Participating Frequently

Answered

Update urls to remove hidden character in large document so they function correctly

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 27, 2025
7 replies
3653 views

I have a product catalogue that has hyperlinks applied to each product name so the respective webpage for the product will load if the product name is clicked when viewing the exported pdf.

Unfortunately the url's have a strange hidden character that isn't always visible - I have found "^p" sometimes when i copy and paste the url back and forth from notepad - so this may be the character I am looking for. But in acrobat pro when I go in the edit url menu there is a visible space that appears after the product number in the URL.

Does anyone know a script that I can run in either indesign or acrobat to search for the character in every single hyperlink in the document to remove the character, The document has several thousand hyperlinks so it's a very tedious job to do one by one.

Correct answer m1b

Hey @Riannon368885617n15, can you try this script and see if it works? It's a stab in the dark, but it might do the trick.

- Mark

/**
 * @file Clean Hyperlinks.js
 * 
 * Attempts to strip bad characters from
 * the active document's hyperlink URLs.
 * 
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2025-02-28
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/update-urls-to-remove-hidden-character-in-large-document-so-they-function-correctly/m-p/15180488
 */
function main() {

    const illegalCharacters = /[\x00-\x1F\x7F-\x9F\u200B\u200C\u200D\n\r]+/g;

    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        hyperlinks = doc.hyperlinks,
        counter = 0;

    for (var i = 0; i < hyperlinks.length; i++) {

        var hyperlink = hyperlinks[i];

        try {
            if ('HyperlinkURLDestination' !== hyperlink.destination.constructor.name)
                continue;
        } catch (error) {
            // $.writeln('Hyperlink ' + i + ' links to a missing document.');
            continue;
        }

        // quick attempt to strip bad characters
        var originalURL = hyperlink.destination.destinationURL,
            newURL = originalURL.replace(illegalCharacters, '');

        if (newURL === originalURL)
            continue;

        // fix the hyperlink
        hyperlink.destination.destinationURL = newURL;
        counter++;

        // $.writeln('Fixed Hyperlink ' + i + ' URL: ' + hyperlink.destination.destinationURL)

    }

    alert('Cleaned ' + counter + ' hyperlink URLs.');

};
app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Clean Hyperlinks');

Edit 2025-02-28: changed code a bit to work with OP's sample document.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Riannon368885617n15

I think I know what's the problem - all your bad Hyperlinks point to:

P:\Marketing Communications\Literature\Pricelists\New Zealand\2025\February\2_Domestic &amp; Household_NZ.indd

m1b

Community Expert

Yes Robert, but it is only a sample document. On OP's machine they might be fine.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

What's also interesting - if I'll click on DAB-102CORE - by the way - only "DAB-102" is an active hyperlink:

I get:

But the same link - is displayed in InDesign as correct:

Goes to:

Link when clicked in Acrobat:

https://www.whiteint.co.nz/page-not-found?r=%2fProductDisplay.aspx%3fProduct%3d808414%250D%26utm_source%3dLiterature%26utm_medium%3dProduct%2bGuide%26utm_campaign%3dNZ%2bItem%2bCode

But displays correctly in Acrobat - as shown above.

And InDesign:

https://www.whiteint.co.nz/ProductDisplay.aspx?Product=808414&utm_source=Literature&utm_medium=Product+Guide&utm_campaign=NZ+Item+Code

m1b

Community Expert

Yes that seems to be the problem—a carriage return in the URL. The encoded version you show from Acrobat has double-encoded the carriage return (the %250D). Normal (correct!) encoding is %0D, but if you encode that again the % is encoded as %25.

It is strange that the problem doesn't appear in the indesign one. I think the hyperlinks might be a bit messy.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

What do the links that are problematoc look like on the page?

I'm wondering if an errant paragraph return (which is typically ^p) was inserted in one of your long hyperlinks to break tham in the layout?

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Yes, that's in the 2nd paragraph of the OP's post 😉

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

I saw that after the fact.:) I get these messages out of order sometimes in my email. Fun times.

R

Riannon368885617n15Author

Participating Frequently

Here is a sample set of the urls

URL_Samples.pdf

URL_Samples.zip

R

Riannon368885617n15Author

Participating Frequently

Interesting thing is - the URL's work when in acrobat pro or viewing the pdf in any browser. But when we convert the pdf to an online flipbook, the urls dont work.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Riannon368885617n15

Most of your hyperlinks are not working - are incorrect - even in InDesign?

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Riannon368885617n15

How are you creating those Hyperlinks?

R

Riannon368885617n15Author

Participating Frequently

I was updating hyperlinks in notepad replacing the product code in the URL. unfortunatley as I was copying the code from the indesign table it looks like it brought over hidden characters/artifacts from the original excel spreadsheet the data came from.

m1b

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hey @Riannon368885617n15, can you try this script and see if it works? It's a stab in the dark, but it might do the trick.

- Mark

/**
 * @file Clean Hyperlinks.js
 * 
 * Attempts to strip bad characters from
 * the active document's hyperlink URLs.
 * 
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2025-02-28
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/update-urls-to-remove-hidden-character-in-large-document-so-they-function-correctly/m-p/15180488
 */
function main() {

    const illegalCharacters = /[\x00-\x1F\x7F-\x9F\u200B\u200C\u200D\n\r]+/g;

    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        hyperlinks = doc.hyperlinks,
        counter = 0;

    for (var i = 0; i < hyperlinks.length; i++) {

        var hyperlink = hyperlinks[i];

        try {
            if ('HyperlinkURLDestination' !== hyperlink.destination.constructor.name)
                continue;
        } catch (error) {
            // $.writeln('Hyperlink ' + i + ' links to a missing document.');
            continue;
        }

        // quick attempt to strip bad characters
        var originalURL = hyperlink.destination.destinationURL,
            newURL = originalURL.replace(illegalCharacters, '');

        if (newURL === originalURL)
            continue;

        // fix the hyperlink
        hyperlink.destination.destinationURL = newURL;
        counter++;

        // $.writeln('Fixed Hyperlink ' + i + ' URL: ' + hyperlink.destination.destinationURL)

    }

    alert('Cleaned ' + counter + ' hyperlink URLs.');

};
app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Clean Hyperlinks');

Edit 2025-02-28: changed code a bit to work with OP's sample document.

R

Riannon368885617n15Author

Participating Frequently

Do I need to edit anything in the javascript, it wouldn't work in my natuve document, but in the sample document I saved (below comments) it ran the scriupt but the characters were still present.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

Do I need to edit anything in the javascript, it wouldn't work in my natuve document, but in the sample document I saved (below comments) it ran the scriupt but the characters were still present.

By @Riannon368885617n15