1968470 - Add "Copy Message Link" functionality for easy access to mid: links

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

From #thunderbird slack. Being able to link to a message in Thunderbird from 3rd party software, such as note taking editors.
There is also this add-on: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/copy-message-id/reviews/ which allows copying the mid: url.
mid: urls are handled by Thunderbird which finds where the message is and shows it to you.

Comment 1

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

With mailnews.headers.showMessageId enabled (or all headers shown), 'Copy Message-ID' via context menu already works, but copies just the message-id enclosed in brackets. Maybe we could add something like 'Copy mid: URL' to this, or change the behavior of the former.

Comment 2

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

It might be easier for non-techies to understand if we add a separate context menu item to "Copy Message Link".
But, I don't think it should be the only place. Having message ids showing is... not for everyone.

Comment 3

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Attachment: Bug 1968470 - Add 'Copy Message Link' to mail context menu. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

• Add ‘Copy Message Link’ to the ‘Organize’ submenu, which puts the ‘mid:’ URI of the message (or the ‘news:’ URI for newsgroup postings) on the clipboard.
• Simplify the "Copy Message Location" function by no longer using the deprecated 'snews:' scheme.

Comment 4

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #2)

It might be easier for non-techies to understand if we add a separate context menu item to "Copy Message Link".

Yes, that's right, also since…

But, I don't think it should be the only place. Having message ids showing is... not for everyone.

…always showing the Message-ID is just a waste of space most of the time.

The above patch is a suggestion for how this feature could be implemented. In my opinion, using the 'news:' URI for newsgroup postings makes sense since it is the most versatile scheme for referencing a message in another posting.

Comment 5

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Attachment: Bug 1968470 - Add 'Copy Message Link' and 'Copy News Link' to header pane's 'More actions'. r=aleca,mkmelin

This puts the 'mid:' URI of the displayed message on the clipboard.

Comment 6

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Attachment: Bug 1968470 - Add 'Copy News Link' to header pane's 'More actions'. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

Comment 7

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Attachment: Bug 1968470 - Remove 'Copy Message Location' from mail context menu. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

This removes the option to get the exact 'news:' URL (including server and
port) for newsgroup messages, which has been relocated in some form to
header pane's 'More actions' menu button.

Comment 8

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

While a simple 'news:' URI (not including a specific server) is certainly better suited for sharing, I am unsure how important it (still) is for people to have access to the complete 'news:' URL, including the server and port.

Comment 9

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

(In reply to Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw] from comment #8)

While a simple 'news:' URI (not including a specific server) is certainly better suited for sharing, I am unsure how important it (still) is for people to have access to the complete 'news:' URL, including the server and port.

We have some users that probably rely on this feature for reasons we're not aware.
I would suggest to share a post on tb-planning titled "Intention to deprecated: snews and news shareable links with server and port".
Just to make sure we're giving a heads up and we have a record of this intention.

Comment 10

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

(In reply to Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw] from comment #8)

While a simple 'news:' URI (not including a specific server) is certainly better suited for sharing, I am unsure how important it (still) is for people to have access to the complete 'news:' URL, including the server and port.

While it's true that non-server specific is better in theory, I don't think nntp is in practice very federated these days. I assume the reason is, then you can have properly registered users and thus mitigate the spam issue that played a big part in killing nntp the way it was.

At least from what I've seen it seems it's more of specific servers carrying what groups they have, so it's then in practice preferable to link to a specific server so you can go about your business with the linked message.

Comment 11

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #10)

At least from what I've seen it seems it's more of specific servers carrying what groups they have, so it's then in practice preferable to link to a specific server so you can go about your business with the linked message.

Okay, so for newsgroup messages, we should have "Copy Message Link" ('mid:mgs@id') and "Copy News Location" ('news://server/msg@id') side by side under the button for 'More' actions. Is there a consensus about including both in the 'Organize' submenu of the context menu as well, as suggested at https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D254401#8828571?

Comment 12

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Would be ok for me. Should it be "Copy News Link"?

Comment 13

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I just dislike "Organize" in general. Seems it's more of a "More" item - the actions there has little to do with organizing.

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/065a2238dec1
Remove 'Copy Message Location' from mail context menu. r=aleca
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/ba8f8fd6925d
Add 'Copy Message Link' and 'Copy News Link' to header pane's 'More actions'. r=aleca,mkmelin