Forum Discussion
Ampersand in URL deactivates the link
We have found a problem have linked to an external link. For example, we copied the sharable link which was: https://golearn.sheffield.gov.uk/learn/course/616/leadership-style-matrix?generated_by=13090&hash=e4978972e60e274273acdb1db39841e66e0d5105 What is strange is that when we paste the link onto the button block, it independently changes slightly, adding amp; after the ampersand thus breaking the link and voiding it. See below the link that was pasted into the block...
https://golearn.sheffield.gov.uk/learn/course/616/leadership-style-matrix?generated_by=13090&hash=e4978972e60e274273acdb1db39841e66e0d5105 in order to fix this, we are going through and deleting the amp; within the links is so tedious but hopefully it will work!
Hi Olivia!
Thanks so much for bringing this up, Erica! I'm noticing the same thing from my side where the URL shows
&in place of the&. However, clicking on the button, it correctly takes me to the correct URL (with the&). Can you verify if you are experiencing the same behavior?We've shared this with our Engineering team, and we'll reach out to you again if we get any updates on this behavior!
So, in my experience, it takes me to the correct link, but once the course was published to our LMS our users were not being sent to the correct link and instead were taken to an error 403 page...
Thanks for responding to this...
Hi Olivia!
I created a simple course with a button block that links to the webpage you linked above. I published it for LMS and hosted it on SCORM Cloud, an LMS testing tool. On SCORM Cloud, the button leads to the correct website, not a 403 page.
Could you please test these two links below and let me know if the button block works for you?
Hello, thank you so much for this- yes the button link works for me, but I still don't undertsand what is going on at my end when I am creating the button and copy the link into the button stack settings, it automatically adds & whenever i paste! this then 'breaks' the link and it isn't usable for the learners. However, when i copy and paste the link into a text block and hyper link it, & is not added and therefore the link is fine...?
I'm sorry those button links still aren't working, Olivia! If you'd like us to have a closer look, we'd love to connect with you in a case here. We can privately work with your content and see if it's an issue with where you're hosting the course.
