multiple mailto syntax

[Adam Smith]

How can I set up a mailto with a cc or bcc as well as a subject
designation. The system works for two but not three, is this a hardwired
limit or have I missed something
==>

<a href="mailto:re*******@econ.com?c***********@econ. com?subject=Login
Problems">The Registrar at econ.com</a>

<==

Thanks

-- Adam --

[brucie]

In comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html Adam Smith said:

How can I set up a mailto with a cc or bcc as well as a subject
designation.
use a form and server side script, not a mailto.
The system works

not really. use a form.

--
the facts and opinions expressed by brucies
l i t t l e v o i c e s
are not necessarily the same as those held by brucie.

[Markus Ernst]

Adam Smith wrote:

How can I set up a mailto with a cc or bcc as well as a subject
designation. The system works for two but not three, is this a
hardwired limit or have I missed something
==>

<a href="mailto:re*******@econ.com?c***********@econ. com?subject=Login
Problems">The Registrar at econ.com</a>

<==

There is a mistake in your syntax; the second and following arguments of the
query string should be separated by &amp; instead of ?.

Anyway I share brucie's oppinion that a form and server-side mail script are
a better solution.

--
Markus

[kaeli]

In article <hJ********************@speakeasy.net>, ad*******@econ.com
enlightened us with...

How can I set up a mailto with a cc or bcc as well as a subject
designation. The system works for two but not three, is this a hardwired
limit or have I missed something

You shouldn't use mailto for the internet, especially once you start getting
complicated with cc, bcc, or attachments. It requires a mail client (and one
that understands mailto, which is not standard) on the user side, something
you can't guarantee. A lot of people are using yahoo, hotmail, and gmail
these days (especially with all the security risks with Outlook), plus anyone
who uses school or library computers will be screwed. You'd have to test your
solution with all the prevalent mail clients, including Lotus and Mozilla's
mail client that comes with Firefox. Mac users and Linux users have other
clients, too.
If the mailto fails, you'll never know - it happened on the client.

Take the other people's advice - use a form and a server-side script or at
least provide them as an alternative along with mailto. There are free
services out there that offer formmail if you don't have a server-side
solution yourself.

--
--
~kaeli~
In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

[Lachlan Hunt]

kaeli wrote:

<a href="mailto:re*******@econ.com?c***********@econ. com?subject=Login Problems">The Registrar at econ.com</a>

The problem with this is that the space is not encoded properly and
you've used two question marks, instead of an ampersand. You need to
encode spaces as %20, and in HTML, you need to encode ampersands as
&amp;. Read RFC 2368 [1] for more information. Change the link to:

href="mailto:re*******@econ.com?c***********@econ. com&amp;subject=Login%20Problems"
You shouldn't use mailto for the internet, especially once you start getting
complicated with cc, bcc, or attachments.
It is perfectly acceptable to use mailto: URIs on the internet, that's
what they have been created for! However, RFC 2368 does explicity
mention that UA should ignore bcc headers specified, and said nothing
specific about attachments, but they wouldn't be supported either since
that would give access to the users file system. However, cc is
actually given in an example, so it is perfectly acceptable.
eg.
mailto:jo*@example.com&c*****@example.com

It requires a mail client (and one
that understands mailto, which is not standard)
Well, technically it's still a draft standard, but it's so widely
implemented and supported that it's close enough. Yes, it does require
a mail client, but it's not hard for a user to copy the e-mail address
and paste it in their web mail if required.
You'd have to test your
solution with all the prevalent mail clients, including Lotus and Mozilla's
mail client that comes with Firefox.
There is no mail client that comes with Firefox, but I assume you meant
either the Mozilla Suite or Thunderbird. mailto does work with Mozilla,
Firefox, Opera and IE. Whether or not the user's mail application can
be launched properly by those browsers is irrelevant.
If the mailto fails, you'll never know - it happened on the client.
It's not up to the author to worry about, nor fix broken clients, so
that doesn't matter.
Take the other people's advice - use a form and a server-side script or at
least provide them as an alternative along with mailto.

That's probably a good idea, forms can make it easier and can help
prevent spammers finding your e-mail address, since it doesn't need to
be published. However, if he wants to use a mailto:, he can.

[1] ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2368.txt
--
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/
http://GetFirefox.com/ Rediscover the Web
http://SpreadFirefox.com/ Igniting the Web

[Brian]

Adam Smith wrote:

How can I set up a mailto with a cc or bcc as well as a subject
designation.

You can't. Use a form with http instead. Or provide a mailto: link that
points to a distribution address.

<a href="mailto:st***@example.com">email our staff</a>

And create a staff mailbox that forwards the message to several
recipients, if you have access to a mail server.

--
Brian (remove "invalid" to email me)

[brucie]

In comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html Brian said:

<a href="mailto:st***@example.com">email our staff</a>

<a href="mailto:st***@example.com">st***@example.com</a>

if the visitor doesn't have an email client at least they can write the
email address down for later or copy/paste it into their email client
without having to dig through the source looking for it - assuming they
would even know how and if they did would bother.

--
the facts and opinions expressed by brucies
l i t t l e v o i c e s
are not necessarily the same as those held by brucie.

[Brian]

brucie wrote:

In comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html Brian said:

<a href="mailto:st***@example.com">email our staff</a>

<a href="mailto:st***@example.com">st***@example.com</a>

if the visitor doesn't have an email client at least they can write
the email address down for later or copy/paste it into their email
client without having to dig through the source looking for it

Good point, and in fact what I do on my sites. I almost wrote it that
way, but tried to save space in my example.

BTW, I started doing mailto links that way because a client complained
about sites that did not include the email address in the link text; her
email program did not work with mailto: urls.

--
Brian (remove "invalid" to email me)

[kaeli]

In article <PP******************@news-server.bigpond.net.au>,
sp***********@gmail.com enlightened us with...

It's not up to the author to worry about, nor fix broken clients, so
that doesn't matter.

If the author doesn't care, then I guess he won't worry, will he?
Most of us DO care if people can't get in touch with us.

Take the other people's advice - use a form and a server-side script or at
least provide them as an alternative along with mailto.

That's probably a good idea, forms can make it easier and can help
prevent spammers finding your e-mail address, since it doesn't need to
be published. However, if he wants to use a mailto:, he can.

No one said he couldn't. Only that there are known problems with it. Hey, if
you all want to piss off everyone who doesn't have a client configured with
their browser, or can't get one configured with it (libs, uni, etc), that's
your prerogative.

I can tell you that there are a lot of people out there who are not good at
using the "internet thingy" and not a one of them will bother to try to open
their web mail in a new window and paste an e-mail addy in there. My parents
are prime examples - they surf plenty, but they have no clue what a mail
client IS, much less anything more complicated.
Not everyone is a computer geek.

If you use only mailto and don't provide a form, then you lose users. Maybe a
few; maybe many. Depends on your client base.
That's certainly up to you to decide if you care about them or not.
I care about ALL my users.

Take care.

--
--
~kaeli~
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they
taste funny?
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

[Adam Smith]

Thanks Gang!
A lively discussion and plenty food for thought, think I'll go for forms
& escape the stammers.

Thanks again

-- Adam --

Adam Smith wrote:

[Adam Smith]

Thanks Gang!
A lively discussion and plenty food for thought, think I'll go for forms
& escape the spammers.

Thanks again

-- Adam --

Adam Smith wrote: