Prepopulating email attachments in one click using URL code

Question

On Enterprise Edition: I have a custom link on the contact page layout that when clicked throws open a "Send an Email" edit page with several fields auto populated such as To, Subject, Email body, and even several attachments, for convenience.

Here's the URL coding for the button link:

/_ui/core/email/author/EmailAuthor? email_type=custom&template_id=00X50000001XtXB&**id=00Y5000000Ir7Kg**&p2_lkid={!Contact.Id}&rtype=003&retURL=%2F{!Contact.Id}

I believe the highlighted id above represents the email attachment(s) because the moment it is removed, the attachments don't appear. I got that id (among others) from Inspect Element on the email body when the email template is pulled from Send an Email -> Select Template.

Now, for some reason, this id=00Y5000000Ir7Kg does not permanently represent the attachments. It changes regularly in the last 5 characters. I later noticed this when all content but the attachments were pre-populated. At this point when I check the id, it is something like 00Y5000000 XyZAb.

This is the issue I'm facing. How do I pre-populate with URL coding, the attachment(s) effectively just like other fields are with no potential trouble?

Clarification: This id works for sometime in pre-populating the attachments; works for a day, two days, maybe even a week, but when this id changes thru some unknown action or for some reason, I have to manually update the URL code with this new id in order to continue pre-populating the attachments.

Answer 1

I would suggest the visualforce route just in case you find URL hacking not consistent. I am just Extending @sfdcfox answer in the above post :

Step 1: Copy paste this code save the page and controller before you start the button.

Step 2: Create a button on Contact and make it execute on javascript with the following code: window.open('apex/custom_button_contact?id={!Contact.Id}');

Do not change the page code:

<apex:page standardController="contact" extensions="custom_button_controller" action="{!sendEmail}">
</apex:page>   

Controller: When the user clicks the button take the contact Id and set it as targetobjectID ( target can be user or contact)

     public class custom_button_controller {

        string contact_id{get;set;}

            public custom_button_controller(ApexPages.StandardController controller) {
                contact_id = apexpages.currentpage().getparameters().get('id');
            }

            public pagereference sendemail(){
                Messaging.SingleEmailMessage message = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
//change the template ID to your own template ID
        message.setTemplateId('00Xd0000000Lfp0');
                    message.setTargetObjectId(contact_id);
                    List<Messaging.Emailfileattachment> fileAttachments = new List<Messaging.Emailfileattachment>();
//I have taken 2 random attachments you can do where ID=:'your attachment Id'
                    for (Attachment a : [select Name, Body, BodyLength from Attachment limit 2])
                    {
                      Messaging.Emailfileattachment efa = new Messaging.Emailfileattachment();
                      efa.setFileName(a.Name);
                      efa.setBody(a.Body);
                      fileAttachments.add(efa);
                    }
                    message.setFileAttachments(fileAttachments);
                    Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[]{message});
                    return null;
                }

            }

Answer 2

You should be able to have the attachments loaded as well if you add &new_template=1 in your original URL