1877420 - Scanner Application (PDF Attachment) calling Compose window not working since 115.7.0

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Jim]

Steps to reproduce:

Using Brother CC3 Scanner Application.
This application scans the flatbed scanner, created a PDF and calls Thunderbird.exe with a compose mail window.

Actual results:

Since upgrading to 115.7.0, Thunderbird application opens and then (sends?) the PDF file to open in Firefox. It does not create a new compose window.

Have rolled back to 115.6.1 and it works correctly without changing any settings.

Expected results:

New email Compose window should open with the PDF file attached.

Comment 1

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

Do you know what command it's sending to Thunderbird?
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr115/pushloghtml?fromchange=THUNDERBIRD_115_6_1_RELEASE&tochange=THUNDERBIRD_115_7_0_RELEASE

The most clear suspects would be bug 1866915 and bug 1800423.

Comment 2

[Jim]

Unsure what commands it sends.
Brother Control Centre 3 CC3 settings are very basic with no optional arguments.
Simply select an application .exe using the full file path and it does the rest.

Comment 3

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

The -compose command was not touched, by these changes, so

thunderbird.exe -compose attachment=C:\file.pdf

still works. We plan to move handling of the -compose flag from CPP to JavaScript code as well, which would then also enforce full app startup.

So there are two topics:

• I am interested in what exact command you are using now, which somehow does not work anymore in 115.7.0
• the command mentioned above should stil work for you

Comment 4

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

I can confirm, that with older version of Thunderbird, this opened a composer with the attachement added:

thunderbird.exe C:\file.pdf

I do not consider this documented behavior and would close this as INVALID. Magnus?

If you are on windows, you can create a thunderbird.bat file, which you use as "application", which then calls thunderbird with the proper parameters.

File: thunderbird.bat

"C:\path\to\thunderbird.exe" -compose attachment=%1

Comment 5

[Jim]

Based on what John said, the undocumented behaviour is likely the culprit if that was changed at 115.7.0.
I'm unsure exactly what command the Brother software uses. My assumption would be there is no -compose flag.

I actually tried creating a .bat file, although Brother demands an .exe application for this.

Comment 6

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

I actually tried creating a .bat file, although Brother demands an .exe application for this.

You can repack bat files as exe files. So if you have the working thunderbird.bat file and running

thunderbird.bat C:\file.pdf

is opening the composer as expected with the attached file, use the Batch Compiler to convert the bat file to an exe file:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/batch-compiler/

Comment 7

[Jim]

Yes, that worked.
Thanks!

Comment 8

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

Magnus: Do you agree to close this as invalid?

The user was able to fix it using the proper -compose command.

Comment 10

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

I think we need to fix it.
While unfortunate, this is probably a long standing use case for 3rd party software, and most users won't figure out how to fix it.

Comment 12

[sfhowes]

Check the scanner app to see if it's 32 or 64-bit. If it's 32-bit and TB is 64-bit, the connection won't work.

Comment 13

[dent]

I confirmed the command sent from Brother iPrint and Scan application to Thunderbird just now using procmon.

PID: 4516, Command line: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" C:\Users\JaneDoe\AppData\Local\Temp\Brother.iPS\Temp\ScanToApp\Scan2024-01-31_154638.pdf

The same version of iPrint and Scan was in use before the 115.7.0 TBird update, so I assume it sends the same command regardless of the TBird version.

I haven't tried the fix yet (BAT file with "C:\path\to\thunderbird.exe" -compose attachment=%1", then convert to EXE). I assume that'll work.

Thanks!

Comment 14

[bioton]

What about about multiple profiles ?
When trying the -compose attachment=%1 trick after the profile selection issue is still there - Adrobe opens with the file..
Any ideas ?

Comment 15

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

Can you rephrase that and give more context?