Having problems opening email message from Visual Basic 5

Hi all :)

I'm using the below function, to open a new email message, and feed in an email address, subject and a 'body' of the email (Note I don't want to send an email, just open the message and paste in contents)...

VB Code:

Public Function OpenEmail(ByVal EmailAddress As String, _ 
    Optional Subject As String, Optional Body As String) _ 
    As Boolean 
 
    Dim lWindow As Long 
    Dim lRet As Long 
    Dim sParams As String 
     
    sParams = EmailAddress 
    If LCase(Left(sParams, 7)) <> "mailto:" Then _ 
        sParams = "mailto:" & sParams 
  
 If Subject <> "" Then sParams = sParams & "?subject=" & Subject 
         
    If Body <> "" Then 
        sParams = sParams & IIf(Subject = "", "?", "&") 
        sParams = sParams & "body=" & Body 
    End If 
 
   lRet = ShellExecute(lWindow, "open", sParams, _ 
    vbNullString, vbNullString, SW_SHOW) 
     
   OpenEmail = lRet = 0 
 
End Function

The problem is, I want to feed a 'body' of text that includes returns after each line of text. As it stands, it just feeds one long line of text, containing company name, phone number etc. I've tried VbCrlF, Sendkeys to send tabs to the email message etc, nothing seems to work.

It just pastes a huge long line of information. I've tried putting vbCrLF's at the end of the strings that are grouped together (with '&') to form the final body string etc, no go...

Any ideas? I'm using VB5 to do this.

No one can help?

edit .. checking now ..

Here is the entire contents of the program

And my apologies, it's using VB6 not VB5

VB Code:

Dim StrContents As String
 
Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _
"ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation _
As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters _
As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
 
Private Const SW_SHOW = 5
 
 
Public Function OpenEmail(ByVal EmailAddress As String, _
    Optional Subject As String, Optional Body As String) _
    As Boolean
 
    Dim lWindow As Long
    Dim lRet As Long
    Dim sParams As String
    
    sParams = EmailAddress
    If LCase(Left(sParams, 7)) <> "mailto:" Then _
        sParams = "mailto:" & sParams
 
 If Subject <> "" Then sParams = sParams & "?subject=" & Subject
        
    If Body <> "" Then
        sParams = sParams & IIf(Subject = "", "?", "&")
        sParams = sParams & "body=" & Body
    End If
 
   lRet = ShellExecute(lWindow, "open", sParams, _
    vbNullString, vbNullString, SW_SHOW)
    
   OpenEmail = lRet = 0
 
End Function
 
 
Private Sub Book_Click()
 
Contact = "Contact: " & Contact.Text
Phone = "Phone: " & Phone.Text
Company = "Company: " & Company.Text
 
    StrContents = Contact & Phone & Company
 
    OpenEmail "[email protected]", "Bookings: ", StrContents
 
End Sub

the line,

VB Code:

OpenEmail "[email protected]", "Bookings: ", StrContents

Uses the function to open a new email message in outlook, with the email address as [email protected], the subject as 'bookings' and the body as 'StrContents'. Problem is, StrContents is made up of company, address and phone number. I want these lines seperated by return (so they are individual lines) - however this function dumps them all in as one long line of text.

I've tried,

VB Code:

OpenEmail "[email protected]", "Bookings: ", StrContents & vbcrlf & StrContents2

Also

VB Code:

OpenEmail "[email protected]", "Bookings: ", StrContents & SendKeys (send some carriage returns) & StrContents2

Also tried adding the returns somewhere else, like in the original 3 strings...

VB Code:

Contact = "Contact: " & Contact.Text & VbCrLF
Phone = "Phone: " & Phone.Text & VbCrLF
Company = "Company: " & Company.Text & VbCrLF

ok use vbNewLine or vbCrlf then this ..
or just use "%0D%0A" as the next line in the body string ..

sParams = Replace(sParams, Chr(13), "%0D%0A")

There are several characters that you will need t oparse and make url safe. the carriage return is just one. There is a thread about it with working code on the forums already. I think Merri or Merrion was the member that posted it.

yeah i just found that on google here ..
http://www.rondebruin.nl/mail/oebody.htm

Sorry guys - I really appreciate the feedback, but could someone specify where

sParams = Replace(sParams, Chr(13), "%0D%0A")

Needs to go, and how it actually affects the function?.. I like to understand the code before using it, and I wouldn't know where to even 'insert' that line :)

Sorry for my noobishness :P

Wait, I understand now, thanks :)

%0D%0A will just seperate each string in the body.

I'm confused though - is this simply because VBCRLF etc won't parse into an email message?