[thelist] mailto: long body text

[.jeff]

joel,

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> From: Joel D Canfield
>
> can you clarify? As I see it, Tyme wants to provide a
> ready-made e-mail message to certain people. If I were
> a visitor wanting to send one of these messages, I'd
> want to see it before it was sent on my behalf.
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that's just the point though -- is it really being sent on your behalf?
there's a difference between clicking a mailto: link and filling in the body
with your message to the intended recipient.  in that instance what goes in
the body (whether you type it in or it's placed in the body via the extended
attributes of the mailto: link) is on your behalf.  however, what is
appended to the message you send to an email address via a form is not on
your behalf.  it's simply additional information that may be helpful to the
recipient.

if it's important that the information you're supplying for the body of the
message stays intact, then a mailto: link is definitely not the way to go.

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> How would you do that with server side mail? (I use
> CDONTS on our intranet quite a bit, but it's for
> routing purposes and it's immaterial for the user
> to see the messages.)
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how is it any less immaterial on a public website?

if it really is important to display, print it on the screen where the user
can read it.  or, if you don't mind if they mess with it, put it in a
textarea below the main message textarea and append it to the email message
when you send it.

i'll like to just go back to my main point though -- which i think you
missed.  don't rely on the extended attributes of the mailto: link to work.
don't rely on the user having a mail client installed and configured
properly on the computer they're using.  whenever possible, use a form for
contact purposes -- especially when your audience could have a
disproportionate number of newer users, aol users, etc.  bottom line -- the
mailto: link itself is prone to breaking for a sizable percentage of
internet users so why would you increase the likelihood of that happening by
using even less supported aspects of the mailto: link?

thanks,

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/