266063 - mailto link does NOT show body attribute in MS Outlook from Javascript, although working from <a> link

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Peter Westhorp]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041001 Firefox/0.10.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041001 Firefox/0.10.1

This HTML code works as expected with Firefox and MS Outlook:
<a
href="mailto:[e-mail]?subject=LST:%20Expression%20of%20Interest&amp;body=Something">test</a>

Result: MS Outlook opens a mail with the correct addressee, subject, and body
content.

The parallel extract of Javascript is given in "Steps to Reproduce" below. This
does not work correctly, but only with Firefox browser (see "Actual Results").
(Note: Javascript produces correct result in other browsers including MSIE and
Mozilla, hence I assume it's a Firefox bug; but be warned I am a non-programmer
newbie to Firefox!)

I have searched for related bugs, but haven't found any exact overlaps. This
does not seem to be in anyway related to the complexity of the BODY text!

Note that although I have left the classification of this bug as "Normal", it
does involve loss of data passed from Firefox to MS Outlook.

Background interest: I know the Javascript link is an unconventional approach,
but I was caught between my client's request for an online form to produce
email, and their ISP's refusal to supply any server-side services at all,
including email interface! See for working example
http://www.lst.vic.lca.org.au/ and navigate through "Contacts" button and "Ask
for more information" link (there is no direct URL to the page!!)

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Construct a string representing a mailto link in Javascript imported into an
HTML page. For example, use
var sMailToHref =
"mailto:[e-mail]?subject=LST:%20Expression%20of%20Interest&amp;body=Something";
2. Cause this link to be exercised from within the javascript: for example:
window.location = sMailToHref;
3. Run the Javascript (when MS Outlook is set as the default mailer)

Actual Results:  
MS Outlook opened a mail with the correct addressee and subject, but without any
body content.

Expected Results:  
(As verified by testing with other browsers), MS Outlook should have opened a
mail with the correct addressee, subject, and body content.

MS Outlook version 2003 (11.5608.5605)
Windows XP Version	5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600

Comment 1

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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