October 4, 2000 - Extending the mailto: URL | WebReference

October 4, 2000 - Extending the mailto: URL

Yehuda Shiran October 4, 2000
Extending the mailto: URL
Tips: October 2000

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

The mailto: URL lets you preformat a message by supplying the address of the party you're sending a message to, the subject,
who should be copied (cc) or blind-copied (bcc), and the body of the message. The simplest, most common use of the mailto: URL
is to specify the address where the message should be sent:: 

mailto:[email protected]
When embedded in an HTML tag, it looks like this:

<A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">send Doc JavaScript a note</A>

If you want to specify other properties of the mail message, you can add them to the URL as name/value pairs (name=value). Each
property name is followed by an equal sign and a value. The list of name/value pairs is separated from the email address by a question
mark (?). Name/Value pairs are separated from each other by an ampersand (&):

mailto:[email protected][email protected]&[email protected]&subject=Your Tips

and in HTML code:

<A HREF="mailto:[email protected][email protected]&[email protected]&subject=Your Tips">
Your Feedback is Always Appreciated.</A>

Your Feedback is Always Appreciated.

On Mac, IE has difficulties in parsing the bcc parameter and appends it to the cc value. When you click on the above link, for example,
the cc address will show up on the new mail window as [email protected]&bcc. Avoid the bcc parameter on this system/browser
combination.

This tip is not relevant to Lotus Notes (the address field is OK).