58810 - -help needs correction about -compose

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Cmd-line Features, defect, P3)

Description

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

not sure if this should go over to the mail group --pls do move it there if
needed.

found this using 2000.10.30.09-n6 [comm branch bits] on linux and winnt. [n/a on
mac.]

recipe:
1. at a command prompt, issue the following:

	./netscape -compose http://www.mozilla.org/

2. if you have multiple profiles, the profile manager will appear --just select
one and start the app.

expected: a mail composition window should appear, with the url attached. esp.
since -help [on linux, at least, and debug versions on win32, afaik] shows that
-compose can take <url> as an additional parameter.

result: no url is attached.

Comment 1

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

admittedly, it's been a while since i ran this --but i coulda sworn it used to
work...

Comment 2

[don]

Radha, is this our bug?  If not, who should get it?

Comment 3

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

updating summary, it was -compose not -console.

"mozilla -compose <url>" used to work.  (I think.  I remember ducarroz or akkana
using it.)  It may have only worked with mailto: urls, or with email addresses.

this probably should be documented better, or update so that if the url is not a
mailto: url, attach the url to the composition.

since I did the command line handling stuff, this can go to me.

Comment 4

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

thx, seth --sorry bout the typo.

also: i was obviously having a happy hallucination --i couldn't get -compose
[url] to load the given url even when using a 7/21 build... so 'regression'
isn't applicable there. even when using maito:[addy] in a 10/30 or 7/21 build,
the email address doesn't appear [at least in any of the header fields]...
hrm, removing that keyword for now.

Comment 5

[Akkana Peck]

mozilla -edit [url] works and I use it a lot, but I had never heard that it was
possible to do -compose [url].  Though it would be a nice feature ...

Comment 6

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

are you speaking about -compose [parameters] like -compose
to=[e-mail] ?

Comment 7

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

relnote keyword, as this could cause confusion with users, cc gerv (you have
like 4 bugzilla emails, hope i got the right one)

Comment 8

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Yep, that's fine :-) They all go to me anyway.

Gerv

Comment 9

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

the correct syntax for sending an attachment or a web page is:

-compose attachment=http://www.mozilla.org

or if you have several attachments:

-compose attachment='http://www.mozilla.org,http://mozillazine.org'

also, you can add any other parameters like to, cc, bcc, subject, body, identity:

-compose to=[e-mail],subject=Cool%20page,attachment=www.mozilla.org,body=
check%20this%20page...

Comment 10

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

ducarroz, thx! the syntax above does indeed work for me.

Comment 11

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I need to write up some docs on -compose and put them on
http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews.

all of the useful information ducarroz added is too much for -help.

Comment 12

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

couple of suggestions for -help content:

-compose attachment=<url>	Start mail compose attaching given <url>.

-compose <mailheader>=<email,content>	Start mail compose with given mailheader
info.

anyhow, was recently chatting w/seth who also suggested appending a url to -help
content for users to look up further info on commandline parameters [which would
be great!].

Comment 13

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

-compose may be going away, to be replaced by mailto.

ducarroz and I are discussing this.

Comment 14

[Akkana Peck]

In 4.x, at least on Unix, -compose brought up composer (just like -edit), while
mailto: urls brought up mail compose.  I wasn't clear on why we had changed this
for 6.0; to me, -compose bringing up composer seems more intuitive even though
bringing up mail compose is something I do more often.  Maybe it would be better
to have a -mailto to bring up a mail compose window without specifying a mailto:
link (for example, if someone wanted to use their addressbook or abook
autocompletion rather than typing the address on the command line) and let
-compose go back to being a synonym for -edit.

Comment 15

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

the only concern I have with using mailto: to start a compose window is that
what would append if an external application has been registered as content
handler for mailto? do we start the other application or do we force to use our
own message compose window?

Comment 16

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

Netscape Nav triage team: this is not a Netscape beta stopper.

Comment 17

[Daniel Wang]

http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html has -compose documented. I'd
suggest a direct link to this page since -compose syntax is a bit difficult to
explain in command line prompt

Comment 18

[steve bowden]

In windows mailto protocol :

-mail "%1" works but causes extra (empty) window to appear

-compose "to=%1" works and *doesn't* cause extra window!

Comment 19

[steve bowden]

correction to my previous comment

-compose "to=%1" in mailto protocol doesn't load empty window (which I'm trying
to get round) but does put the mailto:xxx@xxx in the To: field and not just xxx@xxx.
Putting the whole %1 argument in the To: field is probably the correct behaviour.
So I still have a problem with the extra empty window when mailto is invoked
outside of mozilla!

Comment 20

[Daniel Wang]

Steve, does the problem occur when Quick Launch is used? And does anyone know
how to set up equivelent DDE commands?

Comment 21

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

sorry for the spam.  making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs.  filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.