278203 - Accept URL for link in one click or automatically

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[John Anderson]

This is a useabilty glitch that occurs while composing in Thunderbird:

While composing a message and it is desired to change a section of text to a
link, say I want to make "www.someplace.com" a link, requires too many
selections & clicks, AND the http:// has to be manually added to the text before
you try to add the link, or else Thunderbird doesn't know what you're doing.

In Outlook, all you do to make a link is highlight the text "www.someplace.com"
and click "Add Link" <Or it will automatically do it when it see's a valid URL
if that option is selected>.  It is nice no having to type the implied
"http://".  And having the capability of the links automatically generated as
you type is really, really nice sometimes.

There may be a completely better way to do this, but adding links the clumsy way
 is a real sore spot between me and Thunderbird.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

You don't have to do anything -- when you send an HTML message, text that 
appears to be a URL is turned into a link before sending.  It just doesn't 
appear as a link in the compose window.

Comment 2

[John Anderson]

(In reply to comment #1)
> You don't have to do anything -- when you send an HTML message, text that 
> appears to be a URL is turned into a link before sending.  It just doesn't 
> appear as a link in the compose window.

Not when you _type_ in the URL manually in the compose window.  When you PASTE 
a link in it will be sent as such.

Either way, it should be displayed as link in the compose window.  There 
should also be a fast & easy way to un-link a linked piece of text, if you 
don't want it sent that way.

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > You don't have to do anything -- when you send an HTML message, text that 
> > appears to be a URL is turned into a link before sending.  It just doesn't 
> > appear as a link in the compose window.
> 
> Not when you _type_ in the URL manually in the compose window.  When you PASTE 
> a link in it will be sent as such.

I sent an HTML message to your Bugzilla account address that proved this 
assertion incorrect.


> Either way, it should be displayed as link in the compose window.  

That's bug 240308.

> There should also be a fast & easy way to un-link a linked piece of text, if
> you don't want it sent that way.

One wonders why you would send a URL that you didn't want the recipient to be 
able to click.  I suppose it makes sense for nonsense or fragmentary URLs, but 
that's a pretty minor exception that, to me, does not justify implementing Yet 
Another Thing To Remember While Composing E-mail.  (There isn't anything to turn 
off automatic linkification for received plain-text messages.)

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I looked at this again, and part of the problem is that the automatic 
linkification is restricted to site names that begin with "www." (maybe some 
other prefixes, but that's the one that works correctly).

I don't think it's such a good idea to expand this, tho.  For instance, if I 
include a reference to a DOS program   list.com    or to the Microsoft product 
ASP.NET   I don't want that turned into a link to the website at list.com.   
WWW is a pretty reliable indicator, but I don't know of any others; maybe 
strings ending in .org.

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.