title: python exceptions.UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xa7 in
body: <p>I am using scrapy with python and I have this code in a python item pipline</p>
  
  <pre><code>def process_item(self, item, spider):
          import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
          ID = str(uuid.uuid5(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, item['link']))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I got this error :</p>
  
  <pre><code>        Traceback (most recent call last):
            File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\scrapy-0.20.2-py2.7.egg\scrapy\mid
  dleware.py", line 62, in _process_chain
              return process_chain(self.methods[methodname], obj, *args)
            File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\scrapy-0.20.2-py2.7.egg\scrapy\uti
  ls\defer.py", line 65, in process_chain
              d.callback(input)
            File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\defer.py", line 3
  82, in callback
              self._startRunCallbacks(result)
            File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\defer.py", line 4
  90, in _startRunCallbacks
              self._runCallbacks()
          --- &lt;exception caught here&gt; ---
            File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\defer.py", line 5
  77, in _runCallbacks
              current.result = callback(current.result, *args, **kw)
            File "General_Spider_code_version_2\pipelines.py", line 7, in process_
  item
              ID = str(uuid.uuid5(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, item['link']))
            File "C:\Python27\lib\uuid.py", line 549, in uuid5
              hash = sha1(namespace.bytes + name).digest()
          exceptions.UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xa7 in p
  osition 1: ordinal not in range(128)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to debug the <code>item['link']</code></p>
  
  <p>and this is the result</p>
  
  <pre><code>-&gt; ID = str(uuid.uuid5(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, item['link']))
  (Pdb) item['link']
  u'http://dubai.dubizzle.com/property-for-rent/residential/apartmentflat/2014/4/6
  /palm-jumeirah-abu-keibal-3-br-maid-partial-2/?back=ZHViYWkuZHViaXp6bGUuY29tL3By
  b3BlcnR5LWZvci1yZW50L3Jlc2lkZW50aWFsL2FwYXJ0bWVudGZsYXQv&amp;pos=1'
  (Pdb)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as you see the <code>item['link']</code> is unicode</p>
  
  <h3>Edit1</h3>
  
  <p>when I change the <code>item['link']</code> to any other attribute like <code>item['date']</code> the code works perfectly</p>