mailto: links — return code from js?

Question

Is it possible somehow to find out if an external email client has actually been opened when a user clicks on a mailto link on a web page? I need to know that in my javascript code.

The reason I need to know this, is because users might not have any email clients set up on their machines, and they would wonder why doesn't anything happen when they press on the "Send an Email" button.

Answer 1

Whatever happens if a mailto link is clicked is up to the clients browser. Maybe there is some hack to archive what you want, but no standard compliment solution.

Answer 2

JavaScript has no access to anything outside the browser. Because of this, there is no way to check the results of clicking a mailto link.