Re: mailto: magic

[Thomas]

Hi Maurice,

On Tue, 29 May 2001 00:29:37 +0200GMT (29/05/2001, 06:29 +0800GMT),
Maurice Snellen wrote:

MS> What I want to get back to, is my original question because what I'm
MS> trying to do, is to add headers such as "X-www-page: main menu" and
MS> "X-www-page: my cv" so that I can tell from the headers of the message
MS> wich page it was that someone clicked the mailto-link on. Is that
MS> possible, or completely out of the question?

Not possible.

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Thomas.

Moderator der deutschen The Bat! Beginner Liste. Anmeldung unter:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  

Message reply created with The Bat! 1.52f
under Chinese Windows 98 4.10 Build 1998  
on a Pentium II/350 MHz.


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Re: mailto: magic

[Karin Spaink]

On 29-05-2001 at 00:29, Maurice Snellen kindly wrote:
> Sunday, May 27, 2001, 3:51:43 PM, Karin wrote:

>>> I saw some mails on how to automatically get text into the body of the
>>> message using the mailto: URL; is it also possible to add custom
>>> headers to a message this way?

KS>> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=X%20Y&body=Z

> OK, I was already aware of the 'subject' trick. Before this goes
> further astray into a discussion on whether or not to use this method
> for mailto: links at all, I'd like to point out that this will
> probably need to be used in a website where I have no access to cgi
> whatsoever so the whole issue of using forms is out of the question

The mailto trick works in html as well. You can see it in
action on one of my pages,
http://www.spaink.net/subscribe.html .

> What I want to get back to, is my original question because what I'm
> trying to do, is to add headers such as "X-www-page: main menu" and
> "X-www-page: my cv" so that I can tell from the headers of the message
> wich page it was that someone clicked the mailto-link on.

You cannot add headers to *somebody else's* mail. All you
can do is add a small abbreviation in the subject or body of
the mail that you prepare in the html code, such as

mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=Blah&Body=pagename";>here

where you change the page name as you deem appropriate.


- K -

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Re: mailto: magic

[Maurice Snellen]

Sunday, May 27, 2001, 3:51:43 PM, Karin wrote:

>> I saw some mails on how to automatically get text into the body of the
>> message using the mailto: URL; is it also possible to add custom
>> headers to a message this way?

KS> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=X%20Y&body=Z

OK, I was already aware of the 'subject' trick. Before this goes
further astray into a discussion on whether or not to use this method
for mailto: links at all, I'd like to point out that this will
probably need to be used in a website where I have no access to cgi
whatsoever so the whole issue of using forms is out of the question
(and I don't want to use external form processors).

What I want to get back to, is my original question because what I'm
trying to do, is to add headers such as "X-www-page: main menu" and
"X-www-page: my cv" so that I can tell from the headers of the message
wich page it was that someone clicked the mailto-link on. Is that
possible, or completely out of the question?

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Maurice ([EMAIL PROTECTED] / ICQ: 15724776)

Using The Bat! 1.52f on Windows NT 5.0.2195 

WWW: http://www.kiap.org/
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Re: mailto: magic

[Karin Spaink]

On 27-05-2001 at 16:09, Charlie (ceejay) kindly wrote:
> Hi Karin,

KS>> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=X%20Y&body=Z

KS>> will create a mail addressed to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
KS>> with the subject:  X Y
KS>> and in the body:   Z

KS>> Don't use spaces, use %20 instead.

> Not good advice Karin, read:
> http://www.vortex-webdesign.com/help/faq.htm#mailtosubject

If the W3 validator doesn't complain, I feel free to use it.
I think you're being over-cautious.


- K -

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"It's not a gift. It's just a brain." 
  - The Cube, 1997


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Re: mailto: magic

[Leif Gregory]

Hello Karin, 

On Sun, 27 May 2001 at 15:51:43 [GMT +0200], you wrote:
>> I saw some mails on how to automatically get text into the body of
>> the message using the mailto: URL; is it also possible to add
>> custom headers to a message this way?

KS> Yes:
KS> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=X%20Y&body=Z
KS> will create a mail addressed to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
KS> with the subject:  X Y
KS> and in the body:   Z
KS> Don't use spaces, use %20 instead.

Here's an article I wrote for my newsletter a while back concerning
the whole mailto voodoo issue.. Hope it helps.

5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's
--

Fun with mailto

Usually when you run across a mailto link, it's just the plain-jane
basic syntax of . What many people don't
know, is that the mailto URL has quite a bit of flexibility and will
allow you to create complex hyperlinks. 

A few of the main uses I have for complex mailto URLs is for
subscription and unsubscription from the PCWize newsletter, e-mail
handling and filtering, as well as requests for information such as
past editions and my public PGP key.

Let's start off with the basics and then we'll get into examples.

To create a valid mailto URL with all of its functionality, you must
use the syntax "mailto:"; (without the quotes.) For example:

mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] is considered the correct way to include a
mailto URL, but most e-mail applications and WYSIWYG HTML editors will
recognize just an e-mail address like [EMAIL PROTECTED] However, to
create complex mailto URLS, you will need to use the prefix "mailto:";.

mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=This_Whole_Thing_Is_Clickable

whereas the below is not:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=This_Didn't_Work

I didn't test these in all the e-mail applications out there, so some
of them may actually recognize the above "bad" example. If it did,
great, if it didn't, then your e-mail software follows the standards,
and you really have nothing to worry about.

The first thing you probably noticed in the above "good" example is
the use of the "?", "Subject=", and "_" in the URL. The first two are
required, while the latter is a personal preference of mine.

A "?" is used to separate "header fields", while the "=" sign follows
the header name you wish to define. Here's another example:

mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=Message_subject&Body=Message%20Body

In this example, I've defined not only a Subject, but the Body as
well. Notice the use of the ampersand between the different message
header fields (Subject & Body). Any time you want to define an
additional header field, you must use the ampersand.

So what are those "%20" thingys? That is the ASCII code for a space.
See, a URL cannot contain any spaces by standard. There is good reason
for this, because if you forgot to encapsulate the URL, then all the
text that follows your URL would become part of the URL. Let me show
you what I mean.

mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=Message subject.

Notice that the word "subject" is not included as part of the URL.
Even if I encapsulate the URL like this:

, it won't work.
Personally, I think that encapuslated URLs should work, but oh well.
The reason-- as I stated earlier --is so that following text won't be
considered part of the URL by mistake. For example:

If you'd like to see my picture, then click the following link
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=Get%20my%20pic which you will only
need to click the send button once the message window pops up.

If URLs allowed spaces, then *everything* after the "%20pic" would
become part of the Subject. Definitely a bad thing!

There are other numbers you can put after the percent sign to do
different things. If you have a handy dandy ASCII code chart laying
around, you can use pretty much anything on it. However I won't vouch
for what will happen if you try to NULL something.

ASCII codes can come in quite handy at times as evidenced by this
example:  Pretty nifty
huh! 

 %0A is a Line Feed
 %0D is a Carriage Return
 %2C is a ,
 %2E is a .
 %3C is a <
 %3D is a =
 %3E is a >
 %3F is a ?
 %40 is a @

Why did I tell you all of those?  For obfuscated mailto URLs of
course! I mean, if you're gonna geek out with me, you might as well go
all the way!



Now is that ugly or what? It still works, but is not readily human
readable.

Speaking of which, the use of ASCII codes in place of your e-mail
address is an effective way to keep your e-mail address hidden from
all but the most sophisticated of e-mail address harvesting
spiderbots that spammers use.

I had mentioned at the beginning, that I often use complex mailto URLs
to facilitate e-mail filtering. When most of you subscribed to PCWize,
you clicked on a link something like this:



O

Re: mailto: magic

[Dierk Haasis]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Hello Karin!

On Sunday, May 27, 2001 at 3:51:43 PM you wrote:

> Don't use spaces, use %20 instead.

Or "_" (without quotation marks); as a link it will look like a space.


- --
Dierk Haasis
http://www.Write4U.de

PGP keys available: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=SendMyPGPkeys

The Bat 1.53 Beta/8

Windows 95 4.0 1212 C

Bureaucrats do not change the course of the ship of state. They merely
adjust the compass.

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: PGP 6.5.8ckt
Comment: Privacy is the core element to Freedom!

iQA/AwUBOxD8IPTo1oA8g8dLEQJIBQCg9Kolzw21pPsFNJmbGotUMpMsaxoAoLk3
EsR91lbsdxnSDFAcTUnjK0j7
=xVhs
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Re: mailto: magic

[Karin Spaink]

On 27-05-2001 at 15:29, Maurice Snellen kindly wrote:

> I saw some mails on how to automatically get text into the body of the
> message using the mailto: URL; is it also possible to add custom
> headers to a message this way?

Yes:

mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=X%20Y&body=Z

will create a mail addressed to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with the subject:  X Y
and in the body:   Z

Don't use spaces, use %20 instead.


- K -

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Assumption is the mother of all fuckups. 
  - Menso Heus, 28-03-2001


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