285150 - Certain attachments cannot be opened from Thunderbird

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Robert Harvey]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Thunderbird version 1.0 (20041206)

If I get a graphics attachment I can right-click the attachment in the preview
window and use 'open' to open it in e.g. paintshop pro.  That's fine.

Certain file types won't do that.  I'm about to attach a screen dump showing
what happens with a .doc file from my employer.  The dialogue box sits there
dumb and insolent with nothing useful to contribute.

.doc is associated with open office on this machine, which in other
circumstances also offers msword and wordpad.



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. get an email
2. preview it
3. right-click, open




-----------
The mime type in the incomeing email appears correct:

------_=_NextPart_001_01C52323.63127A48
Content-Type: application/msword;
	name="Hole House 2 install visit1.doc"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Description: Hole House 2 install visit1.doc
Content-Disposition: attachment;
	filename="Hole House 2 install visit1.doc"
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Comment 1

[Robert Harvey]

Attachment: dialogue that results from trying to open the attacment

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

In the  Options | Attachments  list of file types, what is the default action 
associated with .DOC files?  I'm assuming it's "Save".  Can you change the 
action for that type?  See bug 265769, bug 279515, bug 280847

Is the message with the attachment in a local folder (POP account), or is it 
remote in an IMAP folder?

Comment 3

[Robert Harvey]

Attachment: File assosciations as queried.

Well, .doc is associated with a programme, and that programme works normally.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Please attach the mimeTypes.rdf file from your profile directory to this bug.

Comment 5

[Robert Harvey]

Attachment: Mimetypes as requested

Comment 6

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

The RDF file *looks* correct.  Are Excel attachments (.XLS) being handled 
correctly, or are they also failing?  The configuration for those files is 
basically the same as those for .DOC in your mimeTypes.

I was recently informed (bug 280847 comment 5) that Visio files (.VSD) have been 
deliberately prevented from opening, even when configured to do so, because they 
are defined as potentially virus-carrying and appear on some Microsoft 
"dangerous extensions" list.
But, I looked at that list and .DOC did not appear.  Also (as I will detail at 
that bug later) I have in fact managed to get VSD files to open from TB, altho I 
need to track down the problems.  Germane to this bug: my current mimeTypes.rdf 
entries for Visio files look like the ones you have for .DOC and .XLS.

Comment 7

[Robert Harvey]

I havn't had any excel attachments lately.  I'll send myself one - no, that 
works OK.  How odd.

If Thunderbird can't get beyond the point shown on the screendump, why does it 
not explain what the problem is?  Offer the opportunitiy to sort it out or pick 
another technique?  It's a bit annoying sitting there endlessly and pointlessly.

Oh well, I am migrating to Suse 9.2 anyway, so I expect it will all sort itself 
out soon enough!

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

OK -- please see bug 261766 comment 26 -- check whether a current trunk build 
also addresses your problem.  

In the mimeTypes.rdf that you supplied, this entry:
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/msword"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="false"
                   NC:handleInternal="false"
                   NC:saveToDisk="false"
                   NC:useSystemDefault="false">
    <NC:externalApplication
       RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/msword"/>
  </RDF:Description>

has a 'handleInternal' attribute; that doesn't appear in the ones written out by 
current trunk builds, and may be causing the problem you're encountering.

Comment 9

[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
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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.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
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Comment 10

[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.