12865 - Option to compress large attachments automatically (ZIP)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(MailNews Core :: Composition, enhancement, P3)

Description

[bruno]

Messenger should be able to compress with ZIP, attachment files which have a
weight more than [user choice] Ko...

It might be very appreciated by the users. Isn't it ?

Comment 1

[Phil Peterson]

That might be useful, but I'd be nervous about all mail readers (and
users) being able to unzip attachments.

Anyway, I'll put this out on the HELP WANTED list in case someone wants to code
it up.

Comment 2

[Phil Peterson]

Reopen mail/news HELP WANTED bugs and reassign to [e-mail]

Comment 3

[Phil Peterson]

Put HELP WANTED in the Status Whiteboard so the mozilla.org bug query finds them

Comment 4

[pmock]

changing QA assigned to [e-mail]

Comment 5

[Eugene Savitsky]

>That might be useful, but I'd be nervous about all mail readers (and
>users) being able to unzip attachments.

Every mailer can open a zipped file with external program (like
PowerArchiver2001 - a freeware archiver with many format support). So I do not
see any problems here.

We also can just implement a call of an external program to zip the attachment.
I believe we do not have to implement the full zip algorithm.

Comment 6

[fenella]

Change QA-assign to fenella

Comment 7

[fenella]

To Esther..

Comment 8

[Henrik Gemal]

It seems like Mozilla have somekind of .zip support. Fx look at:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/modules/libjar/nsZipArchive.cpp

Perhaps this could be used for zipping and unzipping attachments.

Comment 9

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

looks like work on this has begun in bug 180798

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 180798 ***

Comment 10

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

I can't read. 'options', not 'opens'. clearing dup status, sorry. (sigh)

Comment 11

[Jim Booth]

*** Bug 209273 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Pedro Madeira]

Does anyone know where can be found information on the development, if any,
of these features.

Is this planned to be released in a future release?

Any informations would be greatly appreciated.
Pedro Madeira
(Creator of bug 209273)

Comment 13

[Ian Graham]

We'd need to be very careful about this potential 'feature' -- I know of several
private ISP installations that are choosing to block/discard all .zip
attachments, since zip-format is now commonly used as a container for viruses.....  

Best not to have Mozilla do magical things under the covers, unless it's really
clear to a novice user what is being done, and why .... 

Comment 14

[Pedro Madeira]

How's the status on this?

In reply to Comment #13 I suggest that Mozilla should by default NOT zip/unzip
attachments but could be selected by power users or administrators for their
users in such a way that only after testing this option would be enabled.

Believe me: This would make mozilla score big against other mail clients due to
the bandwidth gain achieved with a feature like this.

Best regards from Portugal,
Pedro Madeira

Comment 15

[Jens Bannmann]

*** Bug 345237 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[Jens Bannmann]

Tweaking summary to improve findability.

Some ideas from bug 345237 comment 0:
>  * Provide a button in the attachments pane (or elsewhere) that will compress
> attachments when clicked.
>  * Provide a preferences configuration section that allows the user to
> automatically have thunderbird compress attachments over xxx kb in size.
>  * Display a pop-up that requests the user to allow Thunderbird to compress all
> attachments when the sum total size of the attachments is larger than xxx kb.
>  * Have Thunderbird automatically compress large attachments without
> interaction when sending to users who use Thunderbird as well. 
>  * Have a "Compress Attachments and Send" button
>  * Provide a "Compress Attachments" toggle when selecting attachments in the
> file manager. 

Comment 17

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Filter on "Nobody_NScomTLD_20080620"

Comment 19

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

--> This bug should be resolved "wontfix", in full appreciation of the idea (wonfix+want_addon, see bug 577944 and bug 522873).

This looks like a valid idea, and a good one indeed.
However, it's very unlikely that core developers will find time for this, and it's a complex feature that cannot be the default behaviour. As such, it would be a nice candidate for an extension.

N.B. There is an outdated addon for this feature: 
Auto Zip Attachments (https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/4003)

A modified version for TB 3.1 has been posted here (no guarantees, but worked for me): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1WDSFIJB

Comment 20

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Wontfix per comment 19...

Comment 21

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

In reply to comment #19:
Your addons.mozilla.org "4003" link is outdated and gives me error 404 Not Found. The extension is now at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/auto-zip-attachments/ and supports Thundderbird up to version 2.0.0.*; it does not support SeaMonkey.

Comment 23

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/247d35afef5a
[fenix] For https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12865, https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12990 - Disable swipe to switch tabs gesture when the keyboard is visible.