[thelist] mailto: long body text

[Robert Goodyear]

So it seems that the char limit is client-based:

I tried it on Outlook, and it breaks after 2048 chars.
On Express, it breaks a bit under 512.
*Seems* to break at 1024 on Entourage (Outlook variant for Macintosh)

/rg

--- Robert Goodyear <rob_goodyear at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Check out http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2368.html for a definitive syntax on the method.
> 
> Also, per my previous post, around 2048 chars is the limit for the body.
> 
> Some clients also seem to handle the CRLF differently, I saw some bug posts on MSDN
> where
> Outlook would not recognize a break correctly.
> 
> You may be victim to the fact that this method (or protocol?) was designed for
> short-form
> usage only. Seems to be a real scarcity of definitive knowledge out there about mailto.
> 
> Oh, in re your mention of ASP querystings being unlimited, don't forget that although
> the
> string is GENERATED by ASP, it's still passed through the browser as a cgi call. (Well,
> ok, that's what I call things that are posted in a URL request... be it a hidden form
> field or an HTML anchor tag or whatever.) Bottom line is, it's a variable passed
> through
> the client, not passed only on the server side.
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> /rg
> 
> 
> --- Tyme <nopun at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> > Whew! Finally a response on topic.  ;-)
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Robert Goodyear <rob_goodyear at yahoo.com>
> > To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 5:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: [thelist] mailto: long body text
> > 
> > 
> > > I have a couple of (relevant) questions for you.
> > >
> > > 1. Can we see a code snippet?
> > 
> > TYME} Well, I tried various things.  Just ditched them all when my curious
> > enthusiasm gave way to my sleepiness.  I was pretty blurry-eyed at 5:00 AM,
> > but here are the things that I did try (with slightly different versions):
> > 
> > 1.  Stored the letter as a string (ASP) something like:
> >      strBody = "Dear Mr. SoAndSo:" & vbCrLf
> >      strBody = strBody & "I am writing to you because..." & vbCrLf
> >      strBody = strBody & "...Sincerely,"
> > 
> >      Then: <a
> > mailto:href="mailto:tyme at no-pun.com?subject=Veterans_Park_Condos&body=<%=str
> > Body%>"
> > 
> > 2.  Same as above except used <%=Server.HTMLEncode(strBody)%>; also tried
> > <%=Server.URLEncode(strBody)%>
> > 
> > 3.  strBody = "Dear%20Mr.%20SoAndSo:%A0D0I&20am..."  (courtesy of a encoder
> > utility)
> > 
> > 4.  Etc.
> > 
> > > 2. How are you breaking the paragraphs?
> > 
> > TYME} Tried several ways:
> > 1.  & vbCrLf (ASP method)
> > 2.  %A0%D0
> > 3.  Not at all.  (Tried it as one big string, just for testing.)
> > 
> > > 3. Isn't a URL query limited to 256 characters? Maybe mailto's method is
> > considered as
> > > such.
> > 
> > TYME} My understanding, for ASP querystrings there is no limit.  I did a
> > quick source to try to confirm.  Here is one response to that question:
> > 
> > "Actually there has always been a limit of just over 4000 chars since as
> > far back as I can remember.  I did some testing, and found the answer with
> > at least my version of IE5.5 there is a max of 2053 characters which can be
> > contained in a querystring.  Otherwise the link just stops working."
> > 
> > TYME} And, of course, the reason for my original post was that I had not
> > been able to find the answer to that as it relates specifically to a mailto:
> > body value.
> > 


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