Why does "amp;" get added to my chat text, when I send a URL which includes "&" in my chat message?
Environment:
Chat Agent Workspace, Chat Transcript
B2C Service Chat, All versions
Resolution:
When acting as a chat agent, you may send a URL to a chat end-user.
The agent console has a button on it "Render as HTML" or possibly "Render as link" (in English). When this button is checked and the chat agent sends a URL, the text will be interpreted as HTML where possible, and it will formatted correctly as a hyperlink. This screenshot, below, shows the "Render as HTML" check box in the chat agent console, in an English interface:
When this "Render as HTML" box is left unchecked and the agent then sends a URL, it will be sent as "text." That means, there is (1) no URL formatting, plus, (2) if characters are recognized as HTML, then those characters will be converted to their HTML special-character equivalents. Some HTML special-characters and their equivalents are:
'>' --> >
'<' --> <
'&' --> &
This shows how "amp" may be added to text when including the "&" character in chat text.
