196798 - Default pref for using external client for mailto: should be true

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Daniel Wang]

(can't seem to find a dupe for this)
perference for network.protocol-handler.external.mailto should default
to true

related: bug 11459

Comment 1

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: patch (chg mailnews.js)

Comment 2

[Sam Hulick]

Please don't set this to true by default.  doing so breaks mailto: links and
causes them to open infinite browsers.  see bug #198547

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Rather than saying "Don't do it," I think the better course is to let Bug 198457
block this bug; and also to determine if there are any cases where the default
value of 'false' might be preferred.

One thing to bear in mind is that, under Windows at least, Mozilla's installation
as the Default Mail Client is not 100% right; until that is fixed, setting this
pref true *and* using Moz as the default mailer will likely get undesired
results.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Adding Bug 198547 to dependency list because if it's not fixed, and this one is, 
Mozilla MailNews will immediately start failing, at least under Windows.

Comment 5

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

This has to happen for the Firebird release, no?

Comment 6

[Will Budreau]

It should be set to true when the standalone browser is installed, in any case,
right?

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I would agree with that; I've added a comment to that effect in Bug 144828.

Comment 8

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

> As part of the Nav-only install issue, shouldn't the preference for
> network.protocol-handler.extern.mailto
> be set to True by default?  (per Bug 196798)

is that needed?  I saw shuehan run her fix on windows, 
and I don't think she had that.

but if that's the case, maybe we can do is this:

at build time, if we are building --disable-mailnews, 
in mozilla/modules/libpref/src/init, add a disable-mailnews.js that *only* gets
built / installed when we don't build mailnews.  

network.protocol-handler.extern.mailto can be set to true in disable-mailnews.js.

note, for nav only installs, we have (and need) mailnews.js.  
(shuehan, can you confirm?)

the reason is for people who do this:

1)  run 4.x (with mail)
2)  install mozilla, just the browser
3)  migrate the 4.x profile (need mailnews.js to migrate properly)
4)  later, install mozilla again, with mail

obviously, if you don't build --disable-mailnews, we don't want to export
disable-mailnews.js

Comment 9

[Keith Page]

I'm just getting into this, so i hope this is relevent. But on this topic should
not the option
edit - > preferences -> Mail and news - " use mozilla mail as the the default
application" be setting the "network.protocol-handler.external.mailto" to false
if checked and true if not. Currently the option is unselected by default, by
the logic that should indicate that "network.protocol-handler.external.mailto"
is set to false, but its not even present in a default install. 

I know when you install the complete package it launches the internal mozilla
mail, most people i would think still use an external mail application, since
mozilla mail isn't really "there" yet. The above option seems to be a logical
choice to stop mozilla mail from intercepting mailto: request, i know it's one
of the first things i tried, and i know more then one person how's uninstalled
mozilla cause they couldn't find the network.protocol document. 

Comment 10

[Michael Lefevre]

I just duped the bug this depended on (probably I should have done the dupe the
other way around, but I didn't notice...)

Comment 11

[Brandon Anderson]

I suggest that there be a checkbox added to the "Mail & Newsgroups" section in
the Preferences menu.  It would read like "Use external e-mail application, like
Outlook or Eudora".  I had a heck of a time finding my profile folder in order
to add the line[user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.mailto", true);] to
the prefs.js file.

Comment 12

[[e-mail]]

Neither standalone Navigator or FireFox need the pref set at all, because it
only applies to the Suite, but comment 9 sounds like a good idea to me.

Comment 13

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Neither standalone Navigator or FireFox need the pref set at all, because it
> only applies to the Suite, but comment 9 sounds like a good idea to me.

I'm not seeing the UI mentioned in comment 9 in my copy of Mozilla (Mac 1.7).

I can't find the bug where it was removed either, searching on the string provided.

Most people on this bug would never have found their way here if such a checkbox
existed and worked.  Keith, do you know what version that was in?

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

? seems like the wrong component for this bug, and perhaps its blockers

Comment 15

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

(In reply to comment #14)
> ? seems like the wrong component for this bug, and perhaps its blockers

This was originally intended for the suite, I think, so I'll let SeaMonkey people deal with it.

Comment 16

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

FWIW, I don't think this bug makes any sense for the suite. Think about it! MailNews has been a mandatory part of it for quite some time already, and this bug is about not making use of it by default. I suggest WONTFIX.

[The attached patch can be obsoleted, too, since changing mailnews.js would affect TB, too.]

Comment 17

[Philip Chee]

yeah WONTFIX.

Comment 18

[Karsten Düsterloh]

Definitely.