Howto: Use gmail for mailto: links (linux, ubuntu, debian)
I've been using this little trick for email links for a while now, and I thought I would share it with my fellow voxers. If you use linux and gmail, then keep reading...
I use gnome, for kde users, you would need to look around for 'Preferred Applications' or something to that effect. Maybe a kde user could enlighten us?
- Select 'System' from the system task bar, 'Preferences', and 'Preferred Applications'
- On the internet tab (should be the default tab), select 'Custom' in the Mail Reader dropdown.
- In the command box, paste this:
perl -MURI::Escape -e '$to = shift;$to =~ s/^mailto://i;exec("firefox", "https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&cmid=22&to=".URI::Escape::uri_escape($to) );' '%s'
- Click 'close'
Now, try it out, click a link like this: Email Link
Firefox should open a new tab with a gmail compose window ready to send a message with the person's email filled in for you.
Comments
In Debian, the location is Desktop->Preferences->Preferred Applications.
SB
I can see how it isn't though. Not everyone uses gmail :)
http://www.dcc.vu/ubuntu-linux-file-send-link-with-gmail.html
I certainly wasn't suggesting Ubuntu should ship this to the exclusion of other webmail tools, but it should be easy enough to create similar scripts for Yahoo!, Hotmail, Netscape.net, AOL.com and even (choke) Live.com, and simply offer them as more dropdown choices on that menu.
https://mail.google.com/a/example.com/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&cmid=22&to=