Automatically open default email client and pre-populate content

Question

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?

You can set each and every part of an email in a mailto-prefixed href. Here's a tool I built to make it dead simple: mailto.now.sh — Dawson B, Nov 08 '17 at 23:08

score 165 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 07 '21 at 05:46

165

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

mailto:username@example.com?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:user@example.com?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.

edited Oct 07 '21 at 05:46

Community

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answered Nov 05 '12 at 11:27

jsalonen

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1

Is there a way to load the image (not the url, but the actual image) into the message with jQuery? – Kousha Jan 28 '14 at 18:26
10

What if the message passes the character limit? It's a nice workaround but it doesn't seem to be an elegant solution. – flumingo Sep 15 '15 at 14:33
2

What if I need to add some other content as example image, css or html – UDID Jul 11 '16 at 07:33
1

Is it possible to sent attachment with the above details ? – Ajay Sharma Feb 02 '17 at 12:30
If it passes character limit, you could use encodeURIComponent(body). But still the length of the email body may still be limited by the email client or the recipient's email service – ullas kakanadan Mar 10 '23 at 10:15

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 04 '17 at 14:25

19

JQuery:

$(function () {
      $('.SendEmail').click(function (event) {
        var email = 'sample@gmail.com';
        var subject = 'Test';
        var emailBody = 'Hi Sample,';
        var attach = 'path';
        document.location = "mailto:"+email+"?subject="+subject+"&body="+emailBody+
            "?attach="+attach;
      });
    });

HTML:

 <button class="SendEmail">Send Email</button>

edited Feb 04 '17 at 14:25

Angel Politis

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answered Feb 24 '16 at 11:48

user5506072

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how to send html content by this way – Amay Kulkarni Mar 23 '16 at 12:15

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '23 at 19:46

5

Implemented this way without using Jquery:

<button class="emailReplyButton" onClick="sendEmail(message)">Reply</button>

function sendEmail(message) {
    var email = message.emailId;
    var subject = message.subject;
    var emailBody = 'Hi '+message.from;
    document.location = "mailto:"+email+"?subject="+subject+"&body="+emailBody;
}

edited Mar 20 '23 at 19:46

answerSeeker

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answered Jan 18 '17 at 17:09

vikram kedlaya

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score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 11 '19 at 05:26

3

Try this: It will open the default mail directly.

<a href="mailto:demo@demo.com"><img src="ICON2.png"></a>

edited Dec 11 '19 at 05:26

Arun J

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answered Aug 05 '17 at 09:36

subindas pm

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Automatically open default email client and pre-populate content

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