Email Template Tag Styling

gord · 15 Feb 2011 at 12:36

Hey all,

I have an email template (html) which pulls through a URL using a tag %URL%. The url is unique to the email going out and is all handled by the system. But, because the tag is entirely replaced by the URL I can't style the damn thing.

I've wrapped the %URL% in font tags and spans to no avail. It ends up being that bright blue default link.

It's not the end of the world but if anyone can think of a way around it, that would be great.

Cheers.

GravyMonster · 15 Feb 2011 at 12:42

You could put the %URL% in a SPAN with a class on it, then use SPAN.myClass A { color: #C00; }

This may get ignored by some mail clients though.

*edit*
Just read your OP properly and you've already tried that - sorry.

I don't think there's any way round that unless you can get access to the code which inserts the link to be able to put a class or styling onto that.

gord · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:01

I haven't actually tried using anything but in-line styles. That said, any styles that aren't in-line are usually stripped out by the mail clients, but worth a shot.

GravyMonster · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:19

According to this, the only clients in which defining styles in a <style> tag wont work is gmail and lotus. But then nothing works in Lotus anyway.

mark.souness · 15 Feb 2011 at 20:31

simisker · 15 Feb 2011 at 21:52

mark.souness said:
<a href="%URL%" style="xxxxxxxxx">%URL%</a>

I think gord's problem stems from the entire anchor element being substituted in for "%URL%", not just the URL.

If not, we've been grossly overestimating him all these years

I'd recommend Spunkey's method, backed by a massive slur campaign against GMail

mark.souness · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:42

simisker said:
I think gord's problem stems from the entire anchor element being substituted in for "%URL%", not just the URL.

If not, we've been grossly overestimating him all these years

I'd recommend Spunkey's method, backed by a massive slur campaign against GMail

Ok, could maybe put the %URL% into a table and apply formatting to the cell that contains %URL%

simisker · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:54

mark.souness said:
Ok, could maybe put the %URL% into a table and apply formatting to the cell that contains %URL%

No dice - the browser stylesheet will still apply its default anchor element styling.

Of all the methods of overriding the browser stylesheet, there's only one that gord can rely on in these circumstances [GMail excepted]: an embedded style declaration.

Coding e-mails: it's a fluffy world of joy

gord · 16 Feb 2011 at 09:30

mark.souness said:
<a href="%URL%" style="xxxxxxxxx">%URL%</a>

That would end up with:

PHP:

<a href="<a href="link">link</a>" style="xxxxxxxxx"><a href="link">link</a></a>

I'm yet to try an internal style declaration. Turns out the system I am testing won't be fit for purpose anyway (perfect in every way apart from you cant change who the email is from), so I've got to try out another app.

Third time lucky.