Is it possible to put a line break into a 'mailto:' rewrite in htaccess?

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For complex reasons I've had to remove an enquiry form from a web site and use a 'mailto:' instead. For simplicity I've changed the htaccess file so that the former 'contact' link to the form now becomes a 'mailto:' as follows:

RewriteRule ^contact$ mailto:myname@mydomain.com?subject=BusinessName\ BandB\ Enquiry&body=You\ can\ find\ our\ availability\ on\ line.\ Delete\ this\ content\ if\ inapplicable

That does work, my local e-mail client (Thunderbird) opens with the information correctly shown in subject and body. (My TB is set to compose in plain text, I've yet to test with HTML)

I would like to introduce a new line in the body so that 'Delete this content if inapplicable' is on a separate line. Is there any way to do this? Given mod_rewrite's intended purpose I could understand if there isn't but I thought I'd ask before giving up.

.htaccess mailto
1 Answers

I would like to introduce a new line in the body so that 'Delete this content if inapplicable' is on a separate line.

New lines in the body need are represented by two characters: carriage return (char 13) + line feed (char 10) (see RFC2368). This would need to be URL encoded in the resulting URL as %0D%0A.

When used in the RewriteRule substitution string the literal % characters would need to backslash-escaped to negate their special meaning as a backreference to the preceding CondPattern (which there isn't one). ie. \%0D\%0A. Otherwise, you will end up with the string DA, because there is no %0 backreference in this example.

You can also avoid having to backslash-escape all the literal spaces by encloses the entire argument (substitution string) in double quotes.

So, try the following instead:

RewriteRule ^contact$ "mailto:myname@mydomain.com?subject=BusinessName BandB Enquiry&body=You can find our availability on line.\%0D\%0ADelete this content if inapplicable" [R,L]

user_3694340
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