Dynamic hyperlinks inactive when HTML report embedded in email body

Good morning all!

I’ve got a Toad Data Report pulling data from a SQL server that contains both dynamic and static hyperlinks.

For the dynamic hyperlinks:

  • Within the report detail band I have a ticket number (unique value) along with additional ticket details (dates, notes, etc). I created a calculated field called DynURL that would concatenate a URL string like ‘www.domain.com/id=’ and the ticket number ( Concat(‘www.domain.com/id=’,[ticket number]) ) to produce a string like www.domain.com/id=1234. In the ticket number’s field properties, I navigated to Data > (DataBindings) > NavigateUrl > Binding and set that to my DynURL calculated field.
    For the static hyperlink:

  • This is just a label with a static email address that resides in a group footer at the bottom of the report. In the label properties, I navigated to Navigation > NavigateUrl and set that to my email address ‘mailto:user@domain.com’ and set the Target to _blank.
    Previewing the report in TDP:

  • Both dynamic and static hyperlinks function as desired.
    Exporting report to HTML format.

  • When opening report in browser, both dynamic and static hyperlinks function as desired.
    Automation:

  • Database Activities > Toad Report > Export report file as HTML

  • System Activities > Send Email > Activity Input > Use file for body: - Here is where I’ll select the HTML file from Toad Report export just performed.

  • Test run and automation successfully completes and I receive an email with the HTML report file embedded.
    When I go to test the hyperlinks in the email:

  • The dynamic hyperlinks are dead, meaning click with no action, but the mouse icon still changes as if it recognizes them as hyperlinks.

  • The static email hyperlink works as desired.
    The dynamic hyperlink functionality essentially fails when an HTML report is embedded in email. Am I missing something or is there a possible remedy for my issue?

Some add’l info:

  • Using TDP v 3.6.0.3276
  • Email distribution through Exchange platform & SMTP
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hello Chris!

Thank you for such a nice summary!

I would like to help you finding the root cause and hopefully fixing the problem afterwards. For that it would be really helpful if you can provide me with the following information / files:

  1. the report file (*.tdr extension)
  2. a sample of the HTML file that the file “Toad Report export” generates
  3. any of the used dependencies.
    If possible try to limit the sources used in your automation script as I might not be able to reproduce in case some dependencies are missing.

please send it to my email address: Martin.Holkovic@quest.com - thank you!

-Martin

Thanks Martin,

Email is on the way!

Thanks, Chris!

after some time i was able to open and execute the automation script to generate email with “wrong” hyperlinks in the ticket column (INC000xxx values) and i believe i have found the root cause:

It seems that for HTML output format every column that has the NavigateUrl property set using DataBinding it uses the “OnMouseDown” event (mouse button click) that obviously is not handled/supported by your mail client.

part of HTML that was generated:

onmousedown=“ASPx.xr_NavigateUrl('reportcentral.suddenlink.net/…/viewincident.php, ‘’)”

Right now i am trying to find a solution and to determine whether there are code changes needed.

I will let you know as soon as i have, hopefully, good news.

-Martin

Hello Chris,

I have some news finally.

The reporting module we use in Toad is a 3rd party component which needs to be upgraded to a new version which supports generating a Microsoft-friendly HTML output. Upgrading components is rather a more complex task hence this change will have to be planned so unfortunately you will have to wait until this gets resolved.

As temporary workarounds i’d choose one of the following:

  1. attach the generated HTML file in the email, so users can open it in the browser (not sure which browsers will face the same problem though)
  2. changing the format to PDF?
  3. changing the automation script so it only exports the dynamic data and then generating the HTML code using a SQL activity
    Apologies for the discomfort that this scenario creates.

-Martin

Hello Chris,

Recently we have been able to upgrade the dependent 3rd party components that allowed me to continue my work on this bug. I have implemented changes to address this specific problem and after I have tested it it finally generates mail-friendly HTML code.

Note that I have added a “Mail Friendly HTML” checkbox to the ToadReport activity that is visible only when you select HTML file name as the output - you need to check it to make it work.

Martin