MailTo From Javascript

Question

I've got a link button which is used to build up a mailto from the contents of the page. What is the best way to launch it from javascript without opening a blank window or disturbing the window it's called from?

function Email()
{
    var sMailTo = "mailto:";
    var sBody = "";

    var alSelectedCheckboxes = new Array();
    $("input:checkbox[CheckBoxType=Email]:checked").each(function()
    {
        alSelectedCheckboxes.push($(this).val());
    });

    if (alSelectedCheckboxes.length > 0)
    {
        for (var i=0; i<alSelectedCheckboxes.length; i++)
        {
            sBody += alSelectedCheckboxes[i];
            sBody += "\n";
        }

        sMailTo += escape("<Insert Recipients Here>") +"?subject=" +escape("<Insert Subject Here>") +"&body=" +escape(sBody);
        window.location.href = sMailTo;
    }
    else
    {
        alert("Please select some results");
    }
}

The simple function is above. window.location.href doesn't work properly unless it's Firefox/Chrome (it redraws the page in IE8). I've also tried window.open(sMailTo, "_self") but again in IE8 this breaks the page that it's called from.

I'm sure this is a stupid question.... :-)

Thanks

Answer 1

I don't think it's stupid at all! This is a good start. What I'd try next is just to create an actual link object in jquery, append it to the body, and then click() it.

//window.location.href = sMailTo;
$('<a href="' + sMailTo + '">click</a>').appendTo('body').click().remove();

Should work as long as the escape() function you're using gets rid of all of the quotes and correctly encodes the html.

But I have to say, this could be hard to get just right. If it still doesn't work, I'd recommend doing it server-side where the link POSTS all of the html needed.