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usagora

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 17, 2017
4,919
4,515
This one has me puzzled. I have a class handbook that includes some static QR codes, which all work fine with my iPhone when I scan the QR codes with the Camera app. In the PDF version of the handbook, since there is no built-in way to scan on-screen QR codes, I have hyperlinked transparent square shapes embedded in the PDF and superimposed them over the QR codes so when a user taps on the QR codes, they hyperlink will take you to the appropriate URL or performs the designated action. I used Kofax Power PDF to do this.

Well, for some reason the QR code hyperlink that opens a new email message with prefilled subject and body does NOT work when I tap on it in Safari on iOS. I get the error message "Safari cannot open the page because the address is invalid" . . . but it's not invalid! It works just fine when I click on it in Safari on macOS - it opens up the Mail app and pre-fills the subject and body.

So what gives?

The link format is as follows:

mailto:xxx@xxx.com?subject=JOIN&body=JOIN


Ironically, I have an SMS hyperlink (opens new message and pre-fills the text) that does NOT work when I click on it on macOS in Preview (but it works in Safari on macOS), but DOES work when I click on it in iOS. But the email hyperlink works whether I'm viewing the PDF in Preview OR Safari. Totally bizarre! The format of that link is:

sms:xxxxxxxxxx?&body=JOIN

Can anyone help me solve this mystery?
 
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