links and abbreviating them

jroscoe

I have a directions area on my website where you can get driving directions from a certain place to another. I have a button allowing people to email these directions to someone, or themselves. In the email, the link to go to the directions page is pretty big with a bunch of compressed/encoded stuff. Is there a way in the email to only show part of the link with ... after say the first line since in most email programs, you have to cut and paste the link since it doesn't wrap right?

Thanks a bunch!!

br__ken

can't you just make the email in html, and just make the link like <a href=page.php?lotsofvars..>driving directions to x</a>

jroscoe

Here is the link copied from my email:

To view your driving directions, click on this link or cut and paste this link into your browser's location bar:
http://antioch.rss.riteaid.com/prgjr1/ra-new/stores/locator/directions_show.php?store_num=04260&dest_name=Store+%23+4260&addr_destination=4299+Union+Deposit+Road+++++++&city_destination=Harrisburg++++++++++&state_destination=PA&zd=17111&addr_origin=8141+jefferson+st&city_origin=hummelstown&state_origin=pa&zo=17036&dir_type=store&store_hours=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!
SG91cnMgPC90ZD4gPHRkPjwvdGQ+IDx0ZCBub3dyYXAgYWxpZ249bGVmdD4gMjQgSG91cnMgPGJyPiAyNCBIb3VycyA8YnI+IDI0IEhvdXJzIDxicj4gMjQgSG91cnMgPC90ZD4gPC90cj4gPC90YWJsZT4g&phone=IDx0YWJsZSBib3JkZXI9MCBjZWxsc3BhY2luZz0wIGNlbGxwYWRkaW5nPTA+PHRyPjx0ZCBhbGlnbj1sZWZ0IG5vd3JhcD4gUGhvbmUgOjxicj4gPC90ZD48dGQgYWxpZ249bGVmdD48aW1nIHNyYz0vbGF5b3V0L2NsZWFyLmdpZiB3aWR0aD01IGhlaWdodD0yPjwvdGQ+PHRkIGFsaWduPWxlZnQgbm93cmFwPiAoNzE3KSA1NjQtNjc1MDxicj4gPC90ZD48L3RyPiA8L3RhYmxlPiA=

It only has a hyperlink around the top 3rd of it, so you have to copy and paste the url into your browser. this is the code that generates that url:

$url = sprintf("%s%s%s","http://",$HTTP_HOST, "$REQUEST_URI?store_num=" . urlencode($store_num) . "&dest_name=" . urlencode($dest_name) . "&addr_destination=" . urlencode($addr_destination) . "&city_destination=" . urlencode($city_destination) . "&state_destination=" . urlencode($state_destination) . "&zd=" . urlencode($zd) . "&addr_origin=" . urlencode($addr_origin) . "&city_origin=" . urlencode($city_origin) . "&state_origin=" . urlencode($state_origin) . "&zo=" . urlencode($zo) . "&dir_type=" . urlencode($dir_type) . "&store_hours=" . $store_hours . "&phone=" . $phone);

wiley

I don't think you can abbreviate the URL if you want to send a plain text email with a clickable link -- of course you could send out HTML mail instead and use href tags . . .

. . . on the other hand, if part of the problem is that the "directions" directory is buried pretty far down in your directory structure, you might use a redirect page from the top level of the site to cut down on the length.

cheers, w

br__ken

i was thinkin something like that, or even put it up in a temp db, then just link to the ID, and have the page delete the row and redirect to whatever the page is set to