Automatically open default email client and pre-populate content

javascript mailto
Thomas Buckley picture Thomas Buckley · Nov 5, 2012 · Viewed 125.1k times · Source

I need to automatically open a user's default email client when they save some content on a page. I need to populate the email subject, to address, and put some content in the email body.

What is the best option to achieve this?

I'm aware of the mailto: attribute, but the user must click on this and I'm not sure it allows you to specifiy the subject and content?

Answer

jsalonen picture jsalonen · Nov 5, 2012

As described by RFC 6068, mailto allows you to specify subject and body, as well as cc fields. For example:

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Subject&body=message%20goes%20here

User doesn't need to click a link if you force it to be opened with JavaScript

window.location.href = "mailto:[email protected]?subject=Subject&body=message%20goes%20here";

Be aware that there is no single, standard way in which browsers/email clients handle mailto links (e.g. subject and body fields may be discarded without a warning). Also there is a risk that popup and ad blockers, anti-virus software etc. may silently block forced opening of mailto links.

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