BUG? Show column of URL type, actual URL prefixed by "appsheet.com.start"

[Marc_Dillon]

Here is a Show column, of URL type:

But when I'm using the app, the actual URL target link is:

https://www.appsheet.com/start/intended-url

This can't be right, right?

Had a client report this broken link late last night. I've already sent a message to support, just wanting to make sure I'm not missing something obvious?

[Suvrutt_Gurjar]

Yes, it seems to have broken.  I also got the identical results as you got

https://www.appsheet.com/start/

The URL gets preceeded by the above string.

[Joseph_Seddik]

I confirm the same behavior, was just testing it. I tried several modifications that didn't work, including adding https:// which was simply ignored by appsheet.

[Marc_Dillon]

Thanks for the confirmations. And you both agree that it shouldn't be like that, right?

[Joseph_Seddik]

Right!

[Suvrutt_Gurjar]

Yes, that is right. I even watched video in the help article on "Show" columns and made settings accordingly. The errorneous behavior persisted.

https://help.appsheet.com/en/articles/1013271-column-types-diving-deeper

[Steve]

Escalated.

[nico · Accepted solution]

So I don't think anything changed recently with the `Show` `Url` content. The way this works is the `Content` is expected to be a valid fully qualified url.

For example, if you go:

The url will be "https://www.google.com".

If you put an invalid url like "test" or "indented-url" it'll generate a link similar to `<a href="test">display</a>` which since it's run relative to the `appsheet.com/start` page will just go to `appsheet.com/start/test` page. This is somewhat undefined behavior because we expect a full url to be provided. I recommend you generate the full url in this expression like in the screenshot above and it should behave as you expect. Might be worth doing more error-checking on the AppSheet to prevent confusion in this situation.

BTW, the display for link is either the "Display" column of the setting or it'll fallback on the "Description" if not.

[Marc_Dillon]

Bah!

I had the same thought, and I swear I tested that multiple times.

Yah might be worth some more confusion-avoidance there.

Thank @nico 

[Joseph_Seddik]

Hello @nico 

Unfortunately it is STILL not working for a perfectly valid URL. Both travelersoperadorturistico.es and www.travelersoperadorturistico.es are valid URLs and are producing the same erroneous behaviour. 

https://www.appsheet.com/start/www.travelersoperadorturistico.es

https://www.appsheet.com/start/travelersoperadorturistico.es

@Marc_Dillon 

[Marc_Dillon]

---

Both travelersoperadorturistico.es and www.travelersoperadorturistico.es are valid URLs and are producing the same erroneous behaviour. 

---

Neither of those are "fully qualified".

Try:

"http://www.travelersoperadorturistico.es/"

(this exact URL works for me in my test app)

Whether or not it is expected for all/most Appsheet builders to know exactly what "fully qualified" means, well that's a different story...

[Steve]

Fully qualify those "perfectly valid URLs". They aren't URLs, they're host names. or just simple text.

[Joseph_Seddik]

I’m not sure I follow, do you mean I should as well add the protocol? 
I’ll give it a try anyway. 

[Joseph_Seddik]

@Steve @Marc_Dillon Thank you both, again!

After adding the protocol I confirm it works. Yet, I had to enclose the URL within quotes, which I didn't do during my first testing; the http:// part was just ignored by AppSheet. 

[Steve]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL

[Marc_Dillon]

I was just reading that!

[Suvrutt_Gurjar]

Nice to know, we now know the reason. Thank you @nico  for the detailed clarification.  As mentioned, before confirming to @Marc_Dillon , I watched the video in the help article to reconfirm and somehow that video did not specify that fully qualified URL requirement. So I tried with similar setup of "www.google.com" as content and "Go to Goggle' as description. Myabe implementation has changes since then because video must be very old.

Please watch the Video on show columns in the article below. The Show type URL column is described from (2:27 to 3:00) . The screenshot below shows how the URL looks in the video.

Article : https://help.appsheet.com/en/articles/1013271-column-types-diving-deeper

Show Type URL Column