mailto: protocol and issues with Web clients

[txbakers]

The good ole reliable mailto attribute will open a user's email client and populate various lines such as to: bcc: subject: etc.

When the user clicks the <a href="mailto:[e-mail]"> the browser opens the installed email client as set in the browser.

HOWEVER, this doesn't work if the user only has a web client such as Outlook Web Access or Yahoo, etc. I think it does work with MSN if they are using IE.

What do people do to get around this (other than creating a form).

I've started using my own scripts to send the emails through my email server, with the poster's email address as the FROM.

[celgins]

I've never seen a way around this other than using a script to send email via the server.

If a user doesn't have an email client on their system, and if their browser can't connect to the email client (not sure if IE connects to a Hotmail account since I always tend to have email clients installed on a PC), the mailto link will bomb.