<form action="javascript:sendMail();" name="pmForm" id="pmForm" method="post">

Enter Friend's Email:

<input name="pmSubject" id="pmSubject" type="text" maxlength="64"
style="width:98%;" />
<input name="pmSubmit" type="submit" value="Invite" />

function sendMail() {
/* ...code here... */
}

You can't send an email directly with javascript.

You can, however, open the user's mail client:

window.open('mailto:[email protected]');

There are also some parameters to pre-fill the subject and the body:

window.open('mailto:[email protected]?subject=subject&body=body');

Your server can call the 3rd Party API after proper authentication and
authorization. The API Keys are not exposed to client.

node.js - https://www.npmjs.org/package/node-mandrill

var mandrill = require('node-mandrill')('<your API Key>');

function sendEmail ( _name, _email, _subject, _message) {

mandrill('/messages/send', {
message: {
to: [{email: _email , name: _name}],
from_email: '[email protected]',
subject: _subject,
text: _message
}
}, function(error, response){
if (error) console.log( error );
else console.log(response);
});
}

// define your own email api which points to your server.

app.post( '/api/sendemail/', function(req, res){

var _name = req.body.name;

var _email = req.body.email;
var _subject = req.body.subject;
var _messsage = req.body.message;

//implement your spam protection or checks.

sendEmail ( _name, _email, _subject, _message );

});

and then use use $.ajax on client to call your email API.
Indirect via Your Server - Calling 3rd Party API - secure and recommended

Your server can call the 3rd Party API after proper authentication and
authorization. The API Keys are not exposed to client.

node.js - https://www.npmjs.org/package/node-mandrill

var mandrill = require('node-mandrill')('<your API Key>');

function sendEmail ( _name, _email, _subject, _message) {

mandrill('/messages/send', {
message: {
to: [{email: _email , name: _name}],
from_email: '[email protected]',
subject: _subject,
text: _message
}
}, function(error, response){
if (error) console.log( error );
else console.log(response);
});
}

// define your own email api which points to your server.

app.post( '/api/sendemail/', function(req, res){

var _name = req.body.name;

var _email = req.body.email;
var _subject = req.body.subject;
var _messsage = req.body.message;

//implement your spam protection or checks.

sendEmail ( _name, _email, _subject, _message );

});

and then use use $.ajax on client to call your email API.

Directly From Client - Calling 3rd Party API - not recomended

Send an email using only JavaScript

in short:
1. register for Mandrill to get an API key
2. load jQuery
3. use $.ajax to send an email

Like this -

function sendMail() {
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
 url: 'https://mandrillapp.com/api/1.0/messages/send.json',
data: {
'key': 'YOUR API KEY HERE',
'message': {
'from_email': '[email protected]',
'to': [
{
'email': '[email protected]',
'name': 'RECIPIENT NAME (OPTIONAL)',
'type': 'to'
}
],
'autotext': 'true',
'subject': 'YOUR SUBJECT HERE!',
'html': 'YOUR EMAIL CONTENT HERE! YOU CAN USE HTML!'
}
}
}).done(function(response) {
console.log(response); // if you're into that sorta thing
});
}

You can find what to put inside the JavaScript function in this post.

function getAjax() {
try {
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
return new XMLHttpRequest();
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
try {
return new ActiveXObject('Msxml2.XMLHTTP');
} catch (try_again) {
return new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');
}
}
} catch (fail) {
return null;
}
}

function sendMail(to, subject) {

var rq = getAjax();

if (rq) {
// Success; attempt to use an Ajax request to a PHP script to send the e-
mail
try {
rq.open('GET', 'sendmail.php?to=' + encodeURIComponent(to) +
'&subject=' + encodeURIComponent(subject) + '&d=' + new
Date().getTime().toString(), true);

rq.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (this.readyState === 4) {
if (this.status >= 400) {
// The request failed; fall back to e-mail client
window.open('mailto:' + to + '?subject=' +
encodeURIComponent(subject));
}
}
 };

rq.send(null);
} catch (fail) {
// Failed to open the request; fall back to e-mail client
window.open('mailto:' + to + '?subject=' +
encodeURIComponent(subject));
}
} else {
// Failed to create the request; fall back to e-mail client
window.open('mailto:' + to + '?subject=' + encodeURIComponent(subject));
}
}

I put together a simple free service that allows you to make a standard HTTP POST
request to send an email. It's called PostMail, and you can simply post a form, use
Javascript or jQuery. When you sign up, it provides you with code that you can copy
& paste into your website. Here are some examples:

Javascript:

<form id="javascript_form">
<input type="text" name="subject" placeholder="Subject" />
<textarea name="text" placeholder="Message"></textarea>
<input type="submit" id="js_send" value="Send" />
</form>

<script>

//update this with your js_form selector

var form_id_js = "javascript_form";

var data_js = {
"access_token": "{your access token}" // sent after you sign up
};

function js_onSuccess() {
// remove this to avoid redirect
window.location = window.location.pathname + "?
message=Email+Successfully+Sent%21&isError=0";
}

function js_onError(error) {
// remove this to avoid redirect
window.location = window.location.pathname + "?
message=Email+could+not+be+sent.&isError=1";
}

var sendButton = document.getElementById("js_send");

function js_send() {
sendButton.value='Sending�';
sendButton.disabled=true;
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (request.readyState == 4 && request.status == 200) {
js_onSuccess();
} else
 if(request.readyState == 4) {
js_onError(request.response);
}
};

var subject = document.querySelector("#" + form_id_js + "

[name='subject']").value;
var message = document.querySelector("#" + form_id_js + "
[name='text']").value;
data_js['subject'] = subject;
data_js['text'] = message;
var params = toParams(data_js);

request.open("POST", "https://postmail.invotes.com/send", true);

request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-
urlencoded");

request.send(params);

return false;
}

sendButton.onclick = js_send;

function toParams(data_js) {
var form_data = [];
for ( var key in data_js ) {
form_data.push(encodeURIComponent(key) + "=" +
encodeURIComponent(data_js[key]));
}
return form_data.join("&");
}

var js_form = document.getElementById(form_id_js);

js_form.addEventListener("submit", function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
});
</script>

jQuery:

<form id="jquery_form">
<input type="text" name="subject" placeholder="Subject" />
<textarea name="text" placeholder="Message" ></textarea>
<input type="submit" name="send" value="Send" />
</form>

<script>

//update this with your $form selector

var form_id = "jquery_form";

var data = {
"access_token": "{your access token}" // sent after you sign up
};

function onSuccess() {
// remove this to avoid redirect
window.location = window.location.pathname + "?
message=Email+Successfully+Sent%21&isError=0";
}

function onError(error) {
// remove this to avoid redirect
window.location = window.location.pathname + "?
message=Email+could+not+be+sent.&isError=1";
}

var sendButton = $("#" + form_id + " [name='send']");

function send() {
sendButton.val('Sending�');
sendButton.prop('disabled',true);

var subject = $("#" + form_id + " [name='subject']").val();

var message = $("#" + form_id + " [name='text']").val();
data['subject'] = subject;
data['text'] = message;

$.post('https://postmail.invotes.com/send',
data,
onSuccess
).fail(onError);

return false;
}

sendButton.on('click', send);

var $form = $("#" + form_id);

$form.submit(function( event ) {
event.preventDefault();
});
</script>

4
down vote

window.open('mailto:[email protected]'); as above does nothing to hide the

"[email protected]" email address from being harvested by spambots. I used to
constantly run into this problem.

var recipient="test";
var at = String.fromCharCode(64);
var dotcom="example.com";
var mail="mailto:";
window.open(mail+recipient+at+dotcom);