href mailto &body = how do I send html email?

[cgchris99]

I am creating a link on one of my pages to pre-load an email with subject, body, etc.

However, I need to put a table on the email and can't figure out how to get the link to jump to outlook express, display the email and have an html table on it.

I can't use a cgi or php script with a form for this.
I need it to pop open a new email with the email message pre-filled with the info.

Any ideas?

[encyclo]

There is no reliable way of doing this as you cannot assume that the end-user is using Outlook Express. Many email clients do not support HTML at all or they have it disabled by default. Also, many users have web-based email accounts so using a mailto: is not ideal anyway.

What is the reason why can't you use a web-based form with a server-side script?

[kaled]

mailto:[e-mail]?subject=test&body=mary%20had%20a%20little%20lamb.

That's the basic syntax, however I doubt that prefilling an html form will work reliably across a wide range of browsers and email clients.

I strongly suggest you think again.

Kaled.

[cgchris99]

This is not for client use. This is admin stuff. This needs to open outlook express so we can then add or delete information from the pre-loaded order information.

This then gets sent either by email or by fax to a vendor to fill the order.

This must be edited manually. There are too many cases where this email will go to two different vendors to get the order filled.

It can't be automated because it could possibly go to vendorA, VendorB or VendorC. In some cases part goes to vendorA and the rest to vendorC.

I suppose I could do this as a script and have it open a new window with the html form on the screen and then copy and paste it into the email form or fax form.

[kaled]

Sounds like a job for a server-side script. There's probably a perl script that will do this (or something close enough). However, I suggest you concentrate on solving the problem rather than trying to achieve what you believe is the solution - in other words, an alternative approach may be required.

Kaled.