Best way to send an email to a dynamic group of addresses with Outlook

Question

I am developing an intranet application in PHP with the Zend Framework. One of the features the client would like to have is the ability to click a link and have Outlook open a new message window addressed to everyone in a specific group.

So far I have been using a mailto link and comma separating the addresses, but this doesn't work if the combined length of the email addresses is too long.

I could use a mailto link addressed to an alias and have another program or script intercept the email, read the database and forward the email to everyone in that group. I'm not sure how I could achieve this though.

Answer 1

What I have always ended up doing for that is create a get addreses button and that outputs exactly what the user needs to paste inside outlook.

There will always be a scenario where there are way to many links in a mailto:. And they where really not designed for that.

Maybe there is soem other solution involving javascript.Maybe a button that places in the clipboard the adresses so the user has one step less (copying).

Hope someone gives you a better answer!

Also I have to say it there is always the option of convincing the users to use a webform of somesort to send emails.

Answer 2

I think the only workaround I can think of is to use InterOp, if you must open the clients email program (Outlook), but that's not really a viable option with PHP is it? :)

I had a similar requirement in a recent project, so I guess I would try to determine why opening Outlook is necessary, and design another solution based around their answer.