mailto

[#1]

Hello,

I kicked this one around in another forum but it is still an issue for me.

mailto using a URL button dows not work well, because the url button insists upon opening a browser window before firing up the local email tool. Could we please have a mailto button or a url button that can have parameters set so no browser window opens?

The workaround I have played with is using a component with html formatting. It works, but I have had a real problem with the cursor change when hovering on top of the mailto "text". The cursor change does not occur when hovering on top but only when hovering significantly below, which makes it pretty confusing for the end user.

I can't post examples here it seems, so I hope you see what I mean when trying a mailto in a text component.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi

I just tried this on a Label (with Enable HTML Formatting) and I do get the hand cursor when I move over the text (I am on SP1 FP2 - build 439):

<A  HREF="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Hello%20again"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>Click to start sending an email to someone at SAP.com</U></FONT></A><BR>
If you run this in a web browser then you should not get an extra web browser window...

When you are in Preview mode I think the Flash Player has to open a web browser to redirect mailto to your default email application, this is probably the same in PPT as well.

If you export to a SWF and run the SWF in a web browser then for me the email application just opens without an extra web browser. If you have associated SWF files with your web browser you can go File, Export Preview in Xcelsius to open the SWF in an external web browser...

Regards,

Matt

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you again Matt.

The browser window problem is only with a url button, not with html enabled text but from memory, it does do the same in the "compiled" swf. I will test that again.

Not sure why my cursor behavious is different. I don;t seem to have that problem elsewhere. Hmmm...

Back to testing.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

To reiterate (have similar issue described in my html post): I absolutely get a browser window open when I run a dashboard with the above code.

Do you not?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Xcelsius uses Adobe Flex TextField component in which can handle a subset of HTML.

Here is a more detailed description of what the TextField component supports (which is what you should be able to do in Xcelsius): [http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/2/langref/flash/text/TextField.html#htmlText]

For the Anchor tag HREF this is what is says:

hrefu2014The URL can be either absolute or relative to the location of the SWF file that is loading the page. An example of an absolute reference to a URL is http://www.adobe.com; an example of a relative reference is /index.html. Absolute URLs must be prefixed with http://; otherwise, Flash treats them as relative URLs.

It may be possible if you have someone develop a custom add-on but otherwise the Anchor tag expects to be jumping to a web page outside of the SWF.

Regards,

Matt

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yes. It is pretty silly for a mailto but the subset just doesn't differentiate.

Custom add-on by Monday anyone?

I also tried to create a mailto: in flash. I imported the button with the mailto on click into xcelsius but of course, this hits the same limitations: browser window still opens.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi

I get the same result as Matt when using the URL button.

In Preview mode I get a additional window, and the email app.

(This Window or New Window made no difference)

As a SWF with New Window I get the blank page and the email app, with This Window I only get the email app.

Viewed in the BOXI platform I just get the email app.

Regards

Charles

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Charles,

Thank you very much for this. Let me get this straight: at run time with this window, you do NOT get a browser window opening up?

If so, that is weird. I do. All the time.

Is there a way I can take a look at your xlf file that works please? Not sure how to do this since you cannot upload files either.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Cricri

Contact me via my profile and I'll send you the test xlf files I have.

Regards

Charles

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Have just done so before you asked

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks to the combined efforts of Matt and Charles, I have not got this sorted.

For those who are interested, here is how it works.

I only output to swf and then embed in pdf. I never output to a web page so I couldn't quite make out what was being said above as I always saw a new unwanted browser page open when I played the swf or pdf.

To do a proper mailto without the unwanted browser page:

1) Use the url button and feed it your mailto details

2) If you are outputting an swf with html to be viewed in a web page, just select This Window in the Window Options of the General Tab. That's all. It does not work in Preview but in works when exported.

3) If, like me, you want to play a stanalone swf in a PDF file, doing the above is sufficient BUT playing the swf in any player will NOT work. However, if you embed that swf ino Acrobat 9, the maito will behave perfectly.

Hope this helps.