How does mailto really work?

  • Thread starter Thread starter clintonG
  • Start date Start date
C

clintonG

Example:
<a href="mailto:[email protected]>Send Mail</a>

I've been trying to find documentation via W3 and the RFCs but I have
yet to find documentation that explains how a click event on an anchor
tag can launch a client-side e-mail program and populate its To: field
with an e-mail address.

I've found RFCs that briefly describe mailto but they fail to describe
the actual mechanism that enables the functionality.

Comments? Documentation?

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET csgallagher@ REMOVETHISTEXT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/
 
clintonG,

You aren't going to find any. This is an implementation detail that is
left to the actual client viewing the HTML. It just has to be able to
understand the protocol that is used in the URL, and then perform an action
based on that.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for commenting Nick. Maybe more to be said later...

<%= Clinton Gallagher




Nicholas Paldino said:
clintonG,

You aren't going to find any. This is an implementation detail that is
left to the actual client viewing the HTML. It just has to be able to
understand the protocol that is used in the URL, and then perform an action
based on that.

Hope this helps.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)


Example:
<a href="mailto:[email protected]>Send Mail</a>

I've been trying to find documentation via W3 and the RFCs but I have
yet to find documentation that explains how a click event on an anchor
tag can launch a client-side e-mail program and populate its To: field
with an e-mail address.

I've found RFCs that briefly describe mailto but they fail to describe
the actual mechanism that enables the functionality.

Comments? Documentation?

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET csgallagher@ REMOVETHISTEXT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for the reference to the article Daniel. It was most helpful
to identify the correct terminology, i.e. "pluggable protocol" that I
can
now also Google.

About Asynchronous Pluggable Protocols
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...op/networking/pluggable/overview/overview.asp

<excerpt>
About Pluggable Protocols
Internet Explorer uses two mechanisms for registering new URL protocol
handlers. The first method is to register a URL protocol and its
associated
application so that all attempts to navigate to a URL using that
protocol
launch the application (for example, registering applications to handle
mailto: or URLs). The second method uses the Asynchronous
Pluggable Protocols API, which allows you to define new protocols by
mapping the protocol scheme to a class.
</excerpt>


--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET csgallagher@ REMOVETHISTEXT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/
 
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