Embedding a Project's URL field value behind descriptive text in a task-level report

[JessicaCh]

Our users are inserting an intranet URL in the Project's existing URL field, in the Overview. We share a task-level report that has a column for the Project URL, which we would like to shorten to a "View" link, and I have spent HOURS researching and testing using calculated fields and textmode columns. I've FINALLY managed to get the embed to work correctly in a Content custom field in a project-level report, but have again hit a brick wall with the real use case, a task-level report.

I had made what I thought were the correct tweaks to bring in the project-level data, but I'm missing something, as the new column stays blank in the task report. Here is the functional project-level code...

displayname=Content

link.url=URL

linkedname=html(URL)

textmode=true

valueexpression=IF(ISBLANK({URL}),"","View")

valueformat=HTML

And here is my faulty task-level code...

displayname=Content

link.url=URL

linkedname=html(URL)

textmode=true

valueexpression=IF(ISBLANK({Project}.{URL}),"","View")

valueformat=HTML

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Jessica,

Since Tasks have their own URLs, I suspect yours ate blank, and being returned according, but if I’m following correctly, suggest on the Task view that you try changing

link.url=URL

linkedname=html(URL)

to

link.url=Project.URL

linkedname=html(Project.URL)

Regards,

Doug

[JessicaCh]

Thanks, Doug. I did go round and round with those kinds of changes, with periods, colons, parentheses, curly brackets, etc. I did try as you suggested, but I'm afraid my column is still coming back blank, using this code...

displayname=Content

link.url=Project.URL

linkedname=html(Project.URL)

textmode=true

valueexpression=IF(ISBLANK({Project}.{URL}),"","View")

valueformat=HTML

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Harrumph.

In that case, Jess, give this a shot (tested this time), noting that you can swap the URL to any image file you wish:

Regards,

Doug

displayname=Content

image.case.0.comparison.icon=true

image.case.0.comparison.leftmethod=project:URL

image.case.0.comparison.lefttext=project:URL

image.case.0.comparison.operator=notblank

image.case.0.comparison.operatortype=string

image.case.0.comparison.righttext=

image.case.0.comparison.truetext=https://www.atappstore.com/extras/unlocked_green.png

linkedname=project

namekey=view.relatedcolumn

namekeyargkey.0=project

namekeyargkey.1=URL

querysort=project:URL

textmode=true

valuefield=project:URL

valueformat=HTML

[JessicaCh]

Thanks again, Doug! This is actually similar to what we're doing now in Production, using a built-in Column Rule to display a blue circle for a link, or a red circle for a blank. Displaying text instead of an image in this task report has been my white whale. But - your code does provide some great improvements on the experience, and now I'm considering using an image of a word...

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Excellent Jess,

Interestingly, I was going to do just that in my example with an image of the word "View".

Regards,

Doug

[skyehansen]

You probably already have what you need, but just wanted to mention that Matt May (and Adina of course) seems to have cracked the code here: https://one.workfront.com/s/question/0D50z00006Px4lZCAR/how-do-i-make-the-value-within-the-column-an... (i.e. Matt appears to have evolved Adina's code in order to get a project URL on a task report).

You need to self-serve a bit -- put the linebreaks back in -- but if it's still a good bit of code, make sure Kyna teaches Jonathan to go back in and reformat that old post.

[JessicaCh]

Ah, yes, Matt and Adina's conversation. That was one of my hours-long research and code attempts, and I was really excited by their success.

It didn't work for me the first time, and I just tried it again, and I'm still hitting a roadblock. The new column is rendering as an embedded URL, but the path is the same as the displayed text: "view%final%creative" - I'm not getting the actual project URL to come through behind the displayed text. Here's the code I tried. Not sure where I'm going wrong with it. Hoping it's just a simple misunderstanding with the syntax. Thank you, Skye!

case.0.comparison.icon=false

case.0.comparison.leftmethod=project:URL

case.0.comparison.lefttext=project:URL

case.0.comparison.operator=cicontains

case.0.comparison.operatortype=string

case.0.comparison.righttext=https:

case.0.comparison.truetext=View Final Creative

displayname=Final Creative

link.isnewwindow=true

link.url=customDataLabelsAsString(project:URL)

linkedname=direct

namekey=Final Creative

querysort=Final Creative

styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false

styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod=project:URL

styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext=project:URL

styledef.case.0.comparison.operator=cicontains

styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype=string

styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext=https:

styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=View Final Creative

textmode=true

valuefield=project:URL

valueformat=customDataLabelsAsString

width=150

[skyehansen]

I can put it on my list of things to do, but honestly the first thing I would try and do is get it working with a calculated field, since this is what Matt did with his code. If you can get it working with the calculated field then you are halfway there (your syntax works), and you can then try and trade the calc field out for the default URL field.

[TealeMcCleaf]

Hi Jessica,

I'm not sure about all of the comparison things you have going on in your textmode but here's a simple version of overlaying text on an existing URL...

displayname=FIELD NAME

link.url=customDataLabelsAsString(project:URL)

link.isnewwindow=true

linkname=direct

namekey=name

textmode=true

usewidths=true

valueexpression=STRING("View Final Creative")

valuefield=project:URL

valueformat=customDataLabelsAsString

width=100

Hope this helps and let me know if it works for you.

Best -

Teale

[JessicaCh]

I wish I had better news for you, Teale. I started from scratch using your suggestion, and my end result is still "View Final Creative" with http://view%20final%20creative/ as the embedded URL instead of the content in the Project's URL field. I can get this to work properly in a project-level report, but not the task-level report. That seems to be my stumbling block. I really appreciate your help, I'm sure I'll get this figured out one day.

[JessicaCh]

UPDATE - after abandoning my attempts for a few months, I started some fresh troubleshooting and managed a level of success with embedding the Project URL behind the Project Name, in my task report. The only hitch is that the link won't render if the Project URL isn't somewhere else in the report (?) so I have basically a duplicative field, which is disappointing, but liveable.

displayname=Content

link.url=project.URL

linkedname=html(project.URL)

textmode=true

valueexpression={project}.{name}

valueformat=HTML