Email Automation with URLs stripping underscore from link

[jlaplante]

Hello all!

I have a formula field in one of my tables that generates a custom URL to an Airtable form where I want to pre-fill one of the fields, and send the URL to the main point of contact through email.

The formula is this:

CONCATENATE("https://airtable.com/XXXXXXX/ZZZZZZZZZ/form?prefill_ClientID=",RECORD_ID(),"&hide_ClientID=true")

And it shows in Airtable correctly (this is a direct paste from the table field):

https://airtable.com/XXXXXXXX/ZZZZZZZ/form?prefill_ClientID=recTuHzXP2YsNencA&hide_ClientID=true

However, when the email automation runs, the URL that shows up has the 2 underscore characters removed, as follows:

You'll see that the "_" characters after the words "prefill" and "hide" have been stripped.  

I don't believe it's the email client (Google) doing this, as I can email the direct link from the table through email and it comes through fine.

Any idea why this is happening?

John

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

This seems to be a longstanding bug in Airtable.

I believe that the workaround for this bug is to use markdown in your email. For example:

[text to describe the link](Your URL Field Here)

If that markdown workaround doesn’t work, I would recommend using Make’s Airtable automations to send your email. You can immediately trigger an email by following these instructions to trigger a Make webhook.

There might also be other workarounds that people know about, that they might post below.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

[jlaplante]

Thanks, Scott!

The markdown workaround worked.  Here's what my automation looks like now:

I added the bits that are highlighted.  Worked like a champ!

Thanks so much for the quick response!

[ScottWorld]

You’re welcome! Glad I could help! 😃