Applescript errors when reading user input (password) that contains escape characters - applescript

Question

Here in my department we use a samba shares server as storage space for employees. For the employees that use Apple machines, we are trying to use an AppleScript application that will obtain the users username and password, then using them to mount the drives. The problem arises when a user enters a password that contains escape characters; for example abcdefg/. Here is the dialog code that sets the variables for username and password:
set user_name_dialog to display dialog "Enter your User ID: " default answer "" buttons {"Next"} default button "Next"
set user_name to text returned of user_name_dialog
--this line prompts the user for their password and sets the returned result as the variable "user_password"
set user_password_dialog to display dialog "Enter your Password. " & return & return & "WARNING: If you are running Panther (MacOS 10.3), your input will be displayed in this box as clear text." default answer "" buttons {"Next"} default button "Next" with hidden answer
set user_password to text returned of user_password_dialog
And here is the shell script line that is ran for mounting a drive:
do shell script "mount -t smbfs //" & user_name & ":" & user_password & "#SOME IP ADDRESS/SOME FOLDER/ /SOME MOUNT POINT/" & user_name & "-SOME SHARE"
Now I know from a little research that it could be something as simple as an extra pair of quotes somewhere, I've even tried
quoted form of
with no luck whatsoever. The error message I get when entering a string with a escape character is as such:
error "mount_smbfs: server connection failed: No route to host" number 68
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as my experience with AppleScript is very limited.

Answer 1

NOTE: the following is just a guess. I did not test any of it.
I don't believe it is an "escape characters" problem. The forward slash is not an escape character. The backward slash is. The problem is probably that the smbfs command interprets the forward slash as a divisor for path variables, and that's causing the error. So the question becomes... how can you avoid the conflict between the forward slash and the smbfs command?
I would try escaping the forward slash when you pass the command to the shell. Note that applescript also uses a backslash as an escape character so to pass an escape character to the shell you will have to escape the escape. So write a custom handler to pass your passwords through to perform that escape process for you.
So if this is your password, "abcdefg/" then try passing it as "abcdefg\\/" (note the double backslash). As mentioned you can write a custom handler to check your password for the "/" character, and if found then insert "\\" in front of it. But before writing that handler try the proposed solution manually to see if it solves your problem.
set pword to "/abc/defg/"
escapeSlash(pword)
on escapeSlash(x)
if x contains "/" then
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
set textItems to text items of x
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\\/"
set x to textItems as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
end if
return x
end escapeSlash