FP98: Percent Sign in URL Returns HTTP 404 Error

When you try to browse a folder whose name contains a percent sign, you may receive an error message similar to the following:

A percent sign defines an "escape sequence" in a Web address, as described in section "2.4. Escape Sequences," in the Request for Comment (RFC) article number 2396.

Escape sequences are used in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to allow characters that may appear in a folder or file name, but are not allowed in a URL. The syntax for an escape sequence is defined as a percent sign, followed by two hexadecimal digits, (for example, %A1, %2B, and so on).

When you name a folder to have a percent sign, if the characters following the percent sign are valid hexadecimal characters, the folder name may not be resolved correctly, for example:

• A folder named 100%DAD may not work, because the two characters following the percent sign are valid hexadecimal characters. In this case, the "%DA" sequence may be misinterpreted as character 218, which, depending on the character set that is being used, may be a "Latin Capital U with Acute." This results in a Web request for a folder name that may not physically exist on the server.
• A folder named 100%MOM may work, because the two characters following the percent sign are not valid hexadecimal characters.

Additional References

For more information about this topic, please see the following Web sites: