Scenario:
Using the SharePoint Designer 2007 Data Source Library task pane to Connect to Another Library...:, but you see the message “The web http://server_name/SiteDirectory/Site%20Name/ cannot be opened“. The details below may provide some insight.
Method:
- In the site's Data Source Library task pane, click on Connect to Another Library...
- In the resultant Manage Library dialogue, click Add.
- In the Collection Properties dialogue click Browse.
- In the Choose a Web Site dialogue, locate and select a site then click Open.
- Back in the Collection Properties dialogue, and with the Location: field populated with the URL of the site you selected in the previous step, click OK.
If at this point you receive a dialogue with the message “The web http://server_name/SiteDirectory/Site%20Name/ cannot be opened“, it is because of the %20 in the URL.
In this case, the site name includes a space and the space in the actual URL is being handled by the %20 URL encoding, as in ...Site%20Name. SharePoint is failing to then correctly convert the URL encoding which is why it is failing to add a site where the site name includes spaces. You need to remove the %20 from the URL before being able to successfully add the site to your site's Data Source Library.
Kathy