242959 - Thunderbird should open .eml files from command line

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[Martin Meyer]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a) Gecko/20040502 Firefox/0.8.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a) Gecko/20040502 Firefox/0.8.0+

Thunderbird supports saving and opening .eml files through the Thunderbird
interface, but it should also support opening files externally.  If Thunderbird
is my default mail client, .eml files (and maybe .msg too) should be associated
with and open in Thunderbird.  I would like to be able to double-click on a .eml
file in explorer and have the file open in Thunderbird instead of Outlook Express.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Save an email as a .eml file
2. Find the file in explorer
3. Double-click on the file

Actual Results:  
The file opens in Outlook Express, if at all.

Expected Results:  
The file should open in Thunderbird, just like if I had opened it from the menu.

Comment 1

[OstGote!]

see Bug 11076 and Bug 26201

Comment 2

[Terry]

it is sad that when opening an eml file I cant have thunderbird open up 
automatically!

Comment 3

[jwq]

I believe this is a duplicate of Bug 26201 (cf. this bug with Bug 26201
duplicates Bug 201882 and Bug 240681).

Comment 4

[Christian Ertl]

(In reply to comment #3)

No, if I open a eml file with Mozilla's MailNews component, I get get the
message displayed correctly (ok, in a browser window instead of a mail window,
but that's acceptable), but if I do the same with Thunderbird nothing happens.
(build 20040626 German)

In MailNews the window issue is to be corrected and the file type must be
registered, in Thunderbird it has to get working at all. 
When registering the file type it should be better handled as Firefox with .htm
and .url.

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #4)
> if I open a eml file with Mozilla's MailNews component, I get [...] the
> message displayed correctly (ok, in a browser window instead of a mail window,
> but that's acceptable)

Yes, but you had to set up that file association yourself (and, if I recall 
correctly, you need a  "file://%1"  specifier in the command line); Mozilla 
doesn't do it automatically, which is bug 26201.

> but if I do the same with Thunderbird nothing happens.

Right you are, and that's this bug.  Confirming, and updating summary for 
clarity.

Need another bug about TB registering for the .EML extension.

Comment 6

[Christoph Grether]

Request for blocking 1.1. Take a look at my comment in Bug261559.

Comment 7

[David :Bienvenu]

Attachment: this implements opening .eml files from the command line

this patch requires the fix for bug 241212 to work correctly. Scott, what do
you think of this approach?

Comment 8

[Scott MacGregor]

Comment on attachment 184014 [details] [diff] [review]
this implements opening .eml files from the command line

1) You might be able to move your file includes into the MOZ_XUL_APP ifdef
right below them since the new command line code is inside a xul_app ifdef

2) Does outlook or OE pass a flag in? You can check in your windows registry to
see if they do something like:
thunderbird.exe -file test.eml

3) we should make sure the file extension is .eml before trying to open it.

Comment 9

[David :Bienvenu]

Attachment: fix addressing comments

carrying forward review

Comment 10

[chris hofmann]

Comment on attachment 184686 [details] [diff] [review]
fix addressing comments

a=chofmann

Comment 11

[David :Bienvenu]

*** Bug 295286 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Verified Fixed with TB 1.0+0603.  Thanks, David!

Comment 13

[Caio Tiago Oliveira (asrail)]

With TB 1.0+0603 I could open an eml file using Nautilus, in gnome, but I
couldn't do this by the command line.

Exactly what command line should be used?

Comment 14

[Paul Gregg]

Novell Groupwise saves email messages as "Mime.822", so I'd suggest checking for
.822 exntensions as well. Something like:
+    if (StringEndsWith(arg, NS_LITERAL_STRING(".eml")) || StringEndsWith(arg,
NS_LITERAL_STRING(".822")))

Comment 15

[David :Bienvenu]

Paul, if you save a message with groupwise, and change the extension to .eml,
can you open it with a recent thunderbird build? Or if you don't have a recent
tbird trunk build, can you attach a msg saved with groupwise so I can try it
myself? Before I relax the restriction, I want to make sure it works.

Comment 16

[brentonmbrown]

Is it possible to enable the Reply, Reply All, and Forward functions for .eml
files opened outside of Thunderbird? (Thunderbird supports replying/forwarding
whilst the main client is not "visible"). Outlook Express supports
replying/forwarding of .eml files.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Save an email as a .eml file
2. Find the file in explorer
3. Double-click on the file

Actual Results:  
The file opens in Thunderbird but the Reply, Reply All, and Forward buttons are
"greyed out".

Expected Results:  
The file should open in Thunderbird with the option to reply or forward.

Comment 17

[David :Bienvenu]

Eventually, it will be possible. I have to do some work for that to work.

Comment 18

[c.keck]

Still not fixed in the german version (*.eml files do not open at all!) It's
pretty stupid IMO if TB lets the user save emails in a format that it can't open
afterwards... Please fix this bug ASAP, thanks!

Comment 19

[Adam Guthrie]

*** Bug 303673 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 20

[bischs]

(In reply to comment #18)
> Still not fixed in the german version (*.eml files do not open at all!) It's
> pretty stupid IMO if TB lets the user save emails in a format that it can't open
> afterwards... Please fix this bug ASAP, thanks!

I have the same problem with the german version.
Just tested the latest english version from
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-trunk/

The problem is still not fixed. If Thunderbird is opened, it only gets on top
but does not open the file. If it is closed, nothing happens (only the process
thunderbird.exe appears for a moment in task manager but then terminates).

Comment 21

[Adam Guthrie]

*** Bug 304513 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 22

[Peter]

For upgrading 1.0.x to 1.5, see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314085

Comment 23

[Jens Tautenhahn]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Created an attachment (id=184686) [edit]
> fix addressing comments

The attachment fixes opening of "*.eml" files but not "*.EML" files. The bug should be reopened. (I dont know how to do that...)

Comment 24

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Jens Tautenhahn: open a new bug about that... and CC me on it.

Comment 25

[David :Bienvenu]

please cc me as well - the fix is trivial, if the problem is simply the case of the .eml extension.

Comment 26

[David :Bienvenu]

Attachment: proposed fix

do a case-insensitive compare...

Comment 27

[David :Bienvenu]

Jens, I've just landed attachment 235121 [details] [diff] [review] on the trunk - if you want to try a nightly build with that change and let me know if it fixes the problem for you, then I can land the patch on the 1.8.1 branch.

Comment 28

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

David: that sure fixes it for me.

Comment 29

[David :Bienvenu]

I've landed the .EML fix on the 1.8.1 branch.

Comment 30

[David :Bienvenu]

*** Bug 356949 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 31

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 356949 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***