Action to Format Data as HTML Table

Hi -
I find myself doing this specific task regularly (converting the output data to an HTML Table). Is it feasible to add this as a feature request to convert the output data to an HTML table?

Reference:

I must be the only one :thinking:

Hi Adam,

you’re definitely not only one who would like a better way to generate HTML. I’m in this boat too :slight_smile: and there surely are more people who need it.

At this point, I can’t wrap my head around how such an action should work. Clearly there are two distinct needs: 1) to generate either an HTML snippet (i.e. just part of HTML without html/header/body elements etc.), or 2) generate a full HTML document (with html/header/body elements etc) by composing it from snippets.

Also, the HTML format is hierarchical, while EM deals mostly with tabular data. We’ve had very good success with the “Construct JSON” action that allows relatively simple constructing complex JSONs of any structure from tabular datasets, just by consequently applying it in a certain way. I would envision “Construct HTML” working in a similar way. However, the HTML format is more particular (elements can have classes, IDs, etc) so it’s not clear how it should work. Ideally, the action should allow composing complex HTML documents from blocks (snippets) pre-generated by the same action.

Suggestions are welcome.

Yes, this makes sense. However, I’m an extreme HTML novice so my needs may be different than others. I’ll share my main goal for context for all.

In EM I generate tabular data and export to excel and send it out. However, knowing many will not actually open it, I try to provide the summary data withing the email.

Essentially I’m following the referenced notes above but using 2 parameters

A) Here is Text That describes the information or relevant info
B) HTML Table

image

While not an “overally” HTML solution, it would be a cool step to do “Convert to HTML Table” Action

It would be interesting to see what others are doing here, especially concepts that are more advanced.