[javascript] How to send an email from JavaScript

I couldn't find an answer that really satisfied the original question.

• Mandrill is not desirable due to it's new pricing policy, plus it required a backend service if you wanted to keep your credentials safe.
• It's often preferable to hide your email so you don't end up on any lists (the mailto solution exposes this issue, and isn't convenient for most users).
• It's a hassle to set up sendMail or require a backend at all just to send an email.

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>

Again, in full disclosure, I created this service because I could not find a suitable answer.