A "Help me with this drawing" email link

[brawleyman]

I am constantly getting requests to help others with their drawings. Pretty much every time, I could get into the drawing, make the change or fix it and save out before the other person can even begin to troubleshoot the problem.

Basically, I am looking for a big "Help Me!" button that I can put on everyone's shared toolbar that will automatically send an email to me with a link to the file they are working in. I have a couple of lines of code that almost get me to where I want, but, I am having trouble with the "%20" for spaces in the file path. When you just get the path, it stops at the first space, using vl-string-translate spaces to %20 messes up the path totally, and using underscore won't get me anywhere either.

You can copy each line separately in order in my code below to quickly test and see what the issue is I am having with it.

(setq dwglocation (strcat (getvar "dwgprefix")(getvar "dwgname")))
(command "start" (strcat "mailto:me.myself.and.i@someemail.com?body=Here%20is%20the%20file:%20file:///"(vl-string-translate " " "_" dwglocation)))

I guess I am basically needing a different way to translate the string or something so that it populates properly in Outlook for the hyperlink.

Oh, and also, for whatever reason, I cannot get mailto to put in a subject and body at the same time, it is either one or the other, so I just left off the subject for now.

[Lee Mac]

Maybe:

(defun _mailfile ( filepath )
    (while (vl-string-position 32 filepath)
        (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%20" " " filepath))
    )
    (setq filepath (vl-string-translate "\\" "/" filepath))
    (command "_.start"
        (strcat
            "mailto:me.myself.and.i@someemail.com?body=Here%20is%20the%20file:%20file:///"
            filepath
        )
    )
    (princ)
)

[brawleyman]

Thanks for the quick response Lee! I am trying to call it from a macro and it says it is an unknown command. I tried changing it to c:_mailfile and still doesn't come up. How do I need to call this command?


***EDIT***
Okay, I added a line to set the filepath to the dwgprefix and dwgname to find the drawing. When I try to run the command "emailme", it creates the link and displays the full path, but only underlines and creates the link out of the path up to the first space.

(defun c:emailme ()
    (setq filepath (strcat (getvar "dwgprefix")(getvar "dwgname")))
    (while (vl-string-position 32 filepath)
        (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%20" " " filepath))
    )
    (setq filepath (vl-string-translate "\\" "/" filepath))
    (command "_.start" (strcat"mailto:me.myself.and.i@someemail.com?body=Here%20is%20the%20file:%20file:///" filepath))
    (princ)
)

Here is an example of a filepath: "E:\\FP Department\\Group Resources FP\\_FP CAD Standards\\CUI\\LISP\\MEP Design\\CIRCUIT TYPICAL.dwg".

The resulting link in Outlook comes out like this: "Here is the file: file:///E:/FP Department/Group Resources FP/_FP CAD Standards/CUI/LISP/MEP Design/CIRCUIT TYPICAL.dwg".

What am I doing wrong?

[Lee Mac]

I am trying to call it from a macro and it says it is an unknown command. I tried changing it to c:_mailfile and still doesn't come up. How do I need to call this command?

The code I posted is a function that requires a single argument: the filename of the file to be linked, hence you would call it:

(_mailfile "C:\\Your File.dwg")

Or:

(_mailfile (strcat (getvar 'dwgprefix) (getvar 'dwgname)))

When I try to run the command "emailme", it creates the link and displays the full path, but only underlines and creates the link out of the path up to the first space.

What am I doing wrong?

I hadn't tested it, but I guess this is the behaviour of the mail client. Maybe you need to enclose the filepath with quotes, or some other special character.

[brawleyman]

Ah, I understand how that works now with the parentheses after the defun, thanks Lee!

Well, I suppose now I just have to figure out how to enclose the filepath. I don't know if it is going to be something specific to LISP or Outlook to input the file path correctly.


From what little I can find, Outlook uses "<" and ">" to enclose links with spaces as one whole link. I have been trying to incorporate these symbols into the mailto link in lisp, but it comes up nil. I don't know if I am putting it into the right place or what.

[brawleyman]

Sweet! I got it figured out! Here is my code that allows you to accomplish what I was wanting to do:

(defun c:emailme ()
  (setq getemail "me.myself.and.i@someemail.com");input email of helper
  (setq filepath (strcat "<file:///" (getvar "dwgprefix")(getvar "dwgname") ">"))

  ;;Conversion Table
  (while (vl-string-position 32 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%20" " " filepath))
  );end while
;  (while (vl-string-position 35 filepath)
;    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%23" "#" filepath))
;  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 38 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%26" "&" filepath))
  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 39 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%27" "'" filepath))
  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 44 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%2C" "," filepath))
  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 58 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%3A" ":" filepath))
  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 60 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%3C" "<" filepath))
  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 62 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%3E" ">" filepath))
  );end while
  (while (vl-string-position 92 filepath)
    (setq filepath (vl-string-subst "%5C" "\\" filepath))
  );end while

  (command "_.start" (strcat "mailto:" getemail "?Body=Here%20is%20the%20file%3A%20" filepath))
);end defun

Basically, you have to code for every possible symbol that may be used in a file path. The only one I cannot get to work is the "#" hash tag/pound/number sign. Apparently, it is a very special character in mailto links. When you have a file path with that symbol, it appears correct in the email, but clicking on it says "cannot find file". After looking at the actual address created from it when you edit the hyperlink, for some reason there is no space put before the "#" sign, even if %20 or a space is in front of it or you add an extra %20 before the %23 in the conversion setup.

Very perplexing. I guess we won't be able to use that symbol in our folders, but it would be nice to be able to include it somehow. Anybody know?

[Tharwat]

Localize your variables like this ...

(defun c:emailme (/ filepath getemail)

[brawleyman]

Thanks Tharwat! I am newer and self-taught with LISP. What exactly does localizing variables do? Does it still allow for other routines to reference values from other routines?

[Tharwat]

One reason , is that If you do not localize variables into your routine , variables would become globally into your current opened drawing , and if you have any other codes
that are running in the same drawing and may have the same variable 's names , things would be mixed up and outcome of codes might become odd and illogically .

[MSasu]

Does it still allow for other routines to reference values from other routines?

Those are called global variables and a recommended practice is to surround them by "*" characters.

*GlobalVariableName*