Send Email (V2) Preview does not add hyperlinks to email alerts

[jaylou]

Hi All,

I haven't created a FLOW in a few weeks and I was SOOOO excited to finally see a true HTML editor in FLOW   Its wonderful I do not need all HTML formating, but it lost the ability to add a hyperlink without the displaying the full path, causing me to have to bail and go back the original Send Email task and HTML 😞

I always add a link back to the list item in the alert so my users can do everything right from the email.

I added some text and the "Link To Item" Dynamic content, but it displayed as the actaul link nothing freindly to look at.

Please click link to go to the item: https://Blah.sharepoint.com/Blah/_layouts/15/listform.aspx?PageType=4&ListId=d826e68c-7bf7-48ba-a585...

Your system removed the actiual HTML

I the tried to use the "Add a link" from the tool bar but there is no way to put the "Link To Item" in the hyperlink.  

I even went back to the old fashioned way and tried to add <A HREF=></A>.

 

which results in :

<A HREF="https://Blah.sharepoint.com/Blah/_layouts/15/listform.aspx?PageType=4&ListId=d826e68c-7bf7-48ba-a585...">Please click here to go to the Item</A>

We need a way to create a nice looking Hyperlink in Send Email (V2).

It's almost there keep on working on FLOW!!

TIA,

Joe

[Danny_Price]

Yes, it can.

Type in the text you want, highlight it then click the link button. 

It will allow for a link title, and the link target. 

[joef]

Hi @Danny_Price,

Yes that will work if I have a static address for all alerts that go out. 

My issue is that it does not allow for dynamic content.  I am trying to create a link back to the sharepoint item which does not work in V2 as I showed in my original post.

Thanks again,

Joe

[jake]

As @jaylou reminds us, including dynamic URLs in outgoing emails and approval requests is essential. Modern users expect these types of emails to be clean, direct and well-formated.

The 'create link' UI option in the Send an Email v2 is a nice addition, but doesn't accomodate anything dynamic (regular expression, Flow variables, etc) in the URL structure.

Current workarounds (that I can think of):

1. Edit the source JSON (w/ flowstudio), locate the send email action, and edit the URL composition manually
2. Dump the entire URL into the message body, with variables (works, but ugly - especially w/ the length of typcial SharePoint URLs!)
   
3. Use markdown - very cumbersome if the dynamic URL you're creating has special characters (you need to escape some types) - I cheated here and used a non-modern destination:
   using markdown for dynamic URLs in Flow
4. One other that I forgot while making that screenshot 

Bottom line: none of those workarounds are desirable (or perfect) - expressions and Flow variables would be a very nice addition to the native UI for email link creation

[jake]

Small footnote: the markdown method doesn't seem to be offering much hope in this case (i'm guessing it's not supported in v2 email action?)

[jake]

Today I was able to validate method one as a workaround (Edit the source JSON (w/ flowstudio), locate the send email action, and edit the URL composition manually).

<span style=\"font-size: 11px\"><a href=\"https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite/Lists/Approval%20Log/DispForm.aspx?ID=@{body('Log_Approval_Success')?['ID']}\">Test</a></span>

[joef]

hi @jake,

That seems like way too much work :). 

I have completely abandoned the send mail V2. 

Maybe in a year or so I will check back and see if they made V2 usable.

Thanks for the suggestion,

Joe

[jake]

I hear you, @joef... It is cumbersome. Keep the faith. Hopefully it will be less than a year.

[CGallardo1]

I found another way:

1. Type your link with the variable inside the body of the e-mail

2. Copy the whole line from point 1 to your clipboard

3. Create a hyperlink using the create hyperlink icon.

4. Type a description for the link

5. Paste the path into the URL. This will give you the correct format , something like this:

https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursubfolder@{body('Your Previous Create File in SharePoint step')?['Path']}

6. Optionally, remove what you initially typed in step 1

[joef]

Thanks @CGallardo1,

Now make that dynamic 🙂

I need it to hyperlink to the created/updated item of a list.

[jja]

Is there any updates on this issue?