225896 - Should be possible to open an unix/Berkeley mbox mailfile by drag-and-drop

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[Ben Fowler]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 4.0)
Build Identifier: Self built, approx thunderbird 0.3

The mail clients I am migrating from, Eudora and Mailsmith can open
any mbox file, and display it in a mail window, either using File->Open,
or some variety of drag-and-drop.

Thunderbird should be able to do the same.

It enables arbitary import of saved mails from other systems.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try to open an mbox file
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
Nothing

Expected Results:  
Enhancement request: Please open and display arbitary mil boxes.

Dragging the mail box onto Thunderbird's Icon should be enough, or onto
a list of known mailboxes

Comment 1

[Scott MacGregor]

Where do these arbitrary files show up in the UI? 

If I drag a mbox folder onto the folder pane where should we insert it? Under
Local Folders? 

Comment 2

[Ben Fowler]

Yes. That would not have have surprised me at all.

Or at the root level.

Or, since these are arbitary (unattached) not put them in the hieratchy
at all: Just open them.

Comment 3

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

mscott: I would like to open my .mbox files from my school in Mozilla. Mind if I
take this?

Ben: Open them in a new messenger window with no folders?

Comment 4

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

Evolution allows you to import individual .mbox files and choose the folder you
import them into. Would that be adequate?

Comment 5

[solo turn]

it would be very nice to open a whole maildir including subdirs either through
symlinking, or importing.

lauren did a nice comparison how to migrate old mail on unix:
http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=1551&sid=647f2f13fd2740520788e7d3e540f946

the kmail style of just symlinking the old folder (be it pine or whatever) to
somewhere into local folders seems very appealing. the problem with this is,
that it is not recursive (you see the mbox files in maildir linked, but not
subdirectories), and therefor is a "half-complete" maildir import ... and it
cannot be done from the gui but from the command line.

evolutions way of importing every mbox file separately gives just headache.

Comment 6

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

I don't think this would be to tough to implment.  I think I was actually a good
part of the way there accidentally the other day, when working on that bug to
allow you to open .eml files (Bug 217149).

My one question is UI bloat, in partiular the File menu.  With the addition of
bug 217149 the UI is something like:
File
New >
Open > Open Message
       Open Email File
       Open mbox


My personal opinion, is that "Open Message" should be dropped, but that's a
whole other bug.  I'm not sure open mbox mailfile is a popular enough option for
such a forward place.  

So perhaps add to the import wizard.


I'll look at doing this when I get a chance.  Since I've toyed around with most
of the parts to this.

Comment 7

[Salvatore Isaja]

As far as I can see, mbox import is still missing in Thunderbird 0.7.3 (Win32).
I think mbox import may be included in Tools/Import.../Mail just like other
formats. Asking for folder in which to place the imported mbox seems really nice
to me. A "Create new folder" button may be included too (maybe defaulting its
name to the name of the mbox file).

I see this issue is open for a long time. Please try to consider it as soon as
possible, since it would allow easy migration for other mail clients to
Thunderbird, which IMHO is the reason why some people keep using their old client.

Thanks,
   Salvo

Comment 8

[Salvatore Isaja]

(In reply to comment #7)
I've just found a document explaining all I have to do is copying the mbox file
inside the Thunderbird mail directory... and it actually works.
Sorry for my previous comment, please ignore it.
Thanks,
   Salvo

Comment 9

[Ben Fowler]

(Reporter) The current behaviour of thunderbird is fine by me. Whilst 
improvemts might be possible, I suggest that this bug is closed FIXED 
(or WORKSFORME) if you don't think that it is fixed, and any additional 
work and/or enhancements are introduced as new bugs, 

Comment 10

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

Filed bug 266175 about a File->Open mechanism.

Comment 11

[orion]

(In reply to comment #9)
> (Reporter) The current behaviour of thunderbird is fine by me. Whilst 
> improvemts might be possible, I suggest that this bug is closed FIXED 
> (or WORKSFORME) if you don't think that it is fixed, and any additional 
> work and/or enhancements are introduced as new bugs, 

For me, the most useful aspect of an .mbx import is it allows me to arbitrarilly
examine old/archived mbox files.  For example, just the other day I wanted to
find an email from 2002.  I had the mbox file, but had to open it up in my
favorite text-editor and do a search for the desired text.  For me, it would be
ideal to open up these files in my mail client.  I don't even need it to be
saved into my current working mbox (in fact, I *prefer* it to be gone again
after I am done with it -- I like keeping old mail archived and not cluttering
and slowing down my client.)

I don't know if this functionality is too arbitrary and low-demand to be
integrated, but I have on a number of different occassions wished it were possible.

Comment 12

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

orion: You can do it by copying the .mbox file into the Thunderbird mail
directory. bug 266175 is about integration.

Comment 13

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

This is a front-end bug, and there is nothing front-end about the mailbox
import. In fact, I just gave it a whirl, and I am still not able to get it
working. All it seems to have done so far is created an .msf file within
C:\Documents and Settings\boberb\Application
Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\aqdith0z.default\Mail\mail.rpi.edu

That is definately not having front-end support.

I'm reopening.

Comment 14

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

Besides, this bug would be INVALID if you consider the issue resolved, because
that "feature" was already in existance when this bug was filed. There is no
front-end, and that's what you said in your description.

For this to be considered fixed, we'll need drag-and-drop support where a new
folder is created with the name of the .mbox file.

Note: I finally got the back-end stuff to work by copying it to C:\Documents and
Settings\boberb\Application
Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\aqdith0z.default\Mail\Local Folders, and this still
does not constitute a front-end fix. It wasn't easy for me, a developer, to
figure out. I'm sure the average user won't have a clue.

Reassigning. This isn't fixed until the front-end drag-and-drop (1 issue per
bug) is implemented. Bug 266175 can be about File->Open or import methods.

Bug 266175 doesn't depend on this bug because they are both independent
front-end bugs.

Comment 15

[Ben Fowler]

(In reply to comment #9)
> ... I suggest that this bug is closed FIXED 
> (or WORKSFORME) if you don't think that it is fixed, and any additional 
> work and/or enhancements are introduced as new bugs, ...

Sorry.

Comment 16

[Peter Lairo]

(OT) Is there a bug to drag & drop individual e-mail files (*.eml) into Thunderbird (folder pane) to import them (into selected folder)?

Comment 17

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yes, bug 171907.

Comment 18

[Miguel Sugandi]

Attachment: same problem

Thanks from privagexiz1972.