204752 - Messenger invoked via mailto: from external app opens ghost browser window

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Cmd-line Features, defect)

Description

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030506

I have configured Windows so that Mozilla is the default handler of mailto: 
links (from other browsers, for instance).  A new symptom in 0506 (not present 
in 0430) is that when a mailto: link is clicked from another browser, Mozilla 
opens both the composition window and a tiny "ghost window."  The ghost window 
has no title, no apparent content (very similar to that seen in Bug 201721); it 
originates with x,y=0,0  and  h,w=0,0.

This window appears, as described, whether Mozilla is currently running or not.

One very welcome aspect to this bug is that Bug 152374's far more annoying 
symptom on mailto: from on external source is no longer presenting.

Possibly of interest: when the window originally opens, its content pane is 
never redrawn, so once the window is resized it always contains whatever was in 
the background; dragging it moves the current content along, but minimizing and 
restoring changes the content to the background of the current position.  
However, once the Compose window has been closed, the ghost window starts 
redrawing its background as plain grey.

Comment 1

[Daniel Wang]

-> commandline component

Comment 2

[Ray Saunders]

In my case, the ghost window opens and the composition window seems to open and
then close by itself.  All I have left is the ghost window in the upper left
corner of my screen which I then have to close.  I am on WINNT 4.0

Comment 3

[Jure Repinc (JLP)]

I'm on Windows XP and I have this in registry for mailto links:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command
D:\PROGRAMS\MOZILLA\MOZILLA.EXE "%1"

When I try to open mail compose window using an e-mail link from other apps or
from Start > Run Mozilla opens A blank navigator window and a new mail compose
window.

I think that Mozilla should only open mail compose window and not an extra blank
navigator window.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Sometimes this window opens maximized, rather than tiny, which is a little more 
disconcerting.

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Thanks to the current trunk check-in for bug 236774, this bug has become a lot 
less important.  You can now use the  -compose  switch instead of  -mail  or
 -browser  -- and with that switch, the ghost window does not display.

Downgrading severity, altho I still think it ought to be fixed.

Comment 6

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

*** Bug 241456 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Jeremy Hurst]

I've found that if the mailto: link has things such as subject lines and body 
information, the -compose parameter fails to work. I've tried:

...\mozilla.exe -compose %1
...\mozilla.exe -compose "%1"
...\mozilla.exe %1 -compose
...\mozilla.exe "%1" -compose

No success with any of them.

'-browser' gives the small window described in the main section of this bug.
'-mail' just opens the mail window, no composition takes place

Comment 8

[Benjamin Smedberg]

This appears to be reported against old seamonkey. Seamonkey now uses the toolkit startup code which is significantly different, and so this bug is probably gone or different. Please re-file it in the SeaMonkey component if it's still reproducable, with a new set of steps.