Creating Advanced XHTML Email Links: Include Subject, CC, BCC, and Email Body

By  on  

Creating email links is a piece of cake, right? It's as simple as:

<a href="mailto:live@wembley.com">Email Oasis</a>

Everyone knows this. Did you know, however, that you can include subject, CC, BCC, and email body text information in the link as well? Using a querystring-like syntax, you can do more with that simple link.

<a href="mailto:live@wembley.com">Email Oasis</a>

<!-- add the subject -->
<a href="mailto:live@wembley.com?Subject=Your Next Show">Email Oasis</a>

<!-- add the cc's and bcc's -->
<a href="mailto:live@wembley.com?Subject=Your Next Show&CC=johnl@beatles.com&BCC=paulm@wings.com">Email Oasis</a>

<!-- add some default body text -->
<a href="mailto:live@wembley.com?Subject=Your Next Show&CC=johnl@beatles.com&BCC=paulm@wings.com&Body=I can't wait for the next show!">Email Oasis</a>

Remember that simply placing email addresses on a page without encoding them first is like simply emailing spammers your email address. Encode your email addresses!

Recent Features

  • By
    Conquering Impostor Syndrome

    Two years ago I documented my struggles with Imposter Syndrome and the response was immense.  I received messages of support and commiseration from new web developers, veteran engineers, and even persons of all experience levels in other professions.  I've even caught myself reading the post...

  • By
    Designing for Simplicity

    Before we get started, it's worth me spending a brief moment introducing myself to you. My name is Mark (or @integralist if Twitter happens to be your communication tool of choice) and I currently work for BBC News in London England as a principal engineer/tech...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Web Audio API

    The Web Audio API allows developers to load and decode audio on demand using JavaScript.  The more I evaluate awesome games for Firefox OS TVs, the more I get to learn about these APIs that I normally wouldn't touch.  The following is a very basic introduction to the WebAudio API...

  • By
    Dijit&#8217;s TabContainer Layout:  Easy Tabbed Content

    One of Dojo's major advantages over other JavaScript toolkits is its Dijit library.  Dijit is a UI framework comprised of JavaScript widget classes, CSS files, and HTML templates.  One very useful layout class is the TabContainer.  TabContainer allows you to quickly create a tabbed content...

Discussion

  1. Your post here saved me some time at work, so thanks. I can just never remember if its PHP or URL encoding that is choosy about how CC is written (cc, CC, or Cc).

  2. garrobo

    George,

    I need help on getting a comment system like the one I’m writing on, my question to you is how to get it to my website is there a code that I need to download or do I need to purchase it let me know
    I’m in love with it. thanks

  3. I’d like to thank you, for this tutorial, as a newbie in xhtml, its a lot of thing i never know before, thanks for this ‘mailing’ tutorial. Im sorry for this bad english

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!