{mailto}

{mailto} automates the creation of a mailto: anchor links and optionally encodes them. Encoding emails makes it more difficult for web spiders to lift email addresses off of a site.

Technical Note: Javascript is probably the most thorough form of encoding, although you can use hex encoding too.

Attribute NameTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
addressstringYesn/aThe e-mail address
textstringNon/aThe text to display, default is the e-mail address
encodestringNononeHow to encode the e-mail. Can be one of none, hex, javascript or javascript_charcode.
ccstringNon/aEmail addresses to carbon copy, separate entries by a comma.
bccstringNon/aEmail addresses to blind carbon copy, separate entries by a comma
subjectstringNon/aEmail subject
newsgroupsstringNon/aNewsgroups to post to, separate entries by a comma.
followuptostringNon/aAddresses to follow up to, separate entries by a comma.
extrastringNon/aAny extra information you want passed to the link, such as style sheet classes

Example 8-23. {mailto} example lines followed by the result

{mailto address="me@example.com"}
<a href="mailto:me@example.com" >me@example.com</a>

{mailto address="me@example.com" text="send me some mail"}
<a href="mailto:me@example.com" >send me some mail</a>

{mailto address="me@example.com" encode="javascript"}
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
   eval(unescape('%64%6f% ... snipped ...%61%3e%27%29%3b'))
</script>

{mailto address="me@example.com" encode="hex"}
<a href="mailto:%6d%65.. snipped..3%6f%6d">&#x6d;&..snipped...#x6f;&#x6d;</a>

{mailto address="me@example.com" subject="Hello to you!"}
<a href="mailto:me@example.com?subject=Hello%20to%20you%21" >me@example.com</a>

{mailto address="me@example.com" cc="you@example.com,they@example.com"}
<a href="mailto:me@example.com?cc=you@example.com%2Cthey@example.com" >me@example.com</a>

{mailto address="me@example.com" extra='class="email"'}
<a href="mailto:me@example.com" class="email">me@example.com</a>

{mailto address="me@example.com" encode="javascript_charcode"}
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
    <!--
    {document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,97, ... snipped ....60,47,97,62))}
    //-->
</script>

See also escape, {textformat} and obfuscating email addresses.