Question

Prevent slack from escaping characters in text provided by previous step

  • 3 December 2021
  • 8 replies
  • 1076 views

So, currently we’re facing problem where zapier processes the markdown text to format for slack. And the result of this formatting put like this in message text.

But when the message is being sent the characters for link 

< >

are actually escaped before sending to slack API and getting like this into message:

As a result the links in slack channel are broken and doesn’t work.

 

Is there any workaround to it?


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8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hi @testste1 

Here’s the guide on how to send link to slack: https://zapier.com/help/doc/tips-formatting-your-slack-messages#links

Also you can use formatter > extract URL to get the URL first then add that formatted URL to slack message.

Hi @testste1 

Here’s the guide on how to send link to slack: https://zapier.com/help/doc/tips-formatting-your-slack-messages#links

Also you can use formatter > extract URL to get the URL first then add that formatted URL to slack message.

Hey @robschmidt !

It would’ve work, if not the one thing. The text contains multiple links and there’s no way to recover their position in text after that :/

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @testste1 

You should be able to use more logic in your Code step to properly prep the data to be formatted for Slack: https://zapier.com/apps/code/help

Hi @testste1 

You should be able to use more logic in your Code step to properly prep the data to be formatted for Slack: https://zapier.com/apps/code/help

But that’s makes things unnecessary complicated.

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@testste1

Can you show screenshots of how the data appears when sent to Slack?

 

I tested and was not able to replicate the escaping issue:

 

@Troy Tessalone You’re pasting data as text in ‘Message Text’ Field, when in our case we’re using output from previous step as a data.

 

Try like this:

  • Create python step, which will output 
    *< URL | Link >*
  • Use output from this step as message text
  • Send to slack
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@testste1 

Used a JavaScript Code step and was unable to replicate the issue.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@testste1 

Can you show a screenshot of your Code step?

Can you show a screenshot with the full URL output?