ansaurus

Question

User clicks link in email, it opens email client, how to close window/tab?

Answer 1

+1 A:

The browser does not control the mail client, period. It launches an APPLICATION, not a window.

Diodeus 2010-04-23 14:41:51

yes, but I want the window/browser that launches the application to close after it launches the application.

Blankman 2010-04-23 14:57:14

If browsers had control over other applications, we'd be in big trouble. It would be a serious security breach.

Diodeus 2010-04-23 14:58:34

But I'm not even asking the browser to control other applications. I am asking for the browser to close itself once the other application launches. window.close() that's all (which doesn't work).

Blankman 2010-04-23 15:01:17

You cannot close a browser using script that was not opened using script. I certainly would NEVER want a web site to be closing MY browser.

Diodeus 2010-04-23 15:03:14

window.open('', '_self', ''); window.close(); works in IE, so it is possible.

Blankman 2010-04-23 15:26:14

@Blankman, yeah actually it's possible but work only with IE. I think there would be an equivalent for window.close in other browsers.

Omar Abid 2010-04-23 16:40:15

Answer 2

A:

I agree with @Diodeus: using a mailto: link opens an external application which you cannot control via your browser. Even if you could close the window that a web email application loaded, you can't guarantee everyone would launch a webmail app on a mailto: link. Some of us use Exchange/Outlook at work, for example.

If you really want to control the user experience of sending an email from your application, skip mailto: links altogether and offer a page/form that allows the user to enter the email body/subject.

You then process the form and send the email using whatever server-side technology you're using. This can have the benefit of not exposing your email address to spambots.

Randolpho 2010-04-29 18:18:40

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

User clicks link in email, it opens email client, how to close window/tab?

related questions