Update
The plugin now also can be installed for Firefox 3.
If you want to contribute or donate, visit the development site.
In consequence of some obscurities which occurred related to the last article, here’s a little guide on how to install the WebMailCompose Plugin for Firefox 2.0.
1. Make sure you’ve downloaded the plugin from here.
2. Start Firefox 2.0 and open the downloaded file via “File” → “Open File”.
Choose the downloaded file and click on the “Open”-button.
3. Firefox 2.0 now tells you that it has found an unsigned item. Wait a few seconds before the Install button is activated. Then click on “Install now”.
4. The “Add-Ons”-window appears. There’s a button labeled with “Restart Firefox”. Click on it, then Firefox restarts.
5. After Firefox has restarted, the WebMailCompose features are available via the context menu which appears when you click on a mail link. Now we’re going to make it work for left-clicks.
Note: The following example shows how to make it work with GMail.
6. Right-click on any mail link. A context menu appears. Select “WebMailCompose” → “Settings” as seen in the screenshot below.
7. The “Settings”-window appears. Set the settings for the “General”– and the “WebMail Services”-tab as seen in the following screenshots.
8. Click the “OK” button. Each time you left-click on an email link, a “GMail-compose-screen” should appear in a new tab.
Hope it works for you. Please let me know if anything’s unclear.
Thanks for upgrading the extension for FF2. I use it with my Yahoo account without trouble. Very handy.
Any thoughts on how to get this extension work the Bluetie.com service if possible at all?
Thanks! Works like a charm.
I never thought it would be so tough to try and get outlook to stop popping open every time I clicked on an email link. After many failed hacks in the about:config tab within Firefox I got frustrated and started searching in depth on google and saw this mod’d XPI for the first time. Glad to report it worked flawlessly. I would say it’s not quite the same since it takes a right click menu to initiate the desired action and another (left or right) click over the Webmail of your choice….but I don’t mind that..since this gives the flexibility to do the old standard once left click over the link for outlook mail just as before also. I appreciate the guy who originally wrote the older version, but much thanks to Joe and anyone else who helped on updating the old XPI for compatibility in Firefox 2.0! I hope to see this get more support in the Firefox extension area as newer rev’s of FF are always coming out. I’d donate for this one.
Thanks again,
-Brf
Many thanks for updating this extension
Thanks
this program saves sooooo much time
Many thanks, works perfect for me!
8. Click the “OK” button. Each time you left-click on an email link, a “GMail-compose-screen” should appear in a new tab.
sorry man, that doesnt work for me, left clicking still opens up outlook, i have to right click and select compose gmail
any idea how to fix it?
Fantastic! Thanks for this!
One suggestion – when you say to right click on an email link in the instructions, it would be convenient if you provided one there to use. I found one on the Sparkling Studios home page :-) , although you may prefer to use a dummy such as mailto:foo@bar.com
Cheers,<br>
Julio
Excellent; Makes GMail better
Thanks! IE7 would pop up like 50 windows when I clicked on an email link in Firefox. This saves me. I might actually click email links now for the first time ever.
it works beautifully, linking to my email. Any chance I can figure out to get it to automatically open with the persons email addy in the TO field?
Thanks for updating this extension.
Please consider adding pre-configured functionality for inbox.com in the future.
Yay, it works. Thanks :)
Great extension. Works perfectly with Yahoo! Mail. Many thanks
I am using Firefox 2. I have tried every method to make GMail open when I want to send a message from an application. But instead, Outlook Express always opens .
GMail is set as my default. I have applied the WebMailCompose extension. I have applied the registry edits. I have made the appropriate settings in the WebmailCompose Options.
I have set Google Talk to use GMail as default.
I have downloaded GMail Notifier, and set it to use GMail as the default.
Outlook Express still opens.
It’s annoying.
Tom
Could someone please tell me what the default URL is for enabling Gmail? I was playing around with it and now it doesn’t work :-(
Thanks,
Susan
This item works to bring up yahoo email, google email with left or right mouse click. However, it does not put the email address in the TO: field. I have to copy the email address in the web page and then insert it in the email TO: field.
Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks,
Randy
Thanks to Julio for his post regardiing the mailto link. I thought I was a dummy when I couldn’t find the WebMailCompose menu!
Thanks for posting this helpful information here. It sure helps.
Barking brilliant! I thought I was going mad after upgrading to FF2.O.x when I couldn’t click to compose mail any longer.
Many thanks for the handiest extension of all.
Not the same but thanks.
I was using the old version in 1.5.0.10 and had compose and read listed under tools. This was the only thing that was stopping me from upgrading to 2x
Too late now.
Does this work with AOL’s webmail?
Any chance this (fixed version) could be put on firefox’s site, so we don’t need to follow a second page google hit to a place that links to these directions?
Thanks for your work in bringing this abandoned extension up to date, but I’m sad to say that left-clicking still opens IE for me, and I have to ‘force quit’ it (in Apple parlance) because it curiously tries to open a gazillion windows, like someone here mentioned, but my rig isn’t powerful enough to pull it off (sidenote: thank Microsoft for NT; in Win9x something like this would’ve brought down the whole system with it). Anyways, any suggestions?
Also, the extension doesn’t pickup e-mails obfuscated with JavaScript, just plain mailto:user@domain.com addresses. Which is absurd considering it should pickup an address from the mailto string.
Thanks again, and let me know if someone figures out a fix.
Well, after a while of fiddling around I realized an extension I already had installed and love to use already had mailto link detection and redirection: Gmail Manager. And it works perfectly! Though it obviously only works for Gmail, but everyone on the Internet uses Gmail already, right?
Though I’m still left out without JavaScript obfuscated redirection, but I suppose I could live without it.
There is a god! Thank you for fixing Webmailcompose!
Very nice. Any chance you can get it to use the pre-existing yahoo mail tab and not have it open a second one?
You rock!
webmailcompose was broken, but now works thanks to you.
I appreciate your help.
and if you had a donation page, i would send you a buck. seriously.
This is magical! Thank you, you have made my day!
It almost works for me. I cant for the life of me get left-click to work, but right clicking works – thats good enough for me :)
Thanks for updating this. That’s a great help. Wonder why Jed Brown’s site is offline.
Not sure why, but the options dialog for this extension has always been too short vertically so it cuts off some of them. I presume it’s not doing this for everyone. It does it with the default FF themes, not just different ones.
Suggestions for fixing it welcomed.
Well it works fine for mailto links but unfortunately I have this handy bit of code to protect from spammer worms and it doesn’t work for that javascript at all (and webmailcompose has in the past…. now not even with a right click – options just don’t appear.
Any chance for this: http://www.pacificwildlifecare.org/events.html any email link like upper right. You can see the javascript code which concatonates the address. This worked yesterday (3/16/07), but not today. I uploaded your update but still no. I send $ if you fix it.
I second an earlier comment… I would donate for this. You. Rock. On. Toast.
I cannot even get webcompose to download with firefox 2.0. Says it isn’t compatible for this version. You say to download the plugin from “here”. I clicked on “here” and nothing happened. I found no other link on this page to download.
Any help would be appreciated.
You can right-click on the “here” link and select “Save Link as…” from the popup menu to save the xpi file on your PC.
Okay, I got it installed and it goes to Gmail. What is Gmail? Is there a way to make it go right to my Yahoo Mail? Thanks for the advice though.
Go to Tools → Add-ons and select Webmailcompose.
Click on Preferences.
There you can set the webmailservice which should be used.
Nope. Doesn’t work. Followed your instructions to the letter and it still goes to outlook when I left-click.
In my previous message, I complained that webmailcompose doesn’t do what it used to before the update. This was a specialized javascript snippet I used so my email address wasn’t found on my websites by spammers.
However, I have since found a new and better snippet of javascript that works fine with webmailcompose. So now all is right with the world (ok world peace we work on tomorrow).
Thanks for bringing this to firefox2
I was looking to feed “In-Reply-To:” headers into hotmail, so I added this functionality to this for my own use…
you’re xpi link appears to have stopped working :(
Works FANTASTICALLY! Simple and SO effective! Thank you SO much for modifying to work with Firefox 2.0.0.3. I’ve been beating my brain against my computer scouring the ’net for answers. I flat out refused to use IE7 just for mailto: links.
This is amazing. I’m so glad you updated it for Firefox 2.0.0.3! Thank you! Now I am gonna hold off downloading version 3 because I like this extension too much.
Susan, you asked for a default string for the gmail compose-window right?
i searched a long time for that one as well, and the best that i’ve stumbled upon is :
<a href="https://mail.google.com/a/?view=cm&fs=1&to=^T&su=^S&body=^M&cc=^C&bcc=^B">https://mail.google.com/a/?view=cm&fs=1&to=T&su=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B</a>
works fine for me! :)
For AOL I inserted this into the “other” – not sure if it will only work temporarily
<a href="http://webmail.aol.com/25045/aol/en-us/Mail/compose-message.aspx?mailto=^T&mailcc=^C&mailbcc=^B&mailsubject=^S&mailbody=^B">http://webmail.aol.com/25045/aol/en-us/Mail/compose-message.aspx?mailto=T&mailcc=C&mailbcc=B&mailsubject=S&mailbody=^B</a>
Feature I am really interested in is to right click a pic and be able to automatically attach – guess to complicated… wonder if it works with yahoo or gmail notifier
Formatting got a little messed up on my AOL url above. Just copy the parameters from Netscape using url above.
Jeff, thanks for the link.
I’ve cleared up the formatting in your first post.
looks great and works fine – other than when the mail to has subject/text included, then i get an ascii showing spaces as %20, etc… is there a fix for that?
Followed your instructions to the letter also, but left-click still sends me to Outlook. Boo.
works perfectly, thanks for the work!
Works flawlessly…Thanks (-:
After carefully following instructions I’m not having much success! Created a toolbar link to Windows Live Mail which works fine but when I right click I see no reference to “WebMailCompose” I can reach the options via Tools, Options and have enabled Hotmail.com. Please Help!
Thanks.
.
Worked like a charm, thank you. FF2 on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.
i would still like to have the standard send link function and to be able to choose my regular email account. apparently i’m a bit too dense to figure out how to do this! tx.
wonderful hack of an old extension…..works perfectly!!!!
thank you
It works but when I click a mailto, it loads a new gmail page in compose mode, which kills my chat if I have gmail already loaded in another tab or window.
How can I use this add-on without killing my chat?
I have FF 2.0.0.4.
tia,
r.
The link is no longer working: getting a 404 not found message.
I would like to install or add comcast toolbar 2.2
My efforts have failed.
The above link gives a 404 not found message but when I right click → “save link as” it down loads an xpi file. However when I try to open it Firefox will not install it because it says that it is “not a valid install package”.
Any help?
hi,
the link above was broke a while, but should work now.
regards
kommen
Thanks, this is what I was looking for.
I am extremely pleased to have found what you accomplished here. It is amazing how little things like not being able to click on a link and go right to your email become so frustrating. Great job and thanks again for making it available. Long live open source altruism!
Thank you!
Amazing… you change 1.4 to 2.* and get 62 thank yous! Where do I sign up for your charm school?
Wonderful! Works with Firefox 2 in both XP and Mac OSX. You rock!
For months I’ve been missing this functionality. Thanks for making the fix!
wow, that’s great.
TYhanks
In the preferences, when I click the OK button, it does nothing. :P
I need to click Cancel to exit, so it doesn’t make any changes.
Also, do you know how to have the mail toolbar button back on Fx2?
Wonderful work and relatively easy to do. Why in the world did they remove this functionality from Firefox? To push Thunderbird? This is a PC so I need fewer programs, not more. Thanks guys!
Wow!…
Works Great!!!
I am almost a computer virgin… and you made this easy!…
Thank you!…
Greg Cochran
Moses Lake WA
USA
Thanks very much for updating this extension, and posting this article.
Please add the terms
mailto mailto: webmail compose extension
to your main article text, so it ranks higher in Google searches!
Seems to be working for me fully only with Gmail (with Gmail and Yahoo tested). Yahoo only works when I’m already logged in. When I’m not, right or left click will bring up the Yahoo login window, after login I’m inside my personal Yahoo account, but I don’t have an email form ready and waiting to be filled in. Clicking on ‘compose new mail’ brings up a blank email form with no fields filled, somehow the info seems to get lost on some point. Maybe another Yahoo thing there… :(
hotmail changed the url, bah – wmc works great, hotmail is getting to be really aaaaarghh
My Webmail Compose stopped working all of a sudden. It start to launch the GMail page but it never comes up. Anyone else having trouble?
Let me know if anyone has a fix…
Same here. My webmail compose add extension has not been able to function with my e-mail account. It states GMAIL as “loading,” but nothing ever results.
Does it work with AOL??
Were any other changes made to the XPI besides changing the version number? If not, I’ll just make that change myself (I tend to be careful about downloading any software from the internet).
In order to fix webmail compose for the new gmail UI change the line for gmail as follows:
https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&fs=0&ui=1&to=T&su=S
Blake, I need to thank you tons for that simple fix. I was going crazy not being able to use this small, but important and useful extension. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Ok, upon further review…the page loads and that’s great, but the “To:” section doesn’t display the e-mail address where the e-mail is supposed to be sent, but rather the letter “T.” Also, the subject line has just the letter “S” showing. Is there any way to display the e-mail address where the e-mail is going and/or the respective heading in the subject line? Thanks.
ok, after messing around with the settings using Blake’s (above) suggestion as a template, i’ve found a way to include both the e-mail address and the subject into the e-mail one’s trying to send out.
copy and paste this into the g-mail webmail services tab in the settings section for webmail compose:
https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&fs=0&ui=1&to=T&su=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B
you should be good to go.
hi ultra. thanks for trying to get the extensio working again, but was i just being a noob when i tried the copy/paste you suggested? it didn’t work on for gmail left-clicking needs.
I am having the same gmail issue…and unfortunately that last url didn’t work…all it did was add an “M” to the message section. Still just getting “T” and “S”….any other ideas? Thanks for working on this.
The Yahoo Mail “compose” URL stopped working again today. Yahoo must’ve changed something (yest again). Any ideas?
i apologize for any confusion earlier folks.
try pasting this code in the gmail webservices tab:
https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&fs=0&ui=1&to=T&su=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B
just in case, if there’s any semicolon in between the “&” and the “f” above where the hyperlink ends, remove it. for some reason, this blog adds it when it converts part of the hyperlink.
certain characters are getting confused/omitted when pasting the code in this blog.
1) remove the semicolon as stated above
2) see second to very last character (the one before the “B” – (ie: ^)? include that character just before the capital T, capital M and capital C (after each equal sign, respectively)
or you can click this link which should lead you to the mozillazine forums where i also posted it (no characters were omitted there). my post is second to last at the bottom of the page.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=103810&postdays=0&postorder=asc&postsperpage=15&start=300
Ultra—-THANKS for the fix!
This plugin works great when I switch back to Yahoo Mail Class, but not with the newer Yahoo Mail interface. Has anyone succeeded in making it work with the new Yahoo Mail?
Hi, thanks that works perfectly!
However but it seems to add something else that I don’t want – that is when in Firefox I go File → send link, it now opens Gmail instead of Outlook, even though Outlook is still my default mail client (per ‘Internet options in XP control panel). Y’see, I use both on this PC – Outlook for work & Gmail for play.
Maybe I can tweak a setting? If I could solve this, the app would be awesome.
This seems to have stopped working. At least, I can’t get it to work. I get a “Loading…” message on the new tab, and nothing else. I’ve waited quite a while, but nothing else happens.
Did G-mail perhaps change it’s api?
Doh! Sorry, missed the most recent notes. Never mind.
Thanks for this! It’s working great, although I didn’t get the subject line tweak to work, even with Ultra’s alterations.
The plugin installs automatically, no need to open the file first. (Somebody may have commented on this above but I didn’t see that, perhaps you could edit the original instructions?)
The webmail composer is a godsent and should make it back onto the official extentions list, perhaps with a bit more modification, e.g. the option to send via mail client as Simon in Dublin suggested. —Can’t help there, I’m afraid as I know nothing about coding. I’m just a happy user :)
Fantastic!! Many thanks…I posted a review on my blog
http://zia.blogspot.com
didn’t install ………..message about no secure updates………using ff3beta3…..might be problem,huh?
it is a great service, when I use hotmail.com for the mailto: it opens a new tab, but does not open compose email with the mailto: in the TO:
please indicate if there is a fix or I am doing something wrong
it is a great service, when I use hotmail.com for the mailto: it opens a new tab, but does not open compose email with the mailto: in the TO:
please indicate if there is a fix or I am doing something wrong
What a simple (from my end) solution to a problem that I have been trying to solve for a long time.
…works like a charm.
What a simple (from my end) solution to a problem that I have been trying to solve for a long time.
…works like a charm.
I agree with sean. Hotmail doesnt work anymore. It just displays Hotmail startpage. Not the composepage. If someone knows a workaround or fix. Please post.
I agree with sean. Hotmail doesnt work anymore. It just displays Hotmail startpage. Not the composepage. If someone knows a workaround or fix. Please post.
Sigh…Why doesn’t someone create a new extension for this?
Sorry to be redundant, but I’m also looking for a fix for Hotmail Live. I’ve tried a million versions of the address for Hotmail on the WebMail Services tab of the WebMail Settings, but all bring me to the same place. My inbox, not a Compose screen. Would love an update!
any timeframe on getting it to work with ff3?
Update
I’ve updated the extension to work with Firefox3.
You can download it here:
http://soakedandsoaped.com/files/webmailcompose-0.6.7.xpi
I also set up a git repository so other developers can contribute and make the extension better. You can also donate to the project on this site:
http://github.com/kommen/webmailcompose/
I got it installed and I ‘m having the same with hotmail. If anyone has a URL that works properly please post it.
At least I’m not having 53 copies of IE opening now every time I click a mail link ;-)
Thanks for taking over the reins of WebmailCompose, kommen. It’s a great extension, and deserves to not fall by the wayside.
One question for you & any other users: I can’t seem to figure out the proper URL & strings to use with the UPDATED version of Yahoo Mail Classic.
The URL that works for composing is: http://us.mc302.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?
but I can’t seem to be able to pass the necessary parameters to Yahoo Mail (to, subject, cc:, bcc:, etc).
Just so you’re aware, this is actually a known issue with the updated Yahoo Mail Classic servers. More specifically, it’s a problem with Yahoo’s own ymmapi.dll & .exe – they need to update the darn things to work correctly with their new servers. However, I was hoping WebmailCompose would allow me sidestep this problem.
Any help will be much appreciated.
JohnB
Hey I always liked how with WebmailCompose – after I clicked Send it would return me to my Inbox! This string appears to do the trick.
https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&fs=0&ui=1&to=T&su=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B
Thanks,
Dave
Sorry – there was an extra ; in there, although it still appears to work. This is the correct string:
https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&fs=0&ui=1&to=T&su=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B
Hmm… put in Dave’s URL for GMail. Initially it showed up with T, S, and M in the To, Subject, and CC fields. I added ^‘s but doesn’t seem to fix it.
Anyone know a valid GMail link. This is on OSX if that makes a difference.
I’ll try this using some html… hope it works.
<pre>https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&fs=0&ui=1&to=T&su=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B</pre>
That looks right – except something is adding a semicolon, its not me. So take that semicolon out.
Incidentally (at least for me) this all stopped working after I installed Firefox 3. I’m going to try reinstalling the extension, we’ll see what happens.
Thanks for breathing new life back into this extension! I’ve installed it on Firefox 3 (running on Slackware Linux) and everything seems to work fine except the “Send Link…” option in the context menu. My wife is running Kubuntu and is having the same issue, so I don’t think it’s just a bug in my setup. Any idea what the issue is or where I could begin digging around to fix it? Thanks!
Since my previous post on this topic, I was FINALLY able to configure Webmail Compose to overcome the MailTo-related problems with the “new” Yahoo Mail Classic.
After much trial & error, I figured out that for some reason the variable names (To, Subject, Cc, etc) need to be NOT capitalized. Like this:
<pre> http://us.mc302.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=^T&subject=^S&body=^M&cc=^C&bcc=^B </pre>Not like this:
<pre> http://us.mc302.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?To=^T&Subject=^S&Body=^M&Cc=^C&Bcc=^B </pre>Once I un-capitalized the variable names, it worked like a charm.
(My account uses the us.mc302 server; your server address may be different).
One other hint for Yahoo Mail users: set your Default Read Mail URL to this:
http://us.mc302.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?fid=Inbox
This will take you directly to your Inbox instead of the Yahoo Mail’s dumb “welcome” screen.
I hope this info is helpful to other Yahoo Mail users.
JohnB
Thanks for your comment John, I just edited the formatting a bit so that the links are displayed in a better way.
Thanks, Kommen – that makes the URL’s a lot easier to read.
btw, I found a great page that contains several different MailTo test links. Very useful for testing your Webmail Compose configuration:
http://www.scottseverance.us/mailto.html
JohnB
Since my last post, I realized that FF3’s Send Link function is no longer working. If I disable Webmail Compose, it works fine. So I have to conclude that Webmail Compose breaks the Send Link function in FF3.
I assume this is possibly due to the new way that FF3 implements MailTo protocol handlers.
Are any other users experiencing this problem? If so, hopefully Kommen & Co can fix this in a future version.
JohnB
JohnB,
I noticed the same thing back in June (look a few posts above your last one). I thought it might be Linux specific because my wife and I both use it, but I tested it at work on my Windows machine there and found the same problem. I have noticed that the “Send Link” function works if you right-click a link to send, but not if you just right-click on a page. I’d be happy to try to fix this if I had any idea where to begin, but I’ve never worked with Firefox plugins before and I don’t know what the Firefox developers changed in Firefox 3. Can anyone point me towards a good resource to begin researching this?
Joe R,
I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed this problem. You’re right – you can send a link, but not the page URL.
Anyway, as a workaround I came across an extension called “Email This!”:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3102
Unfortunately, it currently only supports Gmail & Yahoo; and local email clients (OE, T’Bird, etc.) under Windows ONLY.
I hope this is helpful.
JohnB
JohnB,
Thanks for the suggestion of Email This!… it will definitely suffice as a workaround until either I can figure out how to get everything working or Kommen & Co release a new version that fixes this issue. Appreciate your help!
I, too, am dismayed the send File/Send Link no longer works with webmailcompose in FF3 (winblows vista). Is this likely to be fixed, or do I get to go back to FF2? (yes, it is that big a deal to me…)
FNORDMORPH: did you try the “Email This!” workaround mentioned above? This extension will give you the Send Link functionality back again.
Hope this helps,
JohnB
Email This doesn’t work with Squirrelmail :(
Thank you! You’ve saved my marriage.
My Yahoo Mail (classic) mailto links stopped working again recently with WebmailCompose. After much trial & error, I had to change my URL to this:
http://us.f302.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?to=T&subject=S&body=M&cc=C&bcc=^B
I hope this is helpful to others.
JohnB
Insert your thoughts here..
Kommen: you may wanna clean up the formatting in my post above.
JohnB
Do participate!