Email Mailto Links in Podio Calculation Fields Using Markdown

For customer #L-0493 we needed to pull a contacts email addresses into a calculation field and make it a mailto link. (a mailto link opens up whatever email client you have setup, and it puts in the receipient automatically) This was a bit tricky as calculation fields don’t support direct html. However they do support markdown, which is how we figured out how to get mailto links working!

Here is a basic example of how links work in Markdown:
[Link text](http://www.linkaddress.com)

If you want to do a mailto link it looks like this:
[Email address](mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

In Podio any markdown code must be surrounded in “quotes”, just make sure to not put any variables in quotes, as then they will not pull in correctly.

So here is what we did:

"Business Email: " + " ["+All of Business Email+"](mailto:"+All of Business Email+"?subject="+Title+"&body="+Agenda / Body+"&cc="+"This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)" + "\n" + "Personal Email: " + " ["+All of Personal Email+"](mailto:"+All of Personal Email+"?subject="+Title+"&body="+Agenda / Body+"&cc="+"This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)"

Lets go over this in greater detail for better understanding!
If you look at it again, notice that every time there is a variable, before it we close the “quotes” and add a ‘+’, and after it we add a ‘+’ and reopen the “quotes”. If you don’t do this the variables won’t get pulled in correctly, it will turn the code Podio uses into a text string.

Some other tips with mailto links:

1. add ‘?subject=subject here’ and the subject will be auto populated on the email.
   You can use a variable here as well.
2. add ‘&body=text here’ and the body of the email will be pre-populated here.
   Again you can use a variable here.
3. add ‘&cc=This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.’ and it will add a CC to the email.
   Again you can use a variable here.
4. add ‘&bcc=This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.’ and it will add a BCC to the email.
   Again you can use a variable here.
5. if you want multiple addresses anywhere where you can put an email, all you need to do is comma separate them.
   
   

Using this setup you can put in fields for each of these sections, and then have a mailto link that pre-fills all the email fields, then all you have to do is hit send!

Also in our example, for the “CC” we put in the email address that when you send to it, what was sent will be posted as a comment. So every time you send an email with this setup it gets posted as a comment as well! (You get this email address by going to an app item and clicking Actions > Email to Item)

This is a very handy way to use mailto links in a calculation field! Enjoy!