RE: Opening a document on a server

> Could you share how you solved it, because last time I tried I couldn't
> get the Java URL mechanism to connect to a remote file by means of a
> UNC filename, and the question does come up quite often.
>
> Michael Kay
> http://www.saxonica.com/

Hi, Mike (and other folks),

Sure.

As usual, whipping up a test case showed the problem.

Given a file on a server, thus:

//someServer/someDirectory/someFile.xml

The following function call opens it:

document('file:////someServer/someDirectory/someFile.xml')

My problem arose because my path had spaces in it (which I didn't realize 
right off because I was being passed the server and first directory in a 
long path as a parameter), thus:

//someServer/some Directory With Spaces/someFile.xml

and I got it open thus:

document('//someServer/some%20Directory%20With%20Spaces/someFile.xml')

So now I need to use analyze-string to replace each space in that path 
with %20.

 I'm not sure to what extent the file qualifies as "remote". I was getting 
a file off a server on the local network, rather than reaching for a file 
from a web or FTP server or something similar. Those problems might not be 
amenable to the same simple solution.

Jay Bryant
Bryant Communication Services
(presently consulting at Synergistic Solution Technologies)