Win8/WinRT - How to add line breaks in email body

Question

In my Windows 8 Store app, I have a Send Email button on a page and users are able to click it and send us an email for some general enquiries.

I need to pre-load some text in the email body but I can't seem to add line breaks to it. I tried Environment.NewLine and "\r\n". None of them works.

var mailto = new Uri("mailto:[email protected]&subject=Hello world&body=Hi," + Environment.NewLine + "Can you please ..."); 
await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(mailto);

When I run it, I get "Hi,Can you please...". The line break is omitted.

Answer 1

Try using "%0d%0a" as your line break, as in

"Hi,%0d%0aCan you please..."

That's a URL-encoded ASCII CR/LF sequence. That works for me for the built-in Mail app but you don't have any particular guarantee that it would work for any arbitrary mail app that the user might install in the future.

Answer 2

The reason it doesn't work is because you're launching a Uri, Uris require that their contents be UrlEncoded / UrlEncodable. In the case of Environment.Newline etc you'd get an invalid Uri.

You can counter this by UrlEncoding the Environment Newline like this:

System.Net.WebUtility.UrlEncode(Environment.NewLine)