287854 - Posting to newsgroups does not honor HTML send options

Status: REOPENED

(MailNews Core :: Composition, defect)

Description

[idgreenwald]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2

I like to compose in HTML and then - on newsgroups - send in plain
text.  I have set
Tools->Options-.Composition->Send Options to
1. Convert the message to plain text, and
2. Set secnews.netscape.com  as a Plain Text domain

However, with rare exception, I am asked how I want to send.  There appears to
be no rhyme or reason to the exceptions.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Set up an account to compose in HTML
2.Set some domain as a plain text domain
3.Compose and send to the above domain.

Actual Results:  
I was prompted for how I wanted to send

Expected Results:  
Sent in plain text.

Comment 1

[Leonidas Jones]

I can  confirm this problem.

Comment 2

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Like I said in the netscape.mozilla.thunderbird newsgroup, "Send Options" only
apply to email, not NNTP. Try testing it with an email address, not a newsgroup
server.

Tested with a myrealbox.com account (IMAP). [Thunderbird 1.0.2] Works just fine
here.

Comment 3

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Irwin, I noticed in the Thunderbird newsgroup, you said "I'm just talking about
News Groups." Perhaps the bug summary should be changed to reflect that.
Something like "send format options do not apply to news (NNTP) servers."
Maybe this would then be an RFE. :-\

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Updating summary per comment 3.

> However, with rare exception, I am asked how I want to send.  There appears to
> be no rhyme or reason to the exceptions.

I don't know how you normally go about composing in HTML, but in a quick test I 
got the HTML Mail Question only for messages with some sort of formatting -- 
even something simple and easily "translated" to text like bolding.  For 
messages without formatting, they're converted to plain regardless of the Send 
Options settings.

Both cases' behavior is consistent with how mail is handled for recipients of 
"unknown" preference.

Comment 5

[Scott MacGregor]

you may want to just set:

tools / account settings / choose your news account then / composition, uncheck
"Compose messages in HTML format".

Comment 6

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Okay, under the current settings:
Tools -> Account Settings -> news.mozilla.org -> Composition
[ ] "Compose messages in HTML format"

Subscribe to netscape.public.mozilla.test.

In Tools -> Options -> Composition -> Send Options, add either
"news.mozilla.org" or netscape.public.mozilla.test to HTML domains.

Select the netscape.public.mozilla.test newsgroup, and click on "Write".

Add some HTML formatting to the message (bold some text, hyperlink some text,
etc), and click on send.

Result: you still get prompted to choose a format.
Expected result: message should be sent automatically in in HTML format without
prompt.

The root of the bug report is that the Send Options simply don't apply to
newsgroups.

CONFIRMING

Whether this should be classified as an RFE or a normal bug, I don't know.
It probably applies to all platforms too.

I'll test it on Seamonkey to see if this is really a core bug.

Comment 7

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Yup, confirmed on seamonkey ZIP [rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050328].

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Okay, under the current settings:
> Tools -> Account Settings -> news.mozilla.org -> Composition
> [ ] "Compose messages in HTML format"

I believe Scott was suggesting that the workaround is to compose in plain text.


> In Tools -> Options -> Composition -> Send Options, add either
> "news.mozilla.org" or netscape.public.mozilla.test to HTML domains.

But neither a newsgroup name nor a news server name is an "HTML domain".
If you were sending mail to   [e-mail]   then you might see the 
expected result.

Moving to Core based on comment 7.

Comment 9

[Ronald Killmer]

This behavior in TB is a regression from the NC4.xx sorce code that MoFo
inhereted from Netscape.  This fuction did work in Communicator 4.xx for NNTP.

Do not see a reasion for dupliction of function of this Tools > Options setting
and the one available in Address Book as pertains to mail.

This was expected to perform as the equivelent of the NC4.xx feature.  There for
I view this as a bug not a new feature.  Seems something never got connected to
preserve the original function referenced in NC4.

Comment 10

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Is there any intention to make the Send Options apply to newsgroups? If not,
maybe this bug should be marked as WONTFIX.

Comment 11

[Karsten Düsterloh]

> Is there any intention to make the Send Options apply to newsgroups? If not,
> maybe this bug should be marked as WONTFIX.

As long as noone marks it as, it isn't. We accept patches, you know. ;-)

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

still see this problem when using a current version?

Comment 13

[Ronald Killmer]

Yes, this is an old but still relevant issue. Deal is, within the Options one can set a e-mail domain as an HTML preferring domain. Where are News servers where posting HTML is the preferred method.  Without being able to set that news server as an HTML preference domain we always get the dialog to select one of the three sending choices. If we had the domain setting active through the Options UI the server could be declared and the user sending prompts would go away.

Clearly this needs some backend work to add the same functionality to News as currently exists for Mail. See also my comment #9

Mike in Comment #8 covers hits the probable key bit, that news.mozilla.org is disregarded because of the word news, yet mail.mozilla.org would likely work, or prepending address@.  

Personally I want to call this a normal bug, but in reality it's an RFE since the MailNews core was not designed to extend the feature to News.

Comment 14

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

Clearing closeme, setting "minor" since it's not a big problem (very few newsservers or newsgroups tolerate HTML postings).

Comment 15

[Larry]

My experiences with newsservers setup in more recent years is that most do allow HTML posts.

Comment 17

[Joe Sabash [:JoeS1]]

(In reply to comment #14)
> Clearing closeme, setting "minor" since it's not a big problem (very few
> newsservers or newsgroups tolerate HTML postings).

This is a misconception IMO
There are still quite a few newsgroups left that encourage the use of HTML Notwithstanding the indifference and lack of support for HTML composition.

IMO Newsgroups are just a "group related" form of Facebook, rather than being "individual centered"
There is a much bigger market here than most folks realize, that we should be paying attention to.

Might I suggest also, that use of the term "tolerate html" may be the crux of problem for continuing support of HTML compose.
You might consider it junk, but "One man's junk is another man's treasure"

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

bug 401014 is slimmer and covers the OP's primary issue, so duping forward. 
If there are news-specific issues, please file a bug.

Comment 19

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

wsmwk, bug 401014 has nothing to do with this bug here.