1518888 - forwarded invitations make message disappear

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1360155

(Calendar :: E-mail based Scheduling (iTIP/iMIP), defect)

Description

[tlhackque]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:55.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/55.0

Steps to reproduce:

I create (external to TB), send & open a message that as an attached event invitation.

The first section is detail and documents - all recipients will read it.

The second section is a complete (message/rfc822) message that contains a calendar event. Some recipients will want to add the event to their calendar. When they do, the first section disappears.

The structure looks like this:

(Top level)
Content-type: multipart/mixed
Effective-type: multipart/mixed
Body-file: NONE
Subject: Board of Selectmen Agenda - Thursday, January 10, 2019
Num-parts: 4
--
   (Section 1, regular message)
    Content-type: multipart/alternative
    Effective-type: multipart/alternative
    Body-file: NONE
    Num-parts: 2
    --
        Content-type: text/plain
        Effective-type: text/plain
        Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-1.txt
        --
        Content-type: multipart/related
        Effective-type: multipart/related
        Body-file: NONE
        Num-parts: 2
        --
            Content-type: text/html
            Effective-type: text/html
            Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-2.html
            --
            Content-type: image/png
            Effective-type: image/png
            Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-3.png
            --
    Content-type: application/pdf
    Effective-type: application/pdf
    Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/Document001.pdf
    Recommended-filename: Document001.pdf
    --
    Content-type: multipart/alternative
    Effective-type: multipart/alternative
    Body-file: NONE
    Num-parts: 2
    --
        Content-type: text/plain
        Effective-type: text/plain
        Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-4.txt
        --
        Content-type: multipart/related
        Effective-type: multipart/related
        Body-file: NONE
        Num-parts: 2
        --
            Content-type: text/html
            Effective-type: text/html
            Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-5.html
            --
            Content-type: image/jpeg
            Effective-type: image/jpeg
            Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-6.jpg
            --
    (Section 2 - calendar item)
    Content-type: message/rfc822
    Effective-type: message/rfc822
    Body-file: NONE
    Recommended-filename: invite.eml
    Num-parts: 1
    --
        Content-type: multipart/mixed
        Effective-type: multipart/mixed
        Body-file: NONE
        Subject: Board of Selectmen calendar item
        Num-parts: 2
        --
            Content-type: multipart/alternative
            Effective-type: multipart/alternative
            Body-file: NONE
            Num-parts: 2
            --
                (Text intro to invite)
                Content-type: text/plain
                Effective-type: text/plain
                Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-7.txt
                --
                (M$ version of calendar item - inline)
                Content-type: text/calendar
                Effective-type: text/calendar
                Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/doc-553-8.txt
                --
            (Apple, etc version of calendar item - .ics attachment)
            Content-type: application/ics'
            Effective-type: application/ics'
            Body-file: /tmp/fhniuUW08H/msg-1547060447-553-0/event.ics
            Recommended-filename: event.ics
            --

Actual results:

When the message is first received and opened, it displays as expected:

First section, which simplifies as:
alternative text/plain & related html & image
(one or more attachments)
alternative text/plain & related html & image (describes the attachments)

Second section displays as "invite.eml", and is formatted as an in-line email, including as an Event Invitation.

The main window has a blue notice bar (above the first section) "This message contains an event", with an "Add" button.

So far, so good.

Now, click Add.

The event is added to the calendar as expected. The blue bar reads "The event has been added to your calendar". Still OK.

Close the message, and re-open it from the inbox.

Section 1 of the message is missing. The only part displayed is the event (section 2). The blue bar reads "This message contains an event that has already been processed".

If I delete the event from the calendar, the entire message displays.

It seems that TB is looking too far into the message structure.

Expected results:

Either:
The event should have been invisible until the attached message ("section 2) was opened (e.g. in another window)

or

The first part of the message should be visible even when the event is on the calendar.

That is, with the event on the calendar, it should be possible to view the part of the message that doesn't include the calendar item.

I think this is a bug in TB/lightening, but I'd be happy to work-around it.

I have control over the message structure; If I should be constructing it differently, please advise.

Note: The one thing I can't do is deliver the calendar item in a separate message. (The message is delivered to a (Mailman) mailing list. Its processing is opaque.)

Also, the content (with attachments) is too large to put into the events (2 copies of which are necessary to satisfy all MUAs). And in any case, people do don't wish to calendar the events (or don't have an integrated calendar in their MUA) shouldn't (can't) have to open the event to see the other info.

Comment 1

[tlhackque]

Attachment: example.eml

I get slightly better behavior if I make each section a complete message/rfc822 and encapsulate them in a multipart/digest. In this case, the non-event section can be opened as an attachment once the event has been added to the calendar.

However, this seems to confirm that Thunderbird is merging the separate messages in a digest and treating the entire digest as an invitation (calendar item). They are separate messages and should be separate subpanes. (Note also that the body background bleeds from the first message into the second's section.)

The attached message, if opened in thunderbird, will demonstrate the issue. It is a complete example (using multipart/digest).

As described in the base report: save the file. Open (in TB). Then add to your calendar. Close the window, and Open the file again. You'll see that only the event is displayed. (But the other message is on the attachment bar.)

This is very confusing and hard to explain to users...

Thanks in advance.

Comment 2

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Yes, that the message disappears when you accept the invite is a know and annoying problem.