Creating Links in Dynamic Content

Links to external sites are able to be created in dynamic content and used in messages to the targeted customers..

In the following example, the email string is created by retrieving the email parameter passed through the URL to append the email address as an argument to the end of a link.

Note: It is important to test this type of link creation thoroughly and consider the ramifications of the resulting link. The system appends the full link created here to the standard Connect-base path. This is because the dynamically created and unique link is not present or defined through the Link Validation section. Therefore, the example above results in a link that looks like this:

http://click.client.com/1234567.345.0.0.http://www.client.com/[email protected]

In the HTML version, the message body hides the long URL within its formatting. However, in the text version, it appears as it does above. Long URLs will wrap to a second line in some text-only email clients making it unclickable.

If you are using dynamic content to personalize links, static content with merge tags is a better solution.

HTML Example

<HTML>
<b>Dear</b> <%=request.getParameter("firstName")%> <%=request.getParameter("lastName")%>:
<br><br>

You can also manipulate, perform logic, or combine these strings. The following is an example of a parameter merged to a URL:

<a href="http://client.com/signup.jsp?email=<%=request.getParameter("email")%>"> Sign Up Page</a>

When the servlet finishes evaluating the code, it returns the following HTML as content to the Connect Mail Composer (if '[email protected]' was the value passed):

<a href="http://client.com/[email protected]"> Sign Up Page</a>