1828102 - Support mailto: urls in tabs.update(), tabs.create() and windows.create()

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Add-Ons: Extensions API, defect)

Description

[Teal Dulcet [:tdulcet] (TB Council)]

This bug was created at the request of John in bug 1716200:

(In reply to John Bieling (:TbSync) from comment #15)

mailto: is broken elsewhere, do not know where. Needs to be fixed in a different bug. Maybe the protocol handler does not like pointing back at itself.

(In reply to John Bieling (:TbSync) from comment #17)

For me, this does not work if executed from the console:

Cc["@mozilla.org/uriloader/external-protocol-service;1"].getService(Ci.nsIExternalProtocolService).loadURI(Services.io.newURI("mailto:[e-mail]"));

That is not limited to add-ons. There is something broken elsewhere. It does work in Firefox.

This issue is preventing the tabs.update() Mail/Web Extension API from opening mailto: URIs. Note that this API does work in Firefox with mailto: URIs as expected. Based on my remark in bug 1716200 comment 0, this must have worked at some point. Note that clicking a real mailto: link in TB does still open the compose window as expected.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

not supernova specific, correct?

Comment 2

[John Bieling]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #1)

not supernova specific, correct?

No, the command

Cc["@mozilla.org/uriloader/external-protocol-service;1"].getService(Ci.nsIExternalProtocolService).loadURI(Services.io.newURI("mailto:[e-mail]"));

is broken in 102 as well.

Comment 3

[John Bieling]

Note to myself: https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mozilla/browser/base/content/nsContextMenu.js#429-442

Comment 4

[John Bieling]

Attachment: Bug 1828102 - Support mailto: urls in tabs.update(), tabs.create() and windows.create(). r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Comment 5

[John Bieling]

The mentioned function call has not worked for Thunderbird for a long time. I went back till TB78. I am not sure it ever worked.

So the fix here will be to manually handle mailto links in the following function calls:

1. tabs.create({url:"mailto:[e-mail]"})
2. tabs.update(tabId, {url:"mailto:[e-mail]"})
3. windows.create({type: "popup", {url:"mailto:[e-mail]"})

We now have to decide what we want to do.

• tabs.update() needs to work.
• tabs.create() should not be used to create a compose window.
• I am unsure about windows.create(), we have the compose API to explicitly create a new compose window.

What do you think? Can you try this try-build and check if it works for you?
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try-comm-central&revision=27520ea776289858aecb662413fe23488d950347

Comment 6

[Teal Dulcet [:tdulcet] (TB Council)]

What do you think?

Thanks John for fixing this.

I would argue to keep the patch as is and support all three APIs, which would provide full Firefox compatibility. However, my add-on would only need the first two specifically.

Comment 7

[John Bieling]

IIRC, you said you need mailto url support in tabs.create() to open multiple compose windows. Is that correct?

I checked Firefox behavior and tabs.create() will open an empty tab and then leave the tab open in addition to the opened external application. Is that really a UX you want to use? Why not use tabs.update() multiple times, which does not open an empty tab?

Comment 8

[Teal Dulcet [:tdulcet] (TB Council)]

IIRC, you said you need mailto url support in tabs.create() to open multiple compose windows. Is that correct?

Yes, my add-on uses tabs.create() to open multiple arbitrary URIs, which includes mailto: URIs.

I checked Firefox behavior and tabs.create() will open an empty tab and then leave the tab open in addition to the opened external application. Is that really a UX you want to use? Why not use tabs.update() multiple times, which does not open an empty tab?

Yeah, I fully agree that this is not great UX. Using tabs.update() may work now in Thunderbird with mailto: URIs, but unfortunately it does not work in Firefox and it does not work in Thunderbird with arbitrary URIs (tel:, sms:, etc.), as the application picker dialogs will overwrite each other, so only the last URI will open.

Comment 9

[John Bieling]

I updated the patch to fully follow Firefox.

Comment 10

[John Bieling]

Attachment: Bug 1828102 - Rework tabs.update() and tabs.reload() tests and add missing tests for composer, before adding new tests for tabs.create(). r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Depends on D199077

Comment 11

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/8f81ee596214
Support mailto: urls in tabs.update(), tabs.create() and windows.create(). r=#thunderbird-reviewers
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/b2f9ee2658e0
Rework tabs.update() and tabs.reload() tests and add missing tests for composer, before adding new tests for tabs.create(). r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Comment 12

[Teal Dulcet [:tdulcet] (TB Council)]

I updated the patch to fully follow Firefox.

Thanks again John for fixing this! I just tested it in Thunderbird Daily and can confirm that it now works as expected.

As you suggested, I did update my local copy of the extension to use tabs.update() with mailto: URIs in Thunderbird, which does provide a much better UX. This will be a great improvement for the Thunderbird 128 update of the add-on and will allow me to implement other functionally related to e-mail addresses and mailto URIs.

(While testing this, I noticed that Thunderbird mangles some obscure e-mail addresses formats containing whitespace characters. At first I though it was related to using a mailto: URI, but the issue also happens with the compose.beginNew() API. I just filed Bug 1879762 about the issue, but I was not sure which Thunderbird component to put it in.)