How to add a Hyperlink to a template notebook

Question

I have a template notebook that I'd like to substitute a string, but the string could possibly contain a Hyperlink.

Here is an example template notebook:

---

I create a hyperlink to a help page with:

Hyperlink["Association", "ref/Association"]

That creates the hyperlinked text which I then paste into the GenerateDocument command.

GenerateDocument["testingTemplateNB.nb",
  <|
    "aString" -> "This is a string with a link to an Association"
  |>
 ]

The word "Association" is the hyperlink.

But when I generate the notebook from the template, it doesn't make the hyperlink. This is the text that is generated:

This is a string with a link to an \!\(\*TemplateBox[{"\"Association\"",{"\!\(\*Cell[TextData[ButtonBox[\"ref/Association\",BaseStyle->\"ExampleLink\",ButtonData->\"CellID\"]]]\)", None},"\!\(\*Cell[TextData[ButtonBox[\"ref/Association\",BaseStyle->\"ExampleLink\",ButtonData->\"CellID\"]]]\)"},"HyperlinkDefault"]\)

How do I put a link into a notebook generated from a template?

Answer 1

Hyperlinks in text cells are an inline cells with standard form. I don't see how to pass this via notebook template slot (together with regular text for that cell). TextData can be a list but as soon as you put something else than _String to the template slot, it will end up a standard form as a whole.

So here is another alternative:

Create new Input cell with:

Then set the behavior to "Evaluate and delete".

Now you can run:

printTextCell[textData : _List | _String, style_: "Text"] := NotebookWrite[
   EvaluationNotebook[], 
   Cell[
     TextData[ 
       textData // Replace[#, std : Except[_String] :> Cell@BoxData@ToBoxes@std, {1}] & 
     ],
     style
   ]
];

GenerateDocument[nb,
  <| 
     "aString" -> {
       "This is a string with a link to an ",  Hyperlink["Association", "ref/Association"]
     }
  |>
]