Plugin to use for mailto: scheme info.plist file

[paydii]

We're developing an email client app for iOS and macOS and planning to apply for the com.apple.developer.mail-client entitlement.

Did some research, now I'm not sure which plugin(s) handle this, is it deeplink, opener, shell, or combination of them? I think this could be the tauri-plugin-deplink job, I added:

  "plugins": {
    "deep-link": {
      "desktop": {
        "schemes": ["mailto"]
      },

in my default tauri.conf.json file. Any clue if that's the right way to do?

#5544
https://v2.tauri.app/plugin/opener/
#14491

[FabianLars]

The shell and opener plugins are unrelated. They are only relevant for e.g. clicking on <a> elements with mailto: links.

You're looking for either the deep-link plugin, or you can add the scheme to the Info.plist yourself and listen to https://docs.rs/tauri/2.11.0/x86_64-apple-ios/tauri/enum.RunEvent.html#variant.Opened

[karan5028ji]

You're on the right track — tauri-plugin-deep-link is the piece that handles this. shell/opener are unrelated: they only let a link inside your webview open something externally; they never register your app to receive mailto: URLs.

Two separate things to get right here:

1. Receiving the mailto: URL (deep-link)

Your desktop.schemes: ["mailto"] config is correct for macOS. But since you're also building for iOS, add the mobile equivalent — on iOS/Android the scheme must be declared in the mobile block (the plugin then generates the CFBundleURLTypes Info.plist entries for you):

"plugins": {
  "deep-link": {
    "desktop": {
      "schemes": ["mailto"]
    },
    "mobile": [
      {
        "scheme": ["mailto"],
        "appLink": false
      }
    ]
  }
}

Then listen in Rust:

use tauri_plugin_deep_link::DeepLinkExt;

.setup(|app| {
    // Was the app launched by a mailto: link?
    if let Some(urls) = app.deep_link().get_current()? {
        println!("launched with: {urls:?}");
    }
    // Fired for every subsequent open while running
    app.deep_link().on_open_url(|event| {
        println!("opened with: {:?}", event.urls());
    });
    Ok(())
})

or in JS via getCurrent() / onOpenUrl() from @tauri-apps/plugin-deep-link.

2. Being a mail client (the entitlement)

com.apple.developer.mail-client is a separate thing — it's an Apple entitlement, not a Tauri plugin. Put it in an entitlements plist and reference it from tauri.conf.json:

"bundle": {
  "macOS": {
    "entitlements": "path/to/Entitlements.plist"
  }
}

with:

<key>com.apple.developer.mail-client</key>
<true/>

The entitlement makes your app eligible to be the default mail app; the user still has to select your app as the default handler in System Settings (macOS) / Settings (iOS). deep-link makes the app capable of being handed the URL, the entitlement + user choice makes it the default.