Ampersand Symbol in Filename and RSS

[mvilares]

I have read countless posts on RSS breaking with an ampersand (&) symbol in the title, but couldn't find anything on the symbol being in the filename of an uploaded image. Thus the reason for the new thread...sorry if it has been discussed elsewhere, but I just couldn't find it.

I uploaded an image with the filename "wings & sails" and now my RSS feed broke. The title for the image is Wings and Sails so there isn't a problem there with the ampersand breaking the feed. The problem lies in the thumbnail created which has the & symbol.

Is there a way of fixing this without deleting the image and reuploading it without the & symbol in the filename? I'm using PP 1.5 beta 1. I have many comments on this image and don't want to lose them.

On another note, for this same post to my photoblog...I can't seem to use 12crop to crop the thumbnail (the same one with the & symbol in the filename). I keep getting an error that says "Some error in 12crop: thumb is not created!" Could this be related?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

You can see the problematic post here: http://photoblog.3horizons.com/photoblog/index.php?showimage=54

And the broken RSS feed here:
http://photoblog.3horizons.com/index.php?x=rss

UPDATE: I just deleted and reposted all the comments as I couldn't have my feed broken for so long. So the link above is fine now...although I'm still curious about fixing a broken feed from a filename & symbol.

Marcelo

[Joe[y]]

there is a reupload option in 1.5 - you could have used that to replace the filename.

[mvilares]

I actually did try that. It reuploaded the image, but kept the original filename. I thought this was strange too...could this be a bug or is it how it is supposed to work?

[Connie]

it is never a good idea to use special characters in filenames, it's just a bad habit ;=)

most servers work on UNIX systems and there are strict and logic rules for filenames

so keep it as rules:

no spaces in filenames

no special characters in filenames like &!?§% and so on

and as a suggestion: stay with one way of capitalisation: only lowercase or uppercase, that is better for sorting

[HiImSeth]

I actually did try that. It reuploaded the image, but kept the original filename. I thought this was strange too...could this be a bug or is it how it is supposed to work?
Good point, I noticed this the other day when I tried to use the reupload option. Is that possibly a bug or is it intended to keep the original filename?

[Connie]

I tested it:

uploaded a file with special character in the filename
edited the posting by reuploading
it keeps the filename

the way to get rid of it now would be to delete the entry and start the complete entry anew

I will add this to the list of "discussable features or mis-features", ok?

[HiImSeth]

Sure, that sounds great. Obviously it's not a critical problem or anything just something that could be modified a bit if someone gets bored. =]

Thanks for all you guys do.

[mvilares]

Thanks Connie. It sure would be a welcomed feature!