Hyperlinks being changed, or not...

User 2807025 Photo


Registered User
25 posts

I use two software packages to deliver emails. One of them uses [unsubscribe] as the placeholder. RED allows me to hyperlink this, but then when I export it it changes to %5Dunsubscribe%5D which clearly won't work. And it also appends http:// to the hyperlink, which isn't needed as the software automatically appends that and the proper link when generating the emails. Locating and manually changing these in the source is tedious at best.

The other software package uses %%unsubscribelink%% a a placeholder. RED won't allow this as a hyperlink at all.

Would it be possible for future versions to allow these sort of non-standard link options?
User 287475 Photo


Registered User
5 posts

I have this same issue: I'd like to use RED for creating templates that are processed by an external program into finished emails that are then delivered. I need to be able to install tokens (%some-token%) as the entire href attribute for hyperlinks (for example: <a href="%token%">), but RED will not allow that. My work-around is to edit the output HTML to install the tokens before feeding it to the external program, but that's a bit of a pain.

I notice that the original post is dated 5 months ago with no response from Coffee Cup. Is this pretty much standard response time?
User 287475 Photo


Registered User
5 posts

Just to close the door on this issue: Apparently there is no solution available in RED; therefore, I wrote a post-processing application that takes the RED-prepared email as input and provides a modified output. I can put predefined tokens like %token-a% into RED as plain text wherever I need something special, and then the post-processor replaces that token with the whole <a></a> tag that I need. If I need a styled <a> tag, I create that in RED with a blank href and with the token in the body of the element: <a> style="something: value;" class="something" href="">%token%</a>. Then I use a regex in the post-processor to find the whole <a> tag, install the token in the href, and replace the token with whatever is needed.

It works fine, but it's just an extra step to go through before the RED output can be used in my mailer.
User 232214 Photo


COO
827 posts

Bill Carney wrote:
I use two software packages to deliver emails. One of them uses [unsubscribe] as the placeholder. RED allows me to hyperlink this, but then when I export it it changes to %5Dunsubscribe%5D which clearly won't work. And it also appends http:// to the hyperlink, which isn't needed as the software automatically appends that and the proper link when generating the emails. Locating and manually changing these in the source is tedious at best.

The other software package uses %%unsubscribelink%% a a placeholder. RED won't allow this as a hyperlink at all.

Would it be possible for future versions to allow these sort of non-standard link options?


Unless I am misunderstanding the issue at hand I believe this can already be done by unchecking the 'Automatic encoding' option when creating the text link.
The future of web layout has arrived and it's called CSS Grid. CoffeeCup helps you to get ready with a free guide, the Grid Builder app plus cool demos & themes.
User 232214 Photo


COO
827 posts

James A. Ledford wrote:

I notice that the original post is dated 5 months ago with no response from Coffee Cup. Is this pretty much standard response time?

Sorry for the late reply here James. However, these are user forums and not our official support channel. We try to keep an eye out and jump in where needed, but don't have a monitoring system in place that prevent things slipping through cracks.

Again, sorry for the late reply but I hope the answer I posted above works for you. Also, for guaranteed replies please use our support system here: https://www.coffeecup.com/help/myroom/
The future of web layout has arrived and it's called CSS Grid. CoffeeCup helps you to get ready with a free guide, the Grid Builder app plus cool demos & themes.
User 2807025 Photo


Registered User
25 posts

Bob Visser wrote:
Unless I am misunderstanding the issue at hand I believe this can already be done by unchecking the 'Automatic encoding' option when creating the text link.


Unfortunately that doesn't work. I need the link to be %%unsubscribe%% - if I uncheck the automatic encoding box, the Apply button is disabled (it's there, it just doesn't do anything nor close the dialog box). It doesn't appear to like the % at the beginning.
User 232214 Photo


COO
827 posts

Got it. I tested it with [unsubscribe] — which does work. I also tested with a text link element and %%unsubscribe%% — which does work. :P:P

But you are right, the 'apply' does not work when using the text editor. :mad: Count on this being solved in the next release. Hopefully the two options above will give you some flexibility in the meantime.
The future of web layout has arrived and it's called CSS Grid. CoffeeCup helps you to get ready with a free guide, the Grid Builder app plus cool demos & themes.

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