Email tool sending garbage chars when sending to a text cell phone service

[AndyatFord]

Hi all -

Using Email tool to send a message to a cell phone via text. IE 2225551212@txt.att.net. The texts come across as expected but it looks like each new line is filled with 3 or more upside down ? and a few other characters.

Building the input to the email tool using the "Report Text Tool" as recommended. Image below:

Do I need some kind of Newline character?

Here is a sample of the resulting text from the cell phone:

FRM:giarpt@ford.com

SUBJ:Advisory Alert

MSG:¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿Advisory ID: 10514¿¿¿Date: 2017-09-26¿¿¿Comm Type: High¿¿¿Advisory Type:

(Con't) 2 of 3

Update¿¿¿BCA: A¿¿¿Application: SAP North America aΔ¿ Supply Chain (SCM) aΔ¿ (FCSD/20179)¿¿¿Business Impact: Under

(Con't) 3 of 3

investigation¿¿¿Contact: ¿¿¿(End)

Thanks!!

[AmeliaG]

Hi @AndyatFord,

Thanks for your question! I'm not sure exactly what is causing the error, but it seems to be the new line character based on the placement of the question marks. I would test again, but this time replace the new line characters (return) with a comma. 

Hope this helps!

Amelia

[AndyatFord]

Thanks for the quick response Amelia but after adding commas after each field the upside down ? are still appearing. What is the NEWLINE sequence? I can try inserting that after each field.

[AmeliaG · Accepted solution]

Hi @AndyatFord,

In your text box did you put all the text on the same line? The new line characters are not visible but exist when you hit the 'enter' key to type text on the next line. You text box should look like:

Category1: value1, category2: value2, category3: value3

Did you make this change and still see the ? marks?

Thanks!

Amelia

[AndyatFord]

Amelia thanks so much! That worked except there are still a few upside down question marks at the beginning and end of the text message. I don't know if this is a function of the carrier (AT&T in this case) or an issue with the email build.

Andy

[AndyatFord]

Ok...it looks like the managers that are receiving these txt alerts don't like the upside down ?.

Here is an image of the txt message (see attached). The 6 bad characters appear after the SUBJECT and 1 bad char at the end.

When same message is sent to an email account (Outlook) all is well. When I send an email from Outlook to the phone as a text message all is also good.

What character sequence is Alteryx using to insert between the SUBJECT and BODY of the text message. This problem is the same regardless of phone carrier.

Thanks,

Andy

[tishalampkins]

I am also having this same problem with the upside down ? in the text message body between Subj and Msg, and at the very end of the email body. Any direction would be appreciated!

[tishalampkins]

Hi @AndyatFord ,

I submitted a ticket to Alteryx for this same issue, and they helped me solve it by using only the Email Tool. If you drop the Report Tool and Layout tool (if using) and connect directly to the Email Tool, it will get rid of the unwanted ???. Unfortunately, I don't think you can select your available fields within the body using only the Email Tool. But for me, I made it work without needing to use a field within the cell phone body text.

Hopefully this helps!

Tisha