Javascript in emails being stripped

[Simon Wigzell]

A client of mine has long used HTML format emails to promote his business,
always to existing clients and contacts, not as spam. They have become more
sophisticated over time adding javascript most recently to do mouseovers and
image swapping. We are finding increasingly that some recipients are unable
to see the effects and looking at their versions of the emails I see that
the javascript code has been stripped out presumably by anti
spam/virus/trojan software at the recipients end of things. Is this to be a
growing trend? Should we just forget about embedding fancy javascript
effects in our promotional emails? Any links to more information about this
would be appreciated.

So now not only are spam and viruses ruining the internet experience but so
are the measures being taken against it...
Thanks.

 

[John W. Kennedy]

A client of mine has long used HTML format emails to promote his business,
always to existing clients and contacts, not as spam. They have become more
sophisticated over time adding javascript most recently to do mouseovers and
image swapping. We are finding increasingly that some recipients are unable
to see the effects and looking at their versions of the emails I see that
the javascript code has been stripped out presumably by anti
spam/virus/trojan software at the recipients end of things. Is this to be a
growing trend? Should we just forget about embedding fancy javascript
effects in our promotional emails? Any links to more information about this
would be appreciated.

So now not only are spam and viruses ruining the internet experience but so
are the measures being taken against it...

I turned off JavaScript on e-mail back when I was still running Netscape
4. THere are too many spammers who use it to pop up windows (or even
unbreakable cycles of pop-ups).

In fact, if a sender isn't in my address book, HTML mail won't even show
images.

/If/ Thunderbird were to offer a JavaScript-in-mail whitelist feature, I
would consider using it.

---
John W. Kennedy
"You can, if you wish, class all science-fiction together; but it is
about as perceptive as classing the works of Ballantyne, Conrad and W.
W. Jacobs together as the 'sea-story' and then criticizing _that_."
-- C. S. Lewis. "An Experiment in Criticism"

 

[kaeli]

We are finding increasingly that some recipients are unable
to see the effects and looking at their versions of the emails I see that
the javascript code has been stripped out presumably by anti
spam/virus/trojan software at the recipients end of things. Is this to be a
growing trend?

Absolutely. The more spammers and virus writers use script to do malicious
(or even just plain annoying) things, the more people will learn about it and
block script.

Should we just forget about embedding fancy javascript
effects in our promotional emails?

Yes. Anyone with any internet sense at all blocks scripts from mail.
I myself use Thunderbird and even block remote images because of spammers.

The more the people who use the 'net become educated, the less they
blindingly trust their programs to save them from the Evil Intarweb. The
first generation to grow up with computers is pretty much your client base
now, I'd imagine. Stop using scripts. Use CSS for hover effects. If your
users care to see it, they'll turn on HTML mail and allow your images to
show. Always provide BOTH html and text in case a client has specified not to
do html mail at all.

--
--
~kaeli~
She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke
it off.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

 

[Simon Wigzell]

<snip>

I don't think I can do this with CSS:
http://www.mississippiprinting.com/Emails/MenuEmailTemplate.htm

 

[Lee]

Simon Wigzell said:

<snip>

I don't think I can do this with CSS:
http://www.mississippiprinting.com/Emails/MenuEmailTemplate.htm

That actually looks pretty bad in FireFox, so I imagine it would
also look bad in Thunderbird and possibly other email clients.

 

[Simon Wigzell]

Simon Wigzell said:

That actually looks pretty bad in FireFox, so I imagine it would
also look bad in Thunderbird and possibly other email clients.

firefox doesn't like my style, what is wrong with this?

<style>
a.SW {font-family:Arial; font-size=7pt; text-decoration:none;
font-weight:bold; align:center; color:#FFFFFF;}
span.BY {font-family:Arial; font-size=10pt; font-weight:bold; align:center;
color:#FFFF00;}
</style>

The sub menu text should be quite small and fit inside the green area,
firfox is showing it large...SW stands for Small White, BY stands for Big
Yellow.

 

[RobB]

firefox doesn't like my style, what is wrong with this?

<style>
a.SW {font-family:Arial; font-size=7pt; text-decoration:none;
font-weight:bold; align:center; color:#FFFFFF;}
span.BY {font-family:Arial; font-size=10pt; font-weight:bold; align:center;
color:#FFFF00;}
</style>

The sub menu text should be quite small and fit inside the green area,
firfox is showing it large...SW stands for Small White, BY stands for Big
Yellow.

font-size=7pt; ?????
.......
font-size=10pt; ?????

------> : <------

 

[rf]

firefox doesn't like my style, what is wrong with this?

<style>
a.SW {font-family:Arial; font-size=7pt; text-decoration:none;
font-weight:bold; align:center; color:#FFFFFF;}
span.BY {font-family:Arial; font-size=10pt; font-weight:bold; align:center;
color:#FFFF00;}
</style>

Firefox allows the *viewer* to set the font size, effectively ignoring what
the author specifies. Only IE allows you to fix font sizes, untill your IE
viewer exercises their accessibility options that is.

The sub menu text should be quite small and fit inside the green area,

Won't happen. Not with firefox. Not with any non IE browser. Not with any
none microsoft mail client either I suspect.

 

[Mark Preston]

A client of mine has long used HTML format emails ... Is this to be a
growing trend?

Not so much a "growing trend" as almost universal. You are wasting your
time doing it.

 

[kaeli]

firefox doesn't like my style,

Firefox users set their own style. IE users can, too, once they realize
"accessibility" isn't just about having a disability.

--
--
~kaeli~
Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat
stomach.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

 

[John W. Kennedy]

Simon Wigzell said:



That actually looks pretty bad in FireFox, so I imagine it would
also look bad in Thunderbird and possibly other email clients.

Yup. Never, ever mix bitmapped graphics and text.