Is it possible to add an HTML link in the body of a MAILTO link [duplicate]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/247245

Question

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I have not had to mess with mailto links much. However I now need to add a link in the body of a mailto if it is possible.

Is there a way to add a link or to change the email opened to an html email vs a text email?

Something like:

<a href="mailto:test@test.test?body=The message's first paragraph.%0A%0aSecond paragraph.%0A%0AThird Paragraph.%0A%0ALink goes here">Link text goes here</a>
Was it helpful?

Solution

Section 2 of RFC 2368 says that the body field is supposed to be in text/plain format, so you can't do HTML.

However even if you use plain text it's possible that some modern mail clients would render a URL as a clickable link anyway, though.

OTHER TIPS

Add the full link, with:

 "http://"

to the beginning of a line, and most decent email clients will auto-link it either before sending, or at the other end when receiving.

For really long urls that will likely wrap due to all the parameters, wrap the link in a less than/greater than symbol. This tells the email client not to wrap the url.

e.g.

  <http://www.example.com/foo.php?this=a&really=long&url=with&lots=and&lots=and&lots=of&prameters=on_it>

It isn't possible as far as I can tell, since a link needs HTML, and mailto links don't create an HTML email.

This is probably for security as you could add javascript or iframes to this link and the email client might open up the end user for vulnerabilities.

Please check below javascript in IE. Don't know if other modern browser will work or not.

<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            function OpenOutlookDoc(){
                try {

                    var outlookApp = new ActiveXObject("Outlook.Application");
                    var nameSpace = outlookApp.getNameSpace("MAPI");
                    mailFolder = nameSpace.getDefaultFolder(6);
                    mailItem = mailFolder.Items.add('IPM.Note.FormA');
                    mailItem.Subject="a subject test";
                    mailItem.To = "an@email.here";
                    mailItem.HTMLBody = "<b>bold</b>";
                    mailItem.display (0); 
                }
                catch(e){
                    alert(e);
                    // act on any error that you get
                }
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <a href="javascript:OpenOutlookDoc()">Click</a>
    </body>
</html>

Here's what I put together. It works on the select mobile device I needed it for, but I'm not sure how universal the solution is 

<a href="mailto:me@me.com?subject=Me&body=%3Chtml%20xmlns%3D%22http:%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxhtml%22%3E%3C%2Fhead%3E%3Cbody%3EPlease%20%3Ca%20href%3D%22http:%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%22%3Eclick%3C%2Fa%3E%20me%3C%2Fbody%3E%3C%2Fhtml%3E">

The specification for 'mailto' body says:

The body of a message is simply lines of US-ASCII characters. The only two limitations on the body are as follows:

  • CR and LF MUST only occur together as CRLF; they MUST NOT appear independently in the body.
  • Lines of characters in the body MUST be limited to 998 characters, and SHOULD be limited to 78 characters, excluding the CRLF.

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5322#section-2.3

Generally nowadays most email clients are good at autolinking, but not all do, due to security concerns. You can likely find some work-arounds, but it won't necessarily work universally.

I have implement following it working for iOS devices but failed on android devices

<a  href="mailto:?subject=Your mate might be interested...&body=<div style='padding: 0;'><div style='padding: 0;'><p>I found this on the site I think you might find it interesting.  <a href='@(Request.Url.ToString())' >Click here </a></p></div></div>">Share This</a>
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