Login/Register
How can I launch the eMail client, and then do a page redirect with Javascript?
Asked Answered
Solved javascripthttp-redirectmailto
P

5

4

I'm required to make a website function exactly the same on other browsers as it does in IE6. Part of the current code looks similar to this:

<script>
function myFunc(){
 location.href="mailto:[email protected]&body=Hello!";
 location.href="newPage.html";
}
</script>
<body onload="myFunc();">
</body>

in IE, this causes the mail client to open with the specified message prepared, and then redirects the browser to newPage.html. Other browsers, however, only redirect to newPage.html. How can I achieve this effect (opening the mail client and then doing a page redirect) consistently across browsers?
As a note, I've also tried to accomplish this using meta refresh, but was unsuccessful.

Prima answered 3/2, 2010 at 15:2 Comment(5)
Have you tried changing the <script> tag to <script type="text/javascript"> to see if there is a difference? – Fiester
What other browsers? it works in my FF 3.5.7. – Coadjutress
yeah, no luck. Thanks for trying, though. – Prima
I've been testing in Chrome. It doesn't seem to be working in Firefox 3.5.1 for me on this machine, though, either. – Prima
I edited my answer for a possible workaround, check it out. – Snuck
P
6

Changing the href property will start a location load, changing it again afterwards will cancel the previous navigation.

It appears that IE6 will start the e-mail client immediately upon setting the property, then continue the javascript execution. Other browsers appear to do things differently, and the second location load will cancel the first.

I managed to work around this in Chrome with a timer, it might work for other browsers too:

function myFunc(){ 
  location.href="mailto:[email protected]&body=Hello!"; 
  window.setTimeout(function () { location.href="newPage.html" }, 0); 
}
Peridot answered 3/2, 2010 at 15:15 Comment(5)
Yeesh, and he gives it to you instead of me. The bum. ;-) 32 seconds! Eons! – Nedranedrah
Stop whining, I beat you both by 4 minutes! :) On the other hand, @Andy E you took the time to actually test it, so the mark went to the right person. – Snuck
@T.R.: And you chose the right one. @Pekka: Oh, I agree (about Andy), I'm just joking around. :-) (But for the record: I'm pretty sure I posted my answer before you edited yours.) – Nedranedrah
@T.J.Crowder: Right, I edited mine a few minutes later, you're right. – Snuck
@Pekka: You beat my answer with your edit, so it must have been really close. I have questions sorted in order of oldest so that I mark the first correct one but I supposed that doesn't always work with edits. @T.J. Crowder: I knew you were joking ;-) – Peridot
N
7

Try using something like:

<a href="mailto:[email protected]" onclick="window.location.href='np.html'">send</a>

Instead of at the onload.

Ngocnguyen answered 3/2, 2010 at 15:14 Comment(4)
On now that's smart. But I'd include a slight delay before changing the window location in the onclick handler. – Nedranedrah
Generally speaking, I actually much prefer this solution, but in this specific case I think it's better for me to stick with the javascript based solution. – Prima
Nice solution, indeed. But please don't forget the final " after the second url. ;) – Samal
@Marcel I added the missing " – Ngocnguyen
P
6

Changing the href property will start a location load, changing it again afterwards will cancel the previous navigation.

It appears that IE6 will start the e-mail client immediately upon setting the property, then continue the javascript execution. Other browsers appear to do things differently, and the second location load will cancel the first.

I managed to work around this in Chrome with a timer, it might work for other browsers too:

function myFunc(){ 
  location.href="mailto:[email protected]&body=Hello!"; 
  window.setTimeout(function () { location.href="newPage.html" }, 0); 
}
Peridot answered 3/2, 2010 at 15:15 Comment(5)
Yeesh, and he gives it to you instead of me. The bum. ;-) 32 seconds! Eons! – Nedranedrah
Stop whining, I beat you both by 4 minutes! :) On the other hand, @Andy E you took the time to actually test it, so the mark went to the right person. – Snuck
@T.R.: And you chose the right one. @Pekka: Oh, I agree (about Andy), I'm just joking around. :-) (But for the record: I'm pretty sure I posted my answer before you edited yours.) – Nedranedrah
@T.J.Crowder: Right, I edited mine a few minutes later, you're right. – Snuck
@Pekka: You beat my answer with your edit, so it must have been really close. I have questions sorted in order of oldest so that I mark the first correct one but I supposed that doesn't always work with edits. @T.J. Crowder: I knew you were joking ;-) – Peridot
N
4

On the whole, I tend to think security settings will get in your way and would recommend just giving the user a boring old-fashioned mailto link to click. (Edit: Perhaps one set up like Mic suggests.)

That said, I wonder if things become any more reliable if you introduce a delay:

function myFunc() {
    location.href = "mailto:[email protected]&body=Hello!";
    setTimeout(function() {
        location.href = "newPage.html";
    }, 500);
}
Nedranedrah answered 3/2, 2010 at 15:15 Comment(0)
S
1

This will work only if the client's browser knows which E-Mail client to open for mailto: links in the first place. If the user uses a web-based client that is not registered with the browser, nothing will happen.

Also, it could be that security settings prevent mailto: links from opening programmatically, or will prevent it in the future.

I wouldn't rely on this to work either way, only as a nice optional convenience function.

Anyway, to answer your question, can you try setting a timeout between the two calls? Maybe the location refresh is just too quick for the browser to catch up.

location.href="mailto:[email protected]&body=Hello!";
setTimeout(function(){ location.href = 'newPage.html' },  500);
Snuck answered 3/2, 2010 at 15:11 Comment(2)
lol you beat me while I was testing my answer. I found that a timeout interval of 0 works fine at least in Chrome. I'm also out of votes or I would +1 :-) – Peridot
LOL! That's three of us now, my friend. :-) But I still like Mic's answer. – Nedranedrah
M
0
function redirect() {
    setTimeout(function() {
        location.href = "index.html";
    }, 1000);
}
Macedoine answered 3/10, 2021 at 23:13 Comment(1)
While this code may answer the question, providing additional context regarding how and/or why it solves the problem would improve the answer's long-term value. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center: stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer . Good luck 🙂 – Lafave

© 2022 - 2024 — McMap. All rights reserved.