Re: mailto: + parameters?

Abigail <abigail@tungsten.gn.iaf.nl> wrote:
>You, Michele Bassan wrote:
>++ 
>++ My question is probably marginal to html, but I did not find a thread about
>++ it elsewhere.
>++ Do you know whether it is possible to pass to the "mailto:" method also some
>++ parameters, that can be filled in advance by the browser, like the subject
>++ and even (part of) the message content?
>
>What you can do is using the TITLE attribute of the <a> element.
>Only a few browsers will support it thought, but it will not
>break browsers which do not support it.
>
>Netscape 2.0 and newer versions of Lynx will understand
>'mailto:foo@bar.com?subject=bla'. However, people using browsers
>which do not understand that, including Netscape pre-2.0 browsers,
>will send out undeliverable mail, as "foo@bar.com?subject=bla"
>is not a valid email address. You will not even get those messages.

	Just so there is no misunderstanding about this, Lynx supports
use of a TITLE attribute for setting the "suggested" subject (the user
can change it) in Anchors or LINKs with a mailto HREF, and in FORMs with
a mailto ACTION (the latter is a Lynxism, the former are Mosaicism), and
recommends that because it will not break clients which don't support the
TITLE attribute in that way.

	Lynx also "handles" a variety of things that will be thrown at
it via documents written by naive users of the "trash interoperability
principles", "market force" client(s), but strongly advises against use
of those atrocities.  OK?

	The use of ?subject=bla in mailto URLs is not "just" ignoring
W3CofVendors "working drafts", but also flagrantly violates the IETF
"Standards Track" specification -- and is needless, because the TITLE
attribute can cook that soup without breaking mailto URLs or other
clients.

				Fote

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Received on Monday, 15 April 1996 19:41:38 UTC