Closed Bug 21219 Opened 25 years ago Closed 23 years ago

Prefs UI: Display incorrect for migrated forward_message_mode

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect, P2)

Product:
SeaMonkey
Component:
MailNews: Message Display
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 74072

People

(Reporter: laurel, Assigned: racham)

Details

(Whiteboard: [nsbeta3-]) 

Using 12-08-08m12 commercial builds

The prefs UI is displaying "Inline" for a migrated value of 0 (Attachment) in
pref mail.forward_message_mode.

If you change the value through the UI to Attachment it does properly write the
value 0 to the prefs.js file.  If you change the value through the UI to Inline
the value is properly written as 2 to the prefs.js file.

1.  Open 4.x.
    Edit|Preferences|Mail&Newsgroups|Messages.
    Set the value in the dropdown to Attachment for "By default, forward
messages:"
    Confirm OK. Exit 4.x
2.  Check the value of the 4.x prefs.js file for mail.forward_message_mode and
see that it is 0.
3.  Migrate the account to 5.0 and open messenger.
    Check the 5.0 prefs.js file and see the value 0 has been properly migrated.
4.  Edit|Preferences|Mail&Newsgroups|Messages.
    Note the value displayed in the dropdown for forward_message_mode is
"Inline".

Expected result:  for migrated value 0/Attachment, the 5.0 prefs UI should
display selection as Attachment.  For migrated values of 1 or 2, the 5.0 Prefs
UI should display "Inline" (we've taken away forward as quoted for 5.0, ref bug
#15556)
QA Contact: lchiang → laurel
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 25 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: M13
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: FIXED → ---
Reopening:
Using jan04 commercial builds:
  1.  Good/fixed: migrated 0/Attachment now displays in 5.0 UI as "attachment"
  2.  Good/stayed same: migrated 2/Inline displays in 5.0 UI as "inline"
  2.  Bad/broken:  migrated 1/Quoted now displays in 5.0 UI as "attachment" when
it should display as "inline".

We fixed the previous incorrect display and created a new one.
Status: REOPENED → ASSIGNED
see related bugs #15556 and #22990

I need to see what the spec says we do for forward quoted (pref value == 1) and
what the default value is (forward as attachment or forward as inline?)

then, I'll sort out which bug to fix, and which to mark invalid.
Target Milestone: M13 → M14
Seems good enough for B1. The default value should be forward as attachment.
Target Milestone: M14 → M16
Mass moving M16 to M17 - look for nsbeta2 before anything else.
Target Milestone: M16 → M17
Bringing this up again because the current jun01 revision of the mail prefs spec
shows Inline as default value for this pref.   (I know this bug covers some
other issues as well.)

If we truly decide to go with attachment as default value (as phil mentioned in
jan28 comments), we need to coordinate with jglick to get the spec updated.

ref mail prefs spec, composition panel: 
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Prefs/Preferences.html#Composing
Default pref for forward should be "Inline". When novice and average users 
forward a message, they expect to SEE the message being forwarded in the message 
body.  We are currently observing this in the multiple mail accounts usability 
testing. 

Novice and average users don't change the prefs, so we should give them the 
default they expect. More knowledgeable users will know to go to prefs to change 
this if they want the default to forward as "Attachment".

Also, "Quoted" is shown as a Forward default option in the Prefs. I thought 
Forward Quoted was out for Netscape 6?

Nominate as nsbeta3.
Keywords: nsbeta3
In 4.7, forward as attachment and forward inline both forward any attachments to 
the original message. Forward quoted does not forward the attachment.

In Seamonkey, forward as attachment forwards any attachments to the original 
message, but forward inline does not.

I agree with Jennifer that novice users expect to see the text of the message 
they are forwarding. I also think that most users expect that when they forward 
a message that has an attachment, the attachment is also forwarded.

Therefore, I would advocate the default behavior be forward inline and include 
any attachments from the original message.
Yes, forward as "Qutoed" should be out. And forward inline should always 
includes all the attachments from the original message. Foward inline 
does include all the attachements on the current implementation, isn't it?
If you want to see the attachment, improve the composer, like showing
attachments inline in an attachment pane. Forward Inline has the same weaknesses
like Outlook's quoting-style (blurrs authorship).
ccing endico
If newbies have trouble with the ui for forwarding as attachment then the
UI should be changed, not the default attachment mechanism. If the message
compose window were changed so that it previewed attachments the same way
they appear in the message pane that would make it easier for people to 
understand. 

Forwarding messages as mime attachments is the right thing to do because
the resulting email is parsable. The content of the message can be seperated
from the mail headers, even after multiple forwards. If some of the forwarders
forwarded as inline then the message becomes gobbeldygook and is impossible
for the mailer to parse and hard for users to read.

My mail tends to contain lots of messages that have been forwarded multiple
times. If the default forwarding mechanism is changed this will have a big
effect on the mail I recieve. 

I think people will be a lot more confused by recieving forwarded messages
containing gobbeldygook than by the status quo of not seeing a preview of
attachments. Let the default forwarding option stay the same and fix the UI
in the compose window later.

If you insist on changing this, please only do this to the netscape tree,
not to mozilla. thanks

see bug 44135
This needs to conduct an user study. Not everyone has the same view as you do. I 
don't quiet agree with your arguments. Personally, I prefer forwand as inline.
One more note, our implementation of forward as inline is different from 
"Outlook Express". We include all attachments and they don't.
Jeff: In response to your question above - I forwarded inline a message with an 
attachment and could not retrieve the attachment. I then viewed the page source 
for the message, and could not find the attachment part.

Also, I believe Jennifer has already done the testing and determined that our 
users are confused by the default 4.x forward as attachment behavior.
> Jeff: In response to your question above - I forwarded inline a message with 
an 
> attachment and could not retrieve the attachment. I then viewed the page 
source 
> for the message, and could not find the attachment part.

If the original message did have the attachment and for some reason that 
forwarding the message inline did not carry over the attachment then some thing 
is broken badly. If the original message falsely advertising that it has an 
attachment then some thing is broken too. There are some cases that I can think 
of may cause the problem. For example, IMAP mime part on demand which did not 
download the attachment until you ask for it. Another example, Pop3 partial 
message download may have partially downloaded an attachment.
It's not just a user study.  There are important internet standards that forward
inline just walks all over and busts.

Dawn is right.  Don't do this to the mozilla tree.  If you must do it, do it to
the Netscape tree so that the rest of us can disown you.

> Also, I believe Jennifer has already done the testing and determined that our 
> users are confused by the default 4.x forward as attachment behavior.

This testing is based on the current attachment UI, so the results are invalid,
if we change the UI.

> If you must do it, do it to
> the Netscape tree so that the rest of us can disown you.

This doesn't really help, if I, as a Mozilla user, get bad msgs from Netscape
users.
Adding putterman to cc list.
We're leaning towards making forward inline as the default.

Before we do, could those of you arguing against it clarify some things?

What "gobbeldygook" are you referring to? Could someone forward me a message 
that would show me this? I've tried forwarding combinations of inline and 
attachment and the difference isn't apparent to me.

And more importantly, what important internet standards does forward
inline just walk all over and bust?


It breaks MIME.  See http://RF.Cx/rfc1521.html, section 7.3.  I will try to look
for other references.

You must NOT assume that the person reading the mail is going to be using
Mozilla-based software to read it!  Other mail readers may have spiffy features
to do things with forwarded messages; these features will only work if said
messages are included as standard MIME attachments.

For example, see http://RF.Cx/rfc2157.html.  This defines interoperability
between X.400 mail and MIME mail.  In the introduction, it says

   This document defines how to map body parts of X.400 messages into
   MIME entities and vice versa, including the handling of multipart
   messages and forwarded messages.

Well, you're going to break anyone who uses X.400-based email, because you're
not using the MIME standard.
Keywords: mail2
- per mail triage
Whiteboard: [nsbeta3-]
sorry for the extra email. Removing mail2 keyword.
Keywords: mail2
clearing milestone, m17 and m18 are meaningless now.  these need to be triages
along with the rest.
Target Milestone: M17 → ---
giving all my migration bugs to racham.
Assignee: sspitzer → racham
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
I'm going to make this a duplicate of the newer bug about this: 74072

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 74072 ***
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 25 years ago → 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Product: Browser → Seamonkey
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