244520 - Mailnews can't open directly attached files which name contain accented characters

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 108186

(MailNews Core :: Attachments, defect)

Description

[michel lemaître]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

I can save the file to the desktop and open it from there with no 
problems, but double clicking on the attachment in mailnews won't launch 
the corresponding program (Acrobat reader, Word, Excel ...)

It happens every time filename contains accented character. 
In this context, extension file name (type of file) is not recognised.

For exemple : if I double click on a file named "circulaire laïcité.pdf" 
a dialog box open asking for a choice :

The dialog box contains :

 The file "circulaire laïcité.pdf" is of type application/octet-stream      
 (TIFF Image) and Mozilla does not know how to handle this file type ...

  . Open it with the default application
  . Open it with 
  . Save it to disk


The check-box "Always perform this action when handling files of this type " is
greyed an unavailable.

If I receive the same file after being renamed in "circulaire laicite.pdf" the
problem doesn't exist.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Receive a mail with an attached file wich name contains accented characters
2. Try to open it by double clicking on the file name in the panel


Actual Results:  
It doesn't launch the application (for exemple Acrobat Reader) but open a dialog
box (see above)

Expected Results:  
Launched the associated application

This default is very unpleasant for all people whose language contains accented
characters (ie French, Spanish, ...)

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Note that  application/octet-stream  is a generic type; depending on which mail 
client is sending the mail, it could be used for an executable, an image, a PDF 
file -- practically anything, even a plain text file.  It is not a good idea to 
have a "default application" for this type; the recommended default is Save To 
Disk.

I created a message on my system with four PDF attachments; I hacked it up so 
that two were specified as "application/octet-stream" and the other two were 
"application/pdf".  I renamed one of each pair to have an accented character in 
the filename.

Selecting Open on each of the files resulted in the expected behavior for my 
system: those specified as  /octet-stream  provided me only with a File Save 
dialog; those specified as  /pdf  at first provided me with the same dialog you 
have seen, with all options enabled, and then (after I had checked the "Always 
use this action for files of this type") simply opened Acrobat with the file.

In Preferences | Navigator | Helper Applications, what is your configuration for 
application/octet-stream?  Again: Save to Disk is recommended, and there should 
be no default extension associated with the type.

If you are sending PDFs as attachments yourself, you should have an entry for 
application/pdf with a default extension of .pdf  (this doesn't apply to your 
problem, but it might be useful).  Your correspondents should set up a similar 
configuration if possible (I don't know whether, or how, Outlook/OE can be 
configured in this manner).

Comment 2

[michel lemaître]

Thanks for your explanation. I think I have understood.
The problem would come from the sender who sends pdf files as
application/octet-stream MIME type even if there is a pdf extension name?

Accented character seems to be not involved in the problem.


Saving the file on disk and opening it after is too complicated for many of my
users !!

I've just found another solution that works. It is : in the Helper Application
panel, to set the default at "Open it using the default application" (allways)
for octet-stream MIME type of file. So that, Windows (or Mozilla ?) manages the
extension file name (ie .pdf) and launches the right application.

I have a question : Is it possible to find the MIME type of file (ie :
application/pdf) for each attached file in the message header?

If I look at the message header, I find only :
MIME-Version : 1.0
content-type : multipart/mixed; boundary="----....."

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Saving the file on disk and opening it after is too complicated for many of
> my users !!

Education is the only solution, here.

> I've just found another solution that works. It is : in the Helper Application
> panel, to set the default at "Open it using the default application" (allways)
> for octet-stream MIME type of file. So that, Windows (or Mozilla ?) manages
> the extension file name (ie .pdf) and launches the right application.

This is exactly the wrong thing to do.  If the message contains an executable 
virus that's been sent as application/octet-stream, and it's passed to the OS to 
be opened as "default", the virus will run and the system will be infected.  By 
setting this option like that, you have effectively reduced Mozilla to the same 
insecure model as Outlook Express.

See further information at the dupe.


> I have a question : Is it possible to find the MIME type of file (ie :
> application/pdf) for each attached file in the message header?
> 
> If I look at the message header, I find only :
> MIME-Version : 1.0
> content-type : multipart/mixed; boundary="----....."

You have to look further down in the message.  Each part of the "multipart" 
message has its own Content-Type header.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 108186 ***