Automatically launching the user's email software in Asp.net mvc

Question

I have an asp.net mvc4 application, in which I have this view:

<form action ="\Home\Index" method="post" >
    <input type="submit" name="mail" value="launch mail" />
</form>

and in the controller:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    return View();
}

I'd like to launch the default mailing software on the pc (i.e outlook, thunderbird, etc.) when I click the submit button.

So how can I modify the action in the controller to automatically launch the mailing software?

You can just do this on the client, check out this answer http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3868315/invoke-click-a-mailto-link-with-jquery-javascript — asymptoticFault, Aug 27 '13 at 17:03
Now that I think about it a little more, doing it on the *server* doesn't make a lot of sense anyway because you are trying to open a *client* application. — asymptoticFault, Aug 27 '13 at 17:10

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '13 at 17:18

There's no reliable way to force the launching of any program on a client machine. Imagine: that would be a huge security risk if webpages could just force the running of applications.

You can use mailto, which is basically a shortcut that tells the host PC "hey, launch your e-mail application and put this info in an e-mail; BUT the behavior once it reaches the host PC isn't always consistent.

To put a simple mailto link into your razor syntax:

<a href="mailto:support@YourDomain.com">E-mail support</a>

Or if you wanted to get fancy, if your model has an e-mail address:

<a href="mailto:@Model.EmailAddress">@Model.EmailAddress</a>

Automatically launching the user's email software in Asp.net mvc

1 Answers1