ShowURL "mail to:" Question

General
1

Hey gang,

I want to have the user enter information in my app and then click an button and generate an e-mail in their e-mail client to send to me. So I’m trying to format an e-mail using a URL and then the ShowURL command. Is this the best way to do this? Here’s my code:

  Dim MailURL as string = "<a href=""mailto:registration@justaddsoftware.net?"+ _
  "subject=InstallerPro3%20Registration%20Request%20For%20"+NameString.Text+"%20@%20"+EmailString.Text+ _
  "&amp;body="+NameString.Text+"%20with%20e-mail%20address%20"+self.EmailString.Text+"%20"+ _
  "has%20requested%20a%20license%20key%20for%20InstallerPro%203.%0A%0A"+ _
  "Here%20is%20the%20registration%20information%3A%20%0A%0A"+ _
  "Name%3A%20%20"+self.NameString.Text+"%0A"+ _
  "E-Mail%3A%20%20"+self.EmailString.Text+"%20%20%0A%0A%20%20"">Send mail</a>"
  
  ShowURL(MailURL)

I have tested the MailURL string at http://www.rapidtables.com/web/html/mailto.htm and it works. But it doesn’t work in Xojo. Nothing happens.

If I I take out the HTML Tag information and make the string like this:

Dim MailURL as string = "mailto:registration@justaddsoftware.net?"+ _
  "subject=InstallerPro3%20Registration%20Request%20For%20"+NameString.Text+"%20@%20"+EmailString.Text+ _
  "&amp;body="+NameString.Text+"%20with%20e-mail%20address%20"+self.EmailString.Text+"%20"+ _
  "has%20requested%20a%20license%20key%20for%20InstallerPro%203.%0A%0A"+ _
  "Here%20is%20the%20registration%20information%3A%20%0A%0A"+ _
  "Name%3A%20%20"+self.NameString.Text+"%0A"+ _
  "E-Mail%3A%20%20"+self.EmailString.Text+"%20%20%0A%0A%20%20"

Then Xojo does open the email client but the body never gets entered properly. Everything is on the subject line.

So what am I doing wrong? And is show URL the best way to do this? I had been generating an e-mail and using one of my own accounts to send the e-mail behind the scenes directly to me but that doesn’t always work correctly as firewalls and all can have issues with doing it that way.

Thanks,

Jon

2

In your first example you are not building a URL you are building a snippet of HTML. That is why it would work in a browser.

The second example you are building the link but HTML encoding the ampersands. Don’t do this and you should be fine.

3

[quote=172334:@Bob Coleman]In your first example you are not building a URL you are building a snippet of HTML. That is why it would work in a browser.

The second example you are building the link but HTML encoding the ampersands. Don’t do this and you should be fine.[/quote]

So don’t use any of the % values? Just use normal text?

4

I got it. You have to have the & symbol before the word “body.” And it was encoded before.

And no, you don’t need all the % characters in the URL string. Looks like it does all that for you… That’s nice…

5

I took the liberty of rewriting your routine to how I would have written it:

[code]Dim sSubject As String = "InstallerPro3 Registration Request For " + NameString.Text + " " + EmailString.Text
Dim sBody As String = self.NameString.Text + " with e-mail address " + self.EmailString.Text _

  • " has requested a license key for InstallerPro 3." + EndOfLine + EndOfLine _
  • "Here is the registration information: " + EndOfLine + EndOfLine _
  • "Name: " + self.NameString.Text + EndOfLine _
  • "E-Mail: " + self.EmailString.Text + EndOfLine + EndOfLine

// You just want to URL encode the data only.
Dim sMailLink As String = “mailto:registration@justaddsoftware.net” + _
“?subject=” + EncodeURLComponent(sSubject) + _
“&body=” + EncodeURLComponent(sBody)

ShowURL(sMailLink)[/code]
The biggest change is that you should URL encode the data portions of the link because you don’t know what someone will enter.

6

OK. There’s not much that the user enters other than their name and e-amil. But it’s a good plan nonetheless…

Thanks. I was not aware of the EncodeURLComponent method.