Sendgrid: How to add a dynamic link to an email template?

Question

I am trying to have a link in my email template that would sort of look like this:

<a href={{url}}>click here</>

The above link has been added in de "designer" by adding a "custom" link. The value for this like I enterd as {{url}}.

I pass an url value in the dynamic_template_data, like so:

const msg = {
  to: savedAdmin.email,
  from: process.env.EMAIL_ADDRESS,
  templateId: process.env.SENDGRID_NEW_ADMIN_TEMPLATE_ID,
  personalizations: [
    {
      to: [{email: savedAdmin.email}],
      dynamic_template_data: {
        name: savedAdmin.first_name,
        url: process.env.CMS_URL,
        email: savedAdmin.email,
        password: randomPassword,
      },
    },
  ],
};

However, the url gets rendered like this when I receive the mail in my inbox:

http://url9905.myweb.shop/ls/click?upn=BMmHdsRoNrbb0-2FMI-2BBVvCjpDiCceHLG5U2u5OCf29QV6iCtfuvZYId1FE95cTz9uyMY31z9fQ7iR-2BPgq-2FkquvxdAPC0oMKiLa3DRglYUSVP-2FRmYbDQ-2BdFGnczXk75K3Ym8rSodsrAy-2BfNDJwqA7RDeemPFjepjRsUdci9CA6Y0-....

How do I get this to work?

are you using their test data page? or is this code being used with NodeJS. Please provide a little more context so I can try and replicate the issue. — Farnoosh, May 11 '20 at 16:05
indeed i am using the nodejs client. when I use the test data page it seems to work fine. — xfscrypt, May 11 '20 at 19:53
I noticed their msg sample object contained a key field for html. try pasting an tag there just to see how it ends up looking like. To be honest I tried doing so myself, but because I don't have a paid email domain they're not able to authenticate my yahoo/gmail (they say on their site it's not possible), so I couldn't replicate the issue on my end. — Farnoosh, May 11 '20 at 20:03
sample I used was right from the NPM page https://www.npmjs.com/package/@sendgrid/mail. — Farnoosh, May 11 '20 at 20:05
I am using a dynamic template, so the html key is not applicable here. I need to pass variables to the template. For some reason I am not able to add it to a link — xfscrypt, May 12 '20 at 12:31
also, I'm only raising this point to cover all basis, but you're sure your inbox is not set to format as plain text? because this will cause you to see a link as the the address. — Farnoosh, May 12 '20 at 16:43
the value for process.env.CMS_URL is a string: "https://cms.mywebshop.com". Yes I am receiving my emails in de gmail inbox and are not in plain text. — xfscrypt, May 14 '20 at 06:30
I was reading the material on their page and it says that if your variable has ' or " you must use the 3 handlebar format {{{variable}}}. have you tried this to see if it makes a difference? — Farnoosh, May 14 '20 at 15:37
also noticed on their github page they're using a format like below to show a variable. Unsubscribe I wish I could test these out for you before posting them, but as I mentioned above I have no way of doing that. — Farnoosh, May 14 '20 at 16:00

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered May 15 '20 at 02:02

17

Sendgrid is replacing your link with a intermediary redirect for click tracking. This user experienced the same issue. From the Sendgrid dashboard, go to Settings->Tracking and click the edit icon on the right for Click Tracking, and disable the feature.

answered May 15 '20 at 02:02

emporerblk

1,063
5
20

Awesome! this is what I was looking for. Thanks a lot! – xfscrypt May 16 '20 at 07:43
Glad I could help :) – emporerblk May 16 '20 at 17:08
If you still want to use Click Tracking - make sure you use `https` and not `http` and it will work – Broshi Jul 12 '23 at 12:54

Farnoosh · Answer 2 · 2020-05-14T16:52:55.173

4

looks like the cause of this issue is due to not including the http/s prefix to your link. Please change your dynamic variable from "cms.mywebshop.com" to "http://cms.mywebshop.com" or "https://cms.mywebshop.com". Pretty sure this should resolve your issue. Please let me know.

I was able to test not having the http/s prefix on one of my href's and although the tag did not appear as show as plain text, it did fail to forward. It's possible that the folks from Sendgrid made it so the link is shown as plain text for troubleshooting purposes.

edited May 14 '20 at 16:52

answered May 14 '20 at 16:09

Farnoosh

187
1
8

Thanks Farnoosh. Even though emporerblk came with the solution, I will look into this as well! Thanks for supporting – xfscrypt May 16 '20 at 07:44
I prefer this answer to the accepted one as you can keep tracking turned on with send grid if you want to and the link then still works after being redirected. – Lyle Bennett Apr 04 '22 at 17:13

Sendgrid: How to add a dynamic link to an email template?

2 Answers2