Unable to add hyperlink to IM Email Policies when custom data elements are used.

Products

• CA Identity Manager
• CA Identity Suite

Issue/Introduction

When creating an Email Policy in Identity Manager, if a data element is used in the href attribute of a hyperlink there is an error while saving the policy.  It also displays the same sort of error when trying to modify an existing policy and try to save the same:

 "Found an invalid data element in the body: {'Custom:%20IPUserConsole'}"

This can be manually corrected by toggling the HTML in the email content field, removing "%20" and replacing it with a space.  The policy can then be saved.

Environment

Release : 14.2

Component : CA IDENTITY SUITE (VIRTUAL APPLIANCE)

Resolution

The produce is working as designed. Entering a URL into the email body can be properly represented as a hyperlink, but as only URLs can be made into hyperlinks by the widget in the email policy, a data element - even though it contains a URL - is not truly a URL. The data element can be simply inserted into the email body and the URL will work, but in that way it would not be a hyperlink.  If a hyperlink is needed, it is best to add the URL directly, not using a data element,  Alternatively you can work around the error by removing "%20" and replacing it with a space.  However the same workaround would have to be repeated the next time the policy is saved.