Javascript mailto using window open

Question

I currently have a form set up with 5 radio options. I have a switch statement depending on the option you pick and that determines where the email is going to go.

Inside my switch, I have this piece of code.

window.open("mailto:"+emailTo+'?cc='+emailCC+'&subject='+emailSub+'&body='+emailBody);

It all works fine when it opens up my email client with all of the content however it also opens a blank page in the browser.

Is there another way to achieve this or prevent a blank window from opening but still make it as if you clicked on the href:mailto ?

I think this is a browser setting, therefore you have no control over how this works. — Liam, Jan 30 '14 at 16:14
You may use `window.location.href = "mailto:mail@example.org";` but this will work only if in browser setting Gmail opening is not setted, etc. — antyrat, Jan 30 '14 at 16:15
possible duplicate of [How to prevent mailto event from opening a new tab in browser](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13457684/how-to-prevent-mailto-event-from-opening-a-new-tab-in-browser) — Jonathan Lonowski, Jan 30 '14 at 16:27

score 57 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 20 '15 at 03:48

57

Instead of:

window.open("mailto:"+emailTo+'?cc='+emailCC+'&subject='+emailSub+'&body='+emailBody);

You can try:

location.href = "mailto:"+emailTo+'?cc='+emailCC+'&subject='+emailSub+'&body='+emailBody;

answered Sep 20 '15 at 03:48

Rodrigo5244

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score 32 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 11 '19 at 19:08

32

The second argument in window.open is the target.

window.open('mailto:'+emailTo+'?cc='+emailCC+'&subject='+emailSub+'&body='+emailBody, '_self'); should do the trick.

edited Jan 11 '19 at 19:08

Jeremy

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answered Jul 27 '16 at 16:40

BigBadBigBad

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score 6 · Answer 3 · edited May 02 '16 at 08:58

6

Location.href doesn't seem to work in chrome. I do it like this:

x=window.open("mailstring");
x.close();

Works perfect for me.

edited May 02 '16 at 08:58

slfan

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answered May 02 '16 at 08:40

Gehtdich Nichtsan

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you should not put mailstring into apostrophs if you mean it as a variable or place-holder – ESP32 Feb 20 '18 at 13:29
1

This will not work consistently. On my machine it sometimes closes the window before the mailto completes. – cdmckay Jun 13 '18 at 11:56
Doesn't work for me if outlook is the mail client – Ya. Jan 31 '23 at 21:40

score -4 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 10 '16 at 19:07

After your "window.open" statement, try running an "if statement" to check and see if a new window was opened so that it will close.

if (win && win.open && !win.closed) 
    {   
    win.close();
    }

This will happen very fast so the users might notice that a window opened and closed before the email application opened.

Javascript mailto using window open

4 Answers4

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