Generic Email template with variable file download link

[EPasiak]

Hello all,

I have not seemed to find a solution to my use case and I apologize in advance if there has been a solution posted that I have not come across.

The site that we are building has a large amount of PDF report files that will be stored in HubSpot files for users to be able to access and download.

What we would like to achieve is creating a generic email template to send to our users that will contain the specified download link.

A user will fill out a form or press a download button (if they are already logged in and a known user) which will trigger an email to be sent. Within that email it should contain the download link so that they can access the PDF from the storage files.

Since there will be potentionally over 100 PDF files that can be sent it would be ideal if the file ID was some how passed along to the email to be appended to the link.

In this way we will have only one email template to maintain that can send out any one of these PDF reports that the user is interested in.


Thank you for any help or advice you can provide!!

[Kevin-C · Accepted solution]

Hey @EPasiak 

Thanks for the reminder!

So the very high level solution or workaround could be to:

1. Organize and maintain the PDFs in a HubDB table. This allows you to organize any supporting information for the PDFs and  create unique dynamic pages for each PDF. This will also allow you to use 1 form.
2. Custom contact property to track the last PDF that was requested. This can hold the PDF's url! Form example we'll call it RECENT_PDF. This could also hold the HubDB row ID but the URL seemed more straight forward.
3. Form with a hidden field.
4. Dynamic pages or page with query string to ID the PDF the user is requesting.
   • On this page you'd have a script to get the data you're using to identify the PDF, and populate the hidden field. This technique has been outlined on the forums.
   • Now when a use submits the form RECENT_PDF will be updated with the new value.
5. Email with Hubl to populate the RECENT_PDF value as a link:
   

   <a href="{{ contact.recent_pdf }}">Download now</a>​

6. Finally you'll have to have a workflow to send the email. This can be generic as well!!

This is in no way a solution without issue, but its a pretty good start I might think!

EDIT:

Verbalizing this wasn't the smoothest of processies, so if something doesn't make sense lets talk it out!

[EPasiak]

Hi @Kevin-C ,

Just dropping in a subtle reminder and follow up to make sure you haven't forgotten about this ULTRA interesting and exciting use case! 😁

Thanks again for your help and support,

I look forward to any ideas and solutions you can bring to light!

[dennisedson]

Let it be known that I am always proud of @Kevin-C 

Not a big deal or anything.  He just happens to be champion of the month

[Kevin-C]

Hey again @EPasiak 

So I've got a potential solution spinning around in my head.

And I've successfully tested what I thought was the biggest hurdle!

But unfortunately I'm on the clock, so I've got to get back to work ( @dennisedson would be so proud lol ).

But if for some reason I don't reply in the next say couple days…I forgot.

Just reply to this thread again to remind me, as this is a something I'd love to dig into. Assuming someone else doesn't jump in here first!

[Kevin-C]

Hey @EPasiak and thank you @sharonlicari 

My initial question would be:

How are you identifying what PDF to send when the user fills out the form? Via a URL parameter, or via the form?

This could be one of the keys to this requirement.

[EPasiak]

Hi Kevin-C,

Thank you so much for your quick response!

We could identify the PDF based on the url and report down load page. So in this case a user could go to a Reports directory and see a full list of all reports available to download. From there the user could select the desired report and arrive at a brief descriptor page with a "Download Now" button (form) that would trigger the email. If the user is signed in the form would be pre-populated with their contact information and if not then they would submit their information.

The big unknown is how to get the report ID information from the report download page and into the email so we can dynamically create the desired download link. 

Having specific forms for each download is also not a very good option for us since it only migrates the problem from having redundant emails to having redundant forms that would be difficult to maintain.

With all this said we are open to new approaches to downloading content providing we can track the user downloads and modularize the approach as much as possible to reduce redundancy and keep the reports easily maintainable.

[sharonlicari]

Hey @EPasiak 

Welcome to the Community!

This is an interesting case and I'm curious to know what our experts can share about this. 

Hey @Alejandro_ @andrus @Kevin-C what would you advise to @EPasiak?

Thanks & Happy Friday

Sharon