Yay! We're finally being made obsolete by google labs. They released . It sits in your system tray and checks every 2 minutes for new mail. It also has an option when you install it to register it as the default mailto application like G-Mailto does.
I will leave G-Mailto up for historical purposes :) and because some people only want what G-Mailto does and not the mail notification portion of Google's program.
The Program
One night I was going through 250KB javascript file that is GMail, figuring out how it works. After a bit I discovered that I could link directly to the Compose page pretty easily (among other things). Mix that with some obscure registry knowledge and BLAMO! G-Mailto is born and Mailto links are no longer just an annoyance.
G-Mailto is a utility that automatically associates "mailto" email links on the web with GMail. So clicking a link like this: Email me! will open up the GMail compose window instead of opening up something like Outlook Express that doesn't work with GMail (yet).
If you are not logged in, it will bring you to the GMail login screen and redirect you to the compose window after you log in. If you use cookies then you dont even have to worry about that.
Other Info
If any of you are interested in making your own program similar/better to this, here is the important info you'll need. This program is really, really simple though. It basically grabs the variable values out of a mailto link and opens the GMail compose URL below with those values added to it.
NOTE: You have to double escape spaces in everything after the "dest=" variable. So instead of "+" or "%20", you need to use "%2520". You also have to double escape the pound symbol. So instead of this "#" it is this "%2523".
GMail Field Variables
Just append any of these to the GMail Compose Email URL above.
Email To: "to"
Usage: "%26to%3Dmike%40rabidsquirrel%2Enet"
CC: "cc"
Usage: "%26cc%3D"
Comma Delimited list of emails
BCC: "bcc"
Usage: "%26bcc%3D"
Comma Delimited list of emails
Subject Line: "su"
Usage: "%26su%3DYour%2520Subject%2520Line"
Body: "body"
Usage: "%26body%3DBlahblah"
Registry Locations
This is how you associate GMail with Mailto links.
Bugfix: 404 error when a carrot "^" is in the address. Needed to be double escaped.
Opera Users:
The only way to get G-Mailto to work with Opera is if you change one of your preferences. Under the preferences page, go down to Email, then select "Use default e-mail client on computer". Unfortunately there is no way to change this automatically since Opera doesn't use the registry for this setting.
Code is written in VB. It took me less than an hour and it's only about 500 lines. This single webpage took a lot longer to write.
I use Inno Setup (free) for my installer. I've included the saved Inno Setup installer script (.iss).
If you hate installers you can always just download the .exe files and make the registry changes above.
Other GMail Programs / Links
Import Your Mbox or Maildir Files into GMail
A GMail to POP3 Gateway. It lets you use any POP3 client (like Outlook) to access your GMail emails. Very cool
A little tray icon that notifies you when you have new mail in your GMail account.
New beta version does not have the focus stealing bug, supports balloon pop ups, and new mail notification sound.
It looks like he is adding G-Mailto type functionality to it too. Although it isn't working for me at this time.
So far this new version works great, but it is worth noting to you all that it currently does not use a secure HTTPS connection. I'm sure it will be added in the future though since he seems to be very actively developing GTray.
A little tray icon that notifies you when you have new mail in your GMail account.
This program works just like but without the focus stealing bug and it supports multiple Gmail accounts.
You can also import contacts from a file into your Gmail acocunt. Very cool
Forward your Hotmail emails to your GMail account.
A Safari Bookmark from Marc Garrett that works very similar to G-Mailto. Select the mailto link and click the bookmark. It will open up the GMail compose page. Based on the GMail URL he found here :)
LINUX USERS TAKE NOTE. A crossplatform Mozilla/Firefox/Netscape plugin that works much like G-Mailto. You can left or right click on a mailto link and open up the GMail compose window with it. Based on the GMail info he found here. This is why open source is awesome. New version includes a bunch of bugfixes, a new icon, and support for the new Gmail Compose URL.
Screenshots
Steps:
1: Click
2: Send Email
3: ....
4: Profit
(No, those last two steps are not from your message board, or fark.com, or slashdot, or whatever other website you think it is from. It also is not some hidden scheme I have for making money from G-Mailto either (I dont make a dime from it). Dear lord please stop emailing me about it.)
G-Mailto v1.32
