Ubuntu – make mailto: links open up in gmail instead of evolution

emailevolutiongconfgmailgnome

mailto: links fire up annoying "Evolution Setup Assistant". I want it to open a compose window in gmail in my web browser. There are existing questions about this here, but the answers are outdated and no longer work on 11.04.

on my system: I'm using chromium browser, and I think the path goes like this chrome -> xdg-open -> gnome-open and it's evolution that is set up when I check in gconf-editor, so I changed that key to gnome-open https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%U, but it's still firing up Evolution.

Best Answer

Yes, you can use the desktop webmail application, for instance. http://apt.ubuntu.com/p/desktop-webmail

And put the following in file /usr/share/applications/desktop-webmail.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Desktop Webmail
GenericName=Email
Comment=Compose email in browser
Comment[de]=EMail in Browser schreiben
Exec=desktop-webmail %U
Icon=desktop-webmail
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Categories=Application;Network;Email
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/mailto
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Compose

[Compose Shortcut Group]
Name=Compose New Message
Exec=desktop-webmail mailto:%U
TargetEnvironment=Messaging Menu;Unity