Outlook 2007 and mailto: URLs with attachment

[Carl Houseman]

With Outlook 2003 running on Windows XP and IE6, the following syntax in a
webpage worked to include a local file as an attachment in the message:

<a href='mailto:[email protected]?subject=Some subjectl&body=Body
text.&attachment=""C:\path\filename""'>Click here</a>

Now trying to make the same work under Outlook 2007, Vista SP1. When
clicked, Outlook 2007 responds:

"The command line argument is not valid. Verify the switch you are using."

Bug or feature?

Carl

 

[Diane Poremsky {MVP}]

I've never used that method so I don't know what syntax you need to make a
url work, but I do know a windows sendto shortcut requires the /a switch as
part of the command.
http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2007/20071221.htm









** Please include your Outlook version, Account type, and Windows Version
when requesting assistance **

 

[F.H. Muffman]

With Outlook 2003 running on Windows XP and IE6, the following syntax

in a webpage worked to include a local file as an attachment in the
message:

<a href='mailto:[email protected]?subject=Some subjectl&body=Body
text.&attachment=""C:\path\filename""'>Click here</a>

Now trying to make the same work under Outlook 2007, Vista SP1. When
clicked, Outlook 2007 responds:

"The command line argument is not valid. Verify the switch you are
using."

Bug or feature?

Hmm. Interesting. I didn't even realize that would have ever worked. I
mean, 'attachment' isn't a valid field according to the mailto URL format
RFC (ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2368.txt). Does it work with other,
non-Microsoft clients? If I had to say it was a bug vs. a feature, I'd say
it's a little of both. The 'bug' would have been that they added a feature
to an RFC. They fixed the 'bug' by removing a feature.

Now, if you can show me an RFC that mentions the 'attachment' field as valid,
then I'd say it's a bug and you should probably call Microsoft to get it
fixed.

 

[Carl Houseman]

You're probably right. More than likely MS removed an extension that was
never documented.

Now I need to find another way to do the same thing, i.e. have a web page
loaded from a (intranet) server launch Outlook with a mail message filled
out and local file attached and ready to click send.

Carl

 

[Dan Wavell]

Hi Carl,

Have you got anywhere with this? Am trying desperately to solve exactly the same issue for an intranet system I'm building at the moment...and to possibly make this one worse they have a mixture of Outlook 2000,XP,2003 & 2007!!

Any words of wisdom would be great!

Thanks

Dan

 

[Carl Houseman]

You're not going to care too much for my words of wisdom. I abandoned the
web page, rewrote it into an .hta that's automatically downloaded and runs
on the user's machine. The .hta's script does the E-mail sending via
standard Outlook COM object.

Carl