Andrew said:
I've seen no such solid advice as you say exists.
http://www.isolani.co.uk/articles/mailto.html
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&q=mailto+broken&meta=group=comp.lang.javascript
might be interesting reading.
Sure it can. You mean you can not assume that somebody using a browser
is also using and email client?!? I bet more people use email than
browsers.
Yes, it means I can not assume that a browser has a default email client
associated with it. IE6 on WinXP - straight out of the box - has NO
email client associated with it. *none*. Every time I click a mailto:
link in IE, it asks me if I want to install Outlook Express and
associate it. Sorry, I would rather have a root canal done through my
rectum than install the POS. And I get that effect because the unknowing
"web guru" thinks its the "best way" to send an email. Its not.
Why do you have no email client configured? That's extremely odd. You
say that all you haven is IE6 and you do all of your email through
that?!? You're user agent here says Mozilla/5.0. Last I checked Mozilla
not only does email (quite well mind you) but installs such that the
default email client is indeed configured. Therefore mailto links work.
My user agent for news is indeed Mozilla. I use it strictly for the News
Agent and Browsing, *not* email. But granted, its probably because I
have never had the time, nor inclination, to sit and go through the
setup, learn all its vulnerabilities, how to fix them, and then use it.
But when I installed Mozilla, it did *not* configure the email section.
I stopped it because when I installed it, my email was configured
through a web-based application (via Flash) that is used by Comcast
Cable. In fact, the *only* way for me to send email from that address is
through that application. It can't even be configured for Mozilla (not
that I want to).
But you still have not addressed the question. How do you propose to
write a link that when clicked will open the Comcast site, log me in,
and open the compose mail flash app, and then fill it out?
Also, I didn't say thats all I have. I was giving my IE6 configuration,
for you to explain to me how you intend for a mailto: link to work in
that configuration.
If you want, I can also give you the configuration of the PC's on the
intranet that I work on all day. Every one of them is running Windows XP
(some have SP2, some don't), but not a single one has an email client
installed.
Or have you purposely turned that off such that you don't use Mozilla to
do email (but do use it to respond to this newsgroup?!?). If you have
purposely turned it off because you deliberately wish to disable it then
you are also explicitly saying that you don't want mailto links to work.
I am not "explicitly saying" anything, I am declining to setup more of a
browser combination that I have a need for. I didn't do it that way to
"break mailto links", I did it that way because its the way *I* wanted
it. Not the way some web guru thinks, or needs, it to be set up so
his/her unreliable mailto: links will work.
If that be the case then there should be no surprise to you that they
don't.
It didn't surprise me *before* set it up that way. But to be fair, I
will quote code on the MSDN site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/networking/predefined/mailto.asp
<A HREF="mailto:
[email protected]?
subject=Feedback&
body=The%20InetSDK%20Site%20Is%20Superlative">
Click here to send feedback to the InetSDK.</A>
I can tell you, from testing, what that link does in AOL. Can you guess?
Also, you are assuming that a user has not done the reverse and decided
that emailing is OK but browsing is wrong and had disabled his browser,
in which case browser based form email will not work.
If they are using email and not browsing, that is there choice. I don't
really care. But mailto: on an internet site is *unreliable*. But, if
they have, how in the world do you think a mailto: link would work, on a
website, for someone that has disabled the browser??????
Look, mailto links are exactly for sending email and that's why the
named it that.
I never said that wasn't the intended purpose of a mailto: link, I said
"They do not work *reliably*" with "reliably" being the key word there.