Unusual Data Problem with &image=

[warrisr]

I have run into a rather perplexing problem when I try to embed a Flash video into our product pages.

I am using JW FLB Media Player to play streamed videos. When you embed the player into a page you use a number of different parameters to configure how the player looks and works. Here is an example of the embed code I am using:

<script type="text/javascript">
var so = new SWFObject('http://www.handlaidtrack.com/videos/players/player.swf','mpl','320','240','9');
so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
so.addParam('flashvars','&author=Fast Tracks&file=fixture_overview_320.flv&image=http://www.handlaidtrack.com/videos/images/fixture_overview-320.jpg&backcolor=#cedfe7&bufferlength=1&streamer=rtmp://quadica.srfms.com&stretching=fill');
so.write('player');
</script>

If you look at the script you will notice that one of the parameters is "&image=". This defines the splash image that is displayed in the player. The problem is when I save the product page, Zen Cart insists on replacing the & in the &image= parameter with a weird looking character that I can't even paste into this message, so I have created an image of it.



I have tried using the & with the equivalent html number and name code (e.g. &), but these just get converted to this same weird character by Zen Cart.

Now the embed code works fine, even with this odd character, HOWEVER if you go in and edit and re-save the product page, the embed code no longer works. (That is, the splash image is not displayed.) So you have to go back into the product page and change the code back to & and save the product page again.

I can see no end to problems and confusion over this every time we update a product page.

Is there a way that I can escape the & character or change the way that Zen Cart saves the description text so that it does not mess up this parameter string?