Can FF open my webmail when I click mailto link?

[denisl]

Having decided to stop using Outlook, or whatever it is called now, when I email a client by clicking a mailto link in my sites admin area, I would like it to open my webmail. Is this possible?

I am using www.mail.be as I understand Hotmail does not comply with European Data Protection laws. I assume gmail and yahoo would have been a no no also.

[phranque]

mailto: protocol will trigger the default email client for your configuration.
a browser is not an email client.

[denisl]

No, a browser is not an email client. But in FF you can set the default to gmail or yahoo. I was asking if there was a way to set this to any other webmail.

[phranque]

mailto: is a scheme that defines the protocol for interacting with email services.
the "default email client" is a windows setting, not a browser setting.
you'll never be able to get a clicked mailto: link to fire up your browser and request a url.

well, maybe you can do something with the javascript event, but nothing native to the browser or OS.

[penders]

...but nothing native to the browser or OS.

Firefox does provide native support for assigning webmail services to the mailto: scheme. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to give you a nice GUI in order to configure this. As denisl mentioned, only Yahoo! Mail and Googlemail are selectable from the list. If you look at "Application Details..." you can see which URLs are used for these services, but it does not give you the option here to change them or add more.

However, I believe there are several plugins available that will allow you to add more services.

You can also have a look at the "under the hood" configuration settings (about:config) to change the current settings and possibly add more services yourself without too much trouble. Search for "mailto" and you will find what looks like the relevant settings:

: 
gecko.handlerService.schemes.mailto.1.name - default - string - Googlemail 
gecko.handlerService.schemes.mailto.1.uriTemplate - default - string - [mail.google.com...]  
:

%s would seem to be a placeholder for the mailto: email address.

[denisl]

Thank you penders thought I was getting close.

In config I have Yahoo as mailto.0
Gmail as mailto.1
Then mailto.2 and mailto.3 are something to do with Chrome

So I added the one I wanted as mailto.4. After restarting Firefox, my additiion to config is still there, but when I try to select my webmail in Option, I only see Yahoo and Gmail (don't see anything about Chrome either)

Any ideas anyone?

[penders]

If you are not using "Yahoo! Mail", I would try replacing that one with your own. You can always revert it back to what it was.

[penders]

Actually, don't change an existing handler! Read on...

---

Then mailto.2 and mailto.3 are something to do with Chrome

This isn't "Chrome" as in "Google Chrome" (the browser) in case that is what you are implying? This is "chrome" as in the browser GUI. I would guess that 2 and 3 are simply placeholders.

Looking more into this, it would seem that you need to increment the value of gecko.handlerService.defaultHandlersVersion for Firefox to process any changes.

Type the following into the address bar (which is actually the default value for mailto.2 and 3):
chrome://browser-region/locale/region.properties

From that page you will see:

# increment this number when anything gets changed in the list below. This will
# cause Firefox to re-read these prefs and inject any new handlers into the
# profile database. Note that "new" is defined as "has a different URL"; this
# means that it's not possible to update the name of existing handler, so
# don't make any spelling errors here.
gecko.handlerService.defaultHandlersVersion=3

What that last bit means (and is worthy of caution) is that if you change the .name of an existing entry and change the defaultHandlersVersion then it will create an entirely new entry in the profile database, in addition to the entry you thought you were overwriting - it won't overwrite the previous handler if you change the name.

I changed mailto.2 and it seems to work OK.

[denisl]

Thank you for your persistance penders

When I typed chrome://browser-region/locale/region.properties in the address bar I saw which includes a whole lot of stuff:

# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
# License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
# file, You can obtain one at [mozilla.org...]

browser.search.defaultenginename = Google
browser.search.order.1 = Google
browser.search.order.2 = Yahoo
browser.search.order.3 = Bing
browser.contentHandlers.types.0.title = Mi Yahoo!
browser.contentHandlers.types.0.uri = [add.my.yahoo.com...]
gecko.handlerService.defaultHandlersVersion = 3
gecko.handlerService.schemes.webcal.0.name = 30 Boxes
gecko.handlerService.schemes.webcal.0.uriTemplate = [30boxes.com...]
gecko.handlerService.schemes.mailto.0.name = Yahoo! Mail
gecko.handlerService.schemes.mailto.0.uriTemplate = [compose.mail.yahoo.com...]
gecko.handlerService.schemes.mailto.1.name = Gmail
gecko.handlerService.schemes.mailto.1.uriTemplate = [mail.google.com...]
gecko.handlerService.schemes.irc.0.name = Mibbit
gecko.handlerService.schemes.irc.0.uriTemplate = [mibbit.com...]
gecko.handlerService.schemes.ircs.0.name = Mibbit
gecko.handlerService.schemes.ircs.0.uriTemplate = [mibbit.com...]

I notice that you cannot look at the default value of mailto.1 in the same way as it is simply a gmail url.

When you say you changed mailto.2, I assume you changed it in the about:config page.
Did you then increment the version number in the chrome://browser-region/locale/region.properties to make it work?

[penders]

When I typed chrome://browser-region/locale/region.properties in the address bar I saw which includes a whole lot of stuff:

This was just for reference. Mines a reasonably fresh install of FF 24 so maybe the exact output will vary.

The fact that this same URI is the value of mailto.1.name, mailto.1.uriTemplate, mailto.2.name and mailto.2.uriTemplate suggests it's probably just a developers reference. For me, that document is fully commented and identifies what each setting is.

When you say you changed mailto.2, I assume you changed it in the about:config page.

Yes.

Did you then increment the version number in the chrome://browser-region/locale/region.properties to make it work?

Increment the version number in about:config. Search for gecko.handlerService and you should see all the settings. Restart FF and voila.

[denisl]

Thank you - that worked. At least it opened the mail page. Have not yet managed to open the "NewEmail" page and prepolate it as hoped. Am now waiting for help from the email company's dev department.