mailto links in Gmail

Question

I've encountered a problem with Gmail's web application. For some reason, the mailto links doesn't work when I try to add the body into the link. The links works fine as long as the & separator for the body is not used.

For example:

href="mailto:?subject=test&body=this is a test" - Doesn't work

href="mailto:?subject=testbody=this is a test" - Does work but, obviously, it doesn't generate the desired result as everything goes to the subject.

I am running Vista 64bit and I've tried FF, Chrome and IE. Also, I've noticed a difference between how Gmail renders my mail in my Gmail account and Google Apps account.

When i view the same email on my iPhone & Outlook everything seems to work fine.

Any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

The Full mailto Link Syntax For Cross Browser

<a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=subject&[email protected]">mail link</a>

Here are the variables you can use in mailto links:

mailto: to set the recipient, or recipients, separate with comma

&cc= to set the CC recipient(s)

&bcc= to set the BCC recipient(s)

&subject= to set the email subject, URL encode for longer sentences, so replace spaces with %20, etc.

&body= to set the body of the message, you can add entire sentences here, including line breaks. Line breaks should be converted to %0A.

Some mailto link examples

<a href="mailto:[email protected][email protected]&[email protected]&subject=Subject Using Mailto.co.uk&body=Email Using Body">Email-Link</a>

Multiple Recipients:

<a href="mailto:[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]">Contact Us</a> 

Online Generation Link : http://www.mailto.co.uk/

Answer 2

I can get everything to populate on the gmail interface using their full url:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&[email protected]&subject=MISSED%20CALL%20EZTRADER&body=Hello%2C%0A%0AI%20tried%20contacting%20you%20today%20but%20you%20seem%20to%20have%20missed%20my%20call.%20%0A%0APlease%20return%20my%20call%20as%20soon%20as%20you%E2%80%99re%20available.%20%0A%0AIn%20any%20case%2C%20I%20will%20try%20ringing%20you%20at%20a%20later%20time.%0A%0A%0ATy%2C%0A%0A%0A%0A

But I still can't get the subject line to populate. I am still investigating, if anyone has an answer or knows the gmail encoding ref on the url for it?

Answer 3

dude , even if I didn't encoding '&', however I replace followings characters, and then pass the email body and subject to mailto, it does work for me. Hope this may brings you some ideas.

body = body.replaceAll("\\\\", "%5C");
body = body.replaceAll(" ", "%20");
body = body.replaceAll("\r", "%0D");
body = body.replaceAll("\n", "%0A");
body = body.replaceAll("\t", "%09");