How to make a link use a User-Defined Variable?

[Jared Hess]

RH 2015 (12.0.3.428)

We have some UDVs that contain FTP links like this:

ftp://ftp.wilcoxassoc.com/PC-DMIS-Versions/Release/2017_R1/

Note: The 2017_R1 is our software version number, and it'll change every new version of our software (2017_R2, 2018_R1 etc), hence the desire for a UDV.

Anyway, the UDV works fine for displaying the FTP address itself as simple text, but from my tests, we can't use a UDV inside of an HREF attribute to actually send a click to that page.

When our next version of our software updates, even though we update the UDV, the actual link in the HREF will not change.

The yellow highlight in the above image shows the UDVs are around the text, but the actual link (in the red box) won't change when the version is updated.

Is there a way around this limitation yet still use UDVs?

[Captiv8r]

HI there

If it were me, I'd make that link a UDV that looks like this:

Then on the right side select the link text and make it a hyperlink.

Cheers... Rick

[Captiv8r]

Just checking to see what (if any) outcome you achieved.

[Jared Hess]

Hi Rick. Thanks for your reply. I guess I'd still have to update the text of the variable as well as the link separately:

But this does present a different way of doing it, and may make it easier to remember to update the associated link. Thanks again.

[Captiv8r]

Yeah, there's no way I'm aware of that you could use a variable that would replace part of a URL as you seem to be wanting.

Cheers... Rick