11887 – Mark Pond Dec 5 '13 at 21:26
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    Looks like no other characters are allowed. From the madcap js file: var cshParts=hash.split("|"); – Mark Pond Dec 5 '13 at 21:33
2

If you open the frame with the content and then copy the link from "Open topic with navigation" you should be a hyperlink that will take you back to the correct location with the navigation open.

Open topic with navigation

E.g.http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_CSH.htm#apex_data_intro.htm

will be expanded out to http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_Left.htm#CSHID=apex_data_intro.htm|StartTopic=Content%2Fapex_data_intro.htm|SkinName=webhelp` by a browser redirect.

It doesn't really address the issue of pipes in the URL.

Just playing around. I manually editied the last link in this answer to use the unescaped pipes in the URL. Seems to work fine.

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  • Yep, that's how to do it. Problem is that URL contains invalid characters ("|") which get URL encoded when added as a link in SFSE. – Ralph Callaway Dec 10 '13 at 22:27
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    @Ralph The link I got from Open topic with navigation didn't have pipes in the URL. It appeared to be expanded out via a server redirect. – Daniel Ballinger Dec 10 '13 at 22:48

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