Special Notes on the Mailto: argument


	Special Notes on the Mailto: argument

Mailto: with a subject line

This subject, as with all the content of the Compendium, is open for discussion. If your results are different from those noted below, let me know. I will need to know the specifics of your installation so be detailed.

There is always a question in the newsgroups about how to handle this one. If you choose to use one of these methods, be prepared for possible funny things to happen. Some of the older browsers will quite litterally lock up when trying some of these methods. The biggest culprit is the "?subject=" that is supported by Netscape. It works well with Netscape but MSIE's older browsers didn't like it at all. Recently, I received a message from a reader who had done some experimentation. I duplicated the experiments but had different results. He was using MSIE 3.0, Netscape 3.01 and Lynx for Windows '95. I tried the experiments below with Netscape 4.0 and MSIE 4.0 preview release.

Note: Netscape and Mosaic are the only browsers that actually supported this type of use. There is nothing to ensure that any method will work reliably with all browsers.

There is a draft proposal penned by Paul Hoffman that is available at:

Method #1 - ?subject=...
<a href="mailto:user@domain?subject=subject line here"
Please fill in your own address.
4.0
The message doesn't get there - MSIE passed on "?subject=..." as part of the address and the mail server choked and sent it back.
4.0
The message gets there with the subject line complete just as one hopes it would.

Method #2 - TITLE=...
<a href="mailto:user@domain" TITLE="Webmail about...">
Please fill in your own address.
This originated with Mosaic and with that browser it worked nicely. However, it never really gained much support from others.
4.0
the message got there but the 'title="...' didn't. It got dumped.
4.0
The message got there but the 'title="...' didn't. It got dumped.

Method #3 - %20(...
<A HREF="mailto:user@domain%20(Webmail%20about%20some%20subject)">
Please fill in your own address.
This one doesn't complete the subject line but if you must then this is a possibility. Typically it will put the information that you would want in the subject line, as part of the address. It should arrive looking something like those e-mail addresses that have the person's name beside it.
It should look something like this...
To: user@domain (Webmail about some subject)
Use only alphanumeric characters and " $ - _ . + ! * ' ( ) , ", To encode other characters, use the percent sign "%" followed by the hexadecimal ASCII equivalent.
4.0
the message got there, The subject line wasn't complete but the text "Webmail about some subject" was put in the address line.
4.0
The message got there. The subject line wasn't complete but the text "Webmail about some subject" was put in the address line.

Method #4 - Multiple e-mail addresses

This is easy. List your recipients and separate each with a comma.

So much for easy, now the truth. Several experiments were run — sometimes multiple addresses worked and other times the only thing received was the first address. The rules are the same as above. Further, if your reader is using an older browser, you may not get the message(s) at all or worse yet, it could crash his browser. If you must use this, consider your poor reader.
If they are using MSIE 3.x, Method #1, above may crash their system,
Method #2, the "title=..." will be thrown away with MSIE and Netscape.
Method #3 will get the information there but the result will not be as desired, the subject will be on the address line.
<a href="mailto:name@domain.com%20(subject%20 text),name@domain.com%20(subject%20 text)">
Please fill in your own addresses.
4.0
The messages got there, The subject line wasn't complete but the text "Webmail about some subject" was put in the address line.
4.0
The messages got there. The subject line wasn't complete but the text "Webmail about some subject" was put in the address line.