1802793 - mail.compose.other.header affects not only composition of new message, but also message header view, which is wrong

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, defect)

Description

[mkerdan]

Steps to reproduce:

In Config Editor I added few new custom headers to mail.compose.other.header: "Content-Language" and "Accept-Language"

Actual results:

In previous version 92 everything was fine. When I updated to version 102, these new custom headers appeared in the message header even if View -> Headers -> Normal is active. But these new headers are only for composing new message, not to be visible in message view at any time.

Expected results:

These new custom headers must not be visible if View -> Headers -> Normal is active. They must be visible only when view "all headers" is active.

This bug can be easily fixed by editing omni.ja\chrome\messenger\content\messenger\msgHdrView.js file in the following way:

1. Find function initializeHeaderViewTables()
2. Find instruction .getCharPref("mail.compose.other.header", "")
3. Change "mail.compose.other.header" to "mailnews.customHeaders".
   Thus the message header will display only those additional headers which are specified by the user in mailnews.customHeaders.

Comment 2

[chrizilla]

Attachment: unwanted side effects of mail.compose.other.header.png

empty header fields as unwanted side effects of mail.compose.other.header

Comment 3

[chrizilla]

Can reproduce on TB115.

The functionality of mail.compose.other.header appears to be somewhat impaired.
The pref is supposed to add additional header fields as text boxes in the message compose window. In my tests on TB115 this actually does work, but as collateral damage these additional header fields are ALSO unsolicitedly displayed in the msg preview pane, sometimes without any content (i.e. empty lines): see screenshot.
These empty header fields have also been reproduced in bug 1799520 (see subsequent comment below).

It's as if the values for mail.compose.other.header were somehow also used for mailnews.headers.extraExpandedHeaders. (I'm not saying at all that this is what actually happens in the code! I'm just describing how the program seems to behave in the eye of the end user.)
Other than that, mailnews.headers.extraExpandedHeaders still works correctly for me (i.e. displays additional headers in the "normal" header view [in the msg header display area of the preview pane]).

---

steps to reproduce

1. add user_pref("mail.compose.other.header", "Received, Message-ID, References"); to user.js
2. look at msg header display area of the preview pane

expected results

The pref should only affect the msg compose window.
The pref should not affect the msg preview pane.

actual results

• The additional headers are added to the msg compose window (expected result), but also to the msg preview pane (unexpected result).
• As additional problem, the content of some displayed header fields is empty.
  In my example, the content of Received is displayed, but the content of Message-ID and References is not displayed (see empty lines in attached screenshot).

Comment 4

[chrizilla]

Attachment: screenshot from bug 1799520

For reference, here is the bug report from closed duplicate bug 1799520 titled
« setting mail.compose.other.header to "from" breaks header display in message reader UI » :

Steps to reproduce:

To reproduce try setting mail.compose.other.header to "from".
I have it set to this value because I prefer the behavior I get in composer (and this setting history has been mostly taken into account in composer).

Actual results:

From header content is not displayed in message reader.

Expected results:

From header is visible in message reader.

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] (away, back Aug 4)]

Can you reproduce with beta/daily?

Comment 6

[chrizilla]

will try and report back

Comment 7

[chrizilla]

Attachment: unwanted side effects of mail.compose.other.header [TB128.0a1 64bit 2024-05-17].png

my observations on TB 128.0a1 (2024-05-17) (64-bit) @ x86_64 Windows 10 :

• fixed: Text field width optimization in Composer (message composition window). The text fields for the custom headers now span across the full width, which is beneficial. (They previously were much narrower.)
• fixed: "problem 2" in user story. I cannot reproduce the problem of the missing header field content (empty lines) anymore. Compare attached screenshot to screenshot in comment #2.
• unfixed: "problem 1" in user story. The header fields added to mail.compose.other.header are still displayed in the message preview pane. See attached screenshot.

Comment 8

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Attachment: Bug 1802793 - Display custom compose headers in msgHdrView only in outgoing folders. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

This functionality is already provided by mailnews.headers.extraExpandedHeaders.

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/149eb13495c8
Display custom compose headers in msgHdrView only in outgoing folders. r=john.bieling

Comment 10

[Francesco]

Setting flags based on the fact that this was reported for TB 102.