Question

I have a mailto url in a web page. The target system contains both Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. Microsoft Outlook is the default Mail Client. So when i click on mailto link it opens up Microsoft Outlook.

I want it to open Lotus Notes when i click on the link and i do NOT want change the default mail client settings in Internet Options as well. Please suggest a solution or work around to achive this.

Answer 1

You can use a notes:// style URL, which will work for users with recent versions of the Notes client installed. This URL format can be used to launch a database (or open a known document in a database) whose file path is known. Unfortunately, for creating an email document in the current user’s mailbox, the NSF path will be different for each user. But there is a technique you can use, if you have a Notes server in your environment. You can have the link on your page actually link to a static Notes database, which has an “OnDatabaseOpen” event handler set up to look up the user’s mailbox path, and then redirect the user there. It’s a few steps – not as simple as a mailto: URL – but if you are desperate, it can be made to work.