The urls in an email message are wrapped and broken when viewed in
Outlook 2000 (SR-1). However the same urls and email message when
viewed in Netscape or Mozilla respetive mail client are ok (even if
word-wrapped).

The email message is created by a Perl program that I wrote and sent
via Sendmail (don't know the version off the top of my head), the OS
is Redhat 7.3.

The Exchange server was 5.5, now is 2000. The problem occurs with
both.

Hello books451-ga,

I was unable to locate any specific problems with Sendmail/Redhat 7.3
and URL wrapping problems. I believe that the problem is probably
related to the client receiving the email. My research suggests that
Outlook which does not recognize URLs as well as other programs.

Microsoft says that the cause of a broken URL is this:

"The mail client that sent the link inserted a line break in the
middle of the URL text, or the sender may have inadvertently inserted
a carriage return by pressing ENTER while typing the URL. Web
addresses inserted in the body of a mail message are not complete if
the URL is broken before the end of the text. This behavior does not
occur when the link is included in a mail message sent by Outlook.
This behavior also occurs if the sender typed a space in the text of
the URL."
SOURCE: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;197878

There is another possibility: "The URL contains more than 259
characters. Outlook correctly reads hyperlinks of 259 characters or
less."
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223512

I would really need to look at the Perl program and/or the email
message received to give you a definite diagnosis, but I believe the
problem is that the Outlook 2000/OE mail program is not as good at
catching URLs as the other two programs that you listed are.
http://md-l.amulation.com/archive/200010/msg00010.html

While other programs recognize such things as angle brackets around
URLS to keep them intact, Outlook 2000 (and 2002) do not yet recognize
this method of keeping URLs together.


EXAMPLE: <http://www.asd0fuq20fujwijdlksajflkdsajfljsdlfjasldfjsalfjaslsalfasjlfjasdof982a3jfiojseofjoiweajfowjaefojwoaifjowajfowajfowjfowajfowajfoiwajofijwaofjewaojfoeiwajfoiwjeofijwaoefjowea.com>

In Outlook 2000 (and 2002) this URL would be broken at 76 characters
in text mail,:

<http://www.asd0fuq20fujwijdlksajflkdsajfljsdlfjasldfjsalfjaslsalfasjlfjasdo

with the rest of the lines not having the blue URL to click on.
(verified by testing this myself.) In other email clients however, the
URL could be recognized because they are more advanced in catching
URLs under certain conditions.

SOLUTIONS:

-configure your application to send HTML mail to people who use
Outlook 2000, or make it optional for people to go between HTML/Text
formats. There are people who do not like receiving html emails, but
then receiving links that do not work might be even worse.

-use a go.to or similar URL service... these are often free and will
drastically shorten the URL so that it works properly in all email
clients. The downside to this is that it often does not look
professional.
A listing of such companies can be found here:
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~seafree/freeurl.htm
If you have your own domain, you could set up a script that would
forward people from one URL to another. For example
http://www.yourdomain.com/redir/email77.htm would redirect to a much
longer URL. If you control the URLs in question, you could optimize
the URLs so that this isn’t even a problem.

-include instructions for disgruntled users on how to copy/paste the
text to make the URL work in IE.

-switch from Outlook to Netscape/Mozilla readers. Perhaps because
these two readers are connected to the open source community, they
have a better ability to capture URLs.

You might also be interested in the following:

http://www.lemis.com/email/fixing-outlook.html (living with Microsoft
Outlook)
http://www.ericward.com/articles/linkingmistakes1.html (on link
optimization)

I hope this was the type of answer you were looking for. If you need
any clarifications, please let me know using the “Request
Clarification” feature and I will do my best to further assist you.

Partial list of searches on Google:

broken URL OR Urls exchange OR “exchange 2000”
"Url wrapped" OR "url wrapped" OR "url wrapping"
"outlook 2000" wrapping OR wrap OR wrapped URL
"outlook 2000" wrapping URL
wrapped OR wrap OR wrapping URL OR urls
netscape "Url wrapped" OR "url wrapped" OR "url wrapping"
shorten URL OR URls
broken URLs Outlook
broken URL Outlook

---

Request for Answer Clarification by books451-ga on 19 Mar 2003 22:36 PST

I've already read the first Microsoft support article
(default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;197878) and that isn't happening.

The second article (default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223512) doesn't apply
either.

Here is a snippet of my code.

One subroutine prints the mail:
sub send_email {
open (MAIL, "| /usr/sbin/sendmail -t");
print MIAL <<endmail;
$full_message_text
endmail
close MAIL
}

Another subroutine creates the message text:

sub create_email_text {
$full_message_text = "To: $to
From: $from
Subject: $subject

Here is what you wanted,,, blah, blah.
$url

Thanks.";
}



You point out that angle brackets *won't* work in Outlook 2000 so why
did you include in your answer?


The solution of "configure your application to send HTML mail" isn't
an option because HTML is often turned off for a reason, specifically
a local policy.


A "go.to" service isn't an option because I'm on a closed military
intranet.


Instructions for the user to copy&paste isn't a *fix*, it's an
unacceptable work around.


Switching the users to Mozilla or something else isn't a *fix* either.
It's not a possiblity either.


The two webpages I "might also be interested" were interesting but
neither helped *fix* my problem.


Any other ideas? Now it maybe that there isn't a fix for this, if so
then let me know.

---

Clarification of Answer by tisme-ga on 19 Mar 2003 23:34 PST

Just confirming that I have received and am working on your RFC. 

I included the angle bracket section part (and the other URLs at the
end) to demonstrate that Outlook 2000 has numerous problems
recognizing URLs under certain conditions. I believe at this point
that the flaw is in the Outlook 2000 software and not in your method
of sending the email.

I have not yet given up and will continue to search for a solution to
your problem. You can expect me to get back to you sometime later
tomorrow with the results of my research, either an update or a
solution.

tisme-ga

All the best,

tisme-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by tisme-ga on 20 Mar 2003 22:18 PST

Hello books451,

Unfortunately as it stands right now, I need to let you know that my
research shows there is nothing that can be done to fix this problem
on your end.

The problem is built directly into the Microsoft email client program,
and nothing can be done in the Perl program to fix this. There is
absolutely nothing wrong with your code, I have narrowed this down to
a Microsoft Outlook problem.

As frusterating as it may be, a Microsoft technical support
representative recommended that we submit a "Microsoft Wish" asking
for better URL recognition in future Outlook versions:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=114491

tisme-ga

Because tisme-ga went the extra mile (contacting a Microsoft Tech Rep
certainly counts) in researching my problem I have rated his answer at
5 stars even though there isn't a fix.

It seems likely there won't be one since the Microsoft Tech Rep
recommended that we submit a "Microsoft Wish" for a fix.

Many thanks for the effort tisme-ga!!