Retrieving images and QR codes from Glide

[Wayne_S]

Hey

I have generated QR codes in Glide. I now need to email them out. If insert the QR code into an email action, it just spits out the code.

How do I retrieve the image and send?

I’m thinking of using the Rich Text field for the body of the email, but it still isn’t clear how I would insert the QR code into the rich text.

Would also like to know how to do this with images uploaded. They don’t seem to be saved anywhere accessible?

Is there a way to insert a field in between text like you would with a variable in code?

Failing this, how would I push the QR code out via Make. Is there a link hidden somewhere to the QR code?

[Joe_Gabriele]

I know the native QR image doesnt allow to be exported, only displayed in the app itself. I had to resort to using Cloudinary to create a QR code link that when shared, is displayed as an image. I have since then switched to Rebrandly for link click stats, but if you dont need that then Cloudinary will work just find for you. Just requires a Temp column

[Wayne_S]

Humm well that’s disappointing! Cloudinary will add to much additional cost unfortunately.

I’ll either need to use Make or maybe deep link to the QR code in the app.

[Jeff_Hager]

Quick chart does QR codes too. Just pass the value as a query parameter, and the result will be an image.

QR Code API | QuickChart

Really you can use any service that renders a QR code. There’s nothing special to them other than being a coded visual representation of text.

[Wayne_S]

Thanks Jeff - think I’ll just email out the deep link and have the QR code in the app, seem to be the quickest way for now

[Joe_Gabriele]

Yea thats actually who I meant, Quickcharts! And its free to do

[Monj]

This is totally awesome. Just the solution I needed. Thanks

[Darren_Murphy]

You don’t need to use Quickcharts any more. Glide has its own native column for generating QR codes:

[Jeff_Hager]

But can you aquire a url for the image to use it outside of Glide? I think that was the original problem with the native QR code column.

[Darren_Murphy]

ah, good point. I missed that.

Although, I believe you can use the generated QR code in a template, or write it into a text type column, and you’ll get a data:image/... URI that could be used elsewhere.

[Monj]

@Darren_Murphy, Just like this post author. I was looking for the image url to add to my html email and could find a way to do that from within Gllde.

Can you show me an example of what you eluded about data:image/…?

Thank you.

[Darren_Murphy]

It can be used with an HTML <img> tag.

eg: <img src="data:image/.....">

[Monj]

First question, so adding the QR Code column value will pass the url.

Second question, I need to pass the url to MAKE to send the email. Will this work too. How will I do this?

[Darren_Murphy]

@Monj

First question, so adding the QR Code column value will pass the url.

Not sure what you are asking there. Adding a QR Code column gives you a QR Code.

@Monj

Second question, I need to pass the url to MAKE to send the email. Will this work too. How will I do this?

You can do it in any number of ways. Send Email action, webhook to Make/Zapier, one of the Email integrations. Do it in whichever way works best for your use case.

[Monj]

I was referring to “It can be used with an HTML <img> tag. eg: <img src="data:image/.....">”

My question was, what column do I add here for the “data:image/…”. Because, what I am trying to get is the image url or get it to display the QR Code image in the email. I am a bit confused. So a little more descriptive explanation on how to do this would be helpful.

[Darren_Murphy]

@Monj

My question was, what column do I add here for the “data:image/…”. Because, what I am trying to get is the image url or get it to display the QR Code image in the email.

A template column will work.

You might even find that you can use the QR Code directly, if you’re inserting it into an email. Have you tried that?

[Monj]

I tried to insert it into at template used for the html image tag for email and got garbage data. No URL was present to create the image.

[Darren_Murphy]

It’s not garbage, it’s an svg/xml representation of the QR Code.

Your template column should look something like the following:

And then you would send that as the body of an email.

However - it does appear that not all email clients support URI encoded images. I just did a quick test and it appears that Gmail (for example) does not. So after all this, you might be back to having to use something like quickchart, which will give you an actual URL that can be used.

[Monj]

I did exactly that but sent it through Microsoft email and it did not work.

I have to say that using Quickcharts as below worked like a champ.

<img src = "https: // quickchart.io /qr?text=https://DOMAIN-NAME/dl/51429a/?ID=M-o2OeuoQsCNVzbViEVYuW&format=png&size=320">

[Let_sBrand_Today]

@Darren_Murphy

Create a split column and make the separator a | “Pipe” those don’t appear to be a part of the link. From there make a single value column and target that split column t gain access to the url. It’s an .SVG.