Getting Marketo to track a link created in a Velocity Token pulling a Custom Object value

[SanfordWhiteman]

Another good reason to use the technique, then.

(Which btw you can read about here: https://nation.marketo.com/community/product_and_support/blog/2017/04/11/multiple-tracked-links-in-v...)

[Chris_Politzki]

Still struggling to get a working example...might you be able to point us in the right direction? Thanks.

[Tony_Mayse]

The link should be output using the first form from the examples at the bottom of https://developers.marketo.com/email-scripting/

#set($url = "www.example.com/${object.id}")
<a href="http://${url}">Link Text</a>‍‍

It''s necessary for the anchor tag be included as a literal up to the //

Without that technique, the link will not be tracked. That's not a Velocity constraint, it's implementation-specific to Marketo's tracked link functionality.

[Chris_Politzki]

Thanks. I will have to check with our DB Admin to see if they can strip the https:// off of the Custom Object field, but that does work, just tested it.  

[SanfordWhiteman]

Thought you said you had tested it above?

Anyway, you also need to change the VML namespace's friendly name like I mentioned above::

#set( $custom_query_string = $campaign_days_map.get($campaignDays) )
#set( $url_no_host = $TriggerObject.URL + $custom_query_string )
#set( $anchorLink = '<a href="https://${url_no_host}" alias="Renew Now" class="mktoText primary-font button" style="background-color: #f96b07; border-radius: 3px; color: #ffffff; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 46px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-size-adjust: none; width: 100% !important;"><span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase;">Renew Now</span></a>' )
<tbody> 
     <tr> 
          <td class="primary-font button" style="-webkit-border-radius: 3px;-moz-border-radius: 3px;border-radius: 3px;width: 250px; height: 46px; text-decoration: none;font-weight: 700; font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif; color: #ffffff;font-size: 16px;text-align: center;line-height:13px;" bgcolor="#ff6a13" height="46"> 
               <div class="mktoText"> 
                    <!--[if mso]>
                         <a:roundrect xmlns:a="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" href="https://${url_no_host}" style="height:65px;v-text-anchor:middle;width:175px;" arcsize="6%" stroke="f" fillcolor="#f96b07">
                         <w:anchorlock/>
                         <center>
                    <![endif]--> 
                    ${anchorLink}
                    <!--[if mso]>
                         </center>
                         </a:roundrect>
                    <![endif]--> 
               </div>
          </td> 
     </tr> 
</tbody>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[Chris_Politzki]

I must have had a syntax error in that test, I'm assuming...it does seem to be working now. Let me do a few more tests to confirm and also talk with our DB Admin to confirm we can edit that field for the URL before marking this thread as being completed. Thanks.

[Tony_Mayse]

The code above doesn't generate a tracked link because ${anchorLink} contains the entire tag. Marketo's Velocity scripting will only output a tracked link when the tag itself is literal rather than stored in a variable.

Moving the value assigned to ${anchorLink} on line 3 to line 13 is what's need. Line 13 should be:

<a href="https://${url_no_host}" alias="Renew Now" class="mktoText primary-font button" style="background-color: #f96b07; border-radius: 3px; color: #ffffff; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 46px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-size-adjust: none; width: 100% !important;"><span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase;">Renew Now</span></a>‍

and line 3 should be removed.

[SanfordWhiteman]

That's tested code, Tony.

[SanfordWhiteman]

The code above doesn't generate a tracked link because ${anchorLink} contains the entire tag. Marketo's Velocity scripting will only output a tracked link when the tag itself is literal rather than stored in a variable.

You'll find that the rules are more complex than this.

[Chris_Politzki]

Here's what I came up with that works currently...pending we can manipulate the URL value.

Set URL value from Custom Object without https://, so now just www.webroot.com/us/en/cart (still have to confirm with others to see if this can be done):

#set($URL = $TriggerObject.URL)‍

Still setting the Custom Query Strings the same way, but then changed the way full_url is being built to this:

#set($full_url = $URL + $custom_query_string)‍

Then setting the anchorLink to be used in email token content:

#set($anchorLink = "${full_url}")‍

In the content for the button:

<tbody> 
	<tr> 
		<td class="primary-font button" style="-webkit-border-radius: 3px;-moz-border-radius: 3px;border-radius: 3px;width: 250px; height: 46px; text-decoration: none;font-weight: 700; font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif; color: #ffffff;font-size: 16px;text-align: center;line-height:13px;" bgcolor="#ff6a13" height="46"> 
			<div class="mktoText"> 
				<!--[if mso]>
                     <a:roundrect xmlns:a="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" href="https://${anchorLink}" style="height:65px;v-text-anchor:middle;width:175px;" arcsize="6%" stroke="f" fillcolor="#f96b07">
                     <w:anchorlock/>
                     <center>
                <![endif]-->
					<a href="https://${anchorLink}" target="_blank" style="background-color: #f96b07; border-radius: 3px; color: #ffffff; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 46px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-size-adjust: none; width: 100% !important;">
						<span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase;">
							Renew Now
						</span>
					</a>
				<!--[if mso]>
					</center>
					</v:roundrect>
				<![endif]-->
			</div>
		</td> 
	</tr> 
</tbody>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

In the content for the banner:

<a href="https://${anchorLink}" target="_blank">
	<img src="https://mypage.webroot.com/rs/557-FSI-195/images/PERPETUAL-RENEWAL-EMAIL1.png" alt="90 Days to Renew" style="-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; outline: none; border-right-width: 0; border-bottom-width: 0; border-left-width: 0; text-decoration: none; border-top-width: 0; display: block; max-width: 100%; line-height: 100%; height: auto; width: 700px;" width="700"> 
</a>‍‍‍