Sending JSON Payloads from ADF to Logic Apps — Embedding SAS Links in EmailMessage

I’ve been working on passing a JSON payload from Data Factory into a Logic App that sends emails. The challenge was embedding a SAS URL into the EmailMessage field so recipients could click the link.

Attempts and Issues

1. Anchor Tag with Double Quotes (href="...")

   json

    

   "<a href=\\"https://storage.example.com/file.xlsx\\">File.xlsx</a>"
   

   • Failed: Logic Apps threw JSON parsing errors (unexpected character h).

   • Cause: Escaped quotes (\\") were double-escaped, producing \"https://...\" in the payload.

2. Anchor Tag with Escaped Quotes

   • Tried \\\\\" around the URL.

   • Failed: Email rendered the link as literal text (\"https://...\") instead of a clickable link.

   • Cause: Logic Apps treated the extra backslashes as part of the string.

3. Anchor Tag with Single Quotes (href='...')

   json

    

   "<a href='https://storage.example.com/file.xlsx'>File.xlsx</a>"
   

   • Failed: ADF expression builder flagged parsing errors.

   • Cause: Single quotes conflicted with ADF’s JSON string handling.

4. Raw URL Only (No <a> tag)

   json

    

   "EmailMessage":"Hello Team<br/><br/>Download here:<br/><br/>https://storage.example.com/file.xlsx<br/><br/>Thanks,<br/>Team"
   

   • Success: Email sent successfully, SAS URL appeared as plain text and was clickable in Outlook.

   • Trade-off: No custom link text, but reliable and production-safe.

Final Working Solution

We settled on removing the <a href> tag and sending the raw SAS URL directly. This avoids JSON escaping issues and ensures the link is clickable in most email clients:

{
  "EmailTo": "[email protected]",
  "PipelineName": "Sample Pipeline",
  "EmailMessage": "Hello Team<br/><br/>File ready for download:<br/><br/>https://storage.example.com/file.xlsx<br/><br/>Thank You<br/>Automation Team",
  "Subject": "Automated SAS Download",
  "EmailCC": "[email protected]"
}

Question for the Community

Has anyone found a reliable way to embed a proper <a href> clickable link inside the EmailMessage field when sending JSON from ADF to Logic Apps, without breaking the JSON parser?