309708 - "Send To" unavailable when Thunderbird is the default Mail client on macOS / OS X

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, enhancement)

Description

[Tudor Holton]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

When I make Thunderbird the default mail client on OS X, we are unable to use
the "Services->Mail->Send To" facility.  It is greyed out.
This also causes the "File->Send To" facility in Microsoft Office applications
to be greyed out.
This functionality works when Apple's Mail.app, Microsoft Entourage, or Eudora
is the default mail client.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open Mail -> Preferences and make Thunderbird the default client.
2.Click [Application Name]->Services->Mail->Send To
3.See that it is greyed out.
Or in Microsoft Office:
1.Same as 1 above
2.In any Microsoft Office Application, click File->Send To
3. See that it is greyed out.
Actual Results:  
The option is greyed out.

Expected Results:  
It should have opened a new Thunderbird Compose Message Window, and attached the
file currently open in the application.

Vanilla OS X 10.4 "Tiger" install.
Also tried with X11 installed but no luck.

This is not really a "Minor" bug.  It is a big headache to minimise the
application and open up Thunderbird every time.  Particularly if you do it a
hundred times a day (literally!)  So I am submitting this as a "Major" feature,
even though it is currently not listed as one. (AFAIK)

Comment 1

[zug_treno]

See also bug 273849 comment 19.

Comment 2

[Chris Andrichak]

Thunderbird doesn't provide any services for the Mac OS X services menu, it looks like, so this might be more of an RFE than a bug. The fact that 'Mail->Send To' doesn't work is because that is a service provided by the Apple Mail program, not a general 'send this to whatever is the preferred email program' service.

I can confirm that MS Word does not cooperate if Thunderbird is the preferred mail client - the 'File->Send as Attachment' selection is greyed out in that case.

Comment 3

[karl reed]

I regard this as serious!

I can get MS word to "send-to"@mail Entourage and Eudora, but NOT Thunderbird!

I was not aware of this capability until my 83 year old mother was moved to a Mac, and this did not work any more..

the above report has been totally reproducable on my machine, exactly as reported.

Please fix this!

Assoc. Prof. Karl Reed, FIEAUST, FACS

Comment 5

[Steve Simms]

Confirming, based on several reports of it not working.  Switching to enhancement, though, since it's something that wasn't ever implemented, rather than something that was implemented incorrectly.

See also bug 418233 for a similar issue with Gnome integration.  It might be worth it to address both bugs at the same time.

Comment 6

[karl reed]

OK, but it was interesting to me for two reasons..

a/ My 80 year old mother had been using this under windows and I never knew this. She never told me (A great example for those hwo beleive in XP and don't understand that one needs domain experts. She never told me about this rquirement, so natuarlly, i never knew it existed or was possible..).

b/ Its a really great feature, and since it ws there under windows, why isn't available under OS X?

So, can someone please fix this?

I think ite embarrassing for the OS community that a bug like thuis can exist for e years.. 

Warm Regards

Karl Reed

Comment 7

[Joshua Nixon]

Lack of ability to perform actions like this on the Mac is a huge hole. If I can set Thunderbird as the default mail client, I should be able to have the program integrate with the operating system better than it does.

As-is, Thunderbird is inaccessible to other programs. External apps (like the recently-released Picasa beta, Office, iCal, Growl, etc.) can create new mail messages, with attachments, out of the box. Thunderbird doesn't even have an extension to allow this function on the Mac. This works on Windows - if I set the program as my default, external apps can fire Tbird to mail things using MAPI.

This should have been pushed for TB2, it really ought to be an available function in TB3. Lack of system integration is a major problem. Tbird cannot be used as an enterprise app if it can't accept mail requests from commonly used programs such as Office, etc.

The workaround (open Tbird, new message, then attach) is three steps too many for the casual user, and an obstacle to adoption. If it is harder than clicking the "Send as email" button in Word, most Mac users are going to default to Mail or Entourage instead.

Comment 9

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I haven't got time at the moment to work on this, however I have just had a look around and got some ideas on how to fix this bug. I'm dumping them here so that someone may by able to take them on, or I may get time in a few months.

It looks like two things are required:

1) An NSServices section in Info.plist (e.g. see Camino's http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/camino/Info-Camino.plist.in also Mail.app's Info.plist also has some ideas).
2) Call to NSApp setServicesProvider with a class to implement the appropriate function (e.g. see Camino's url handler: http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsblame.cgi?file=mozilla/camino/src/application/MainController.mm&rev=1.278&mark=156,934-962#156 note: two sections marked).

I believe that is all, but there are other references on the internet that may need to be consulted as well.

Comment 11

[Ray Verth]

Any chancew of getting this fixed SOON please as this is sending me round the bend!!

Comment 12

[Ray Verth]

It might have been a "duplicate" request but how about fixing it rather than just reporting or referring it????

Comment 13

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #12)
> It might have been a "duplicate" request but how about fixing it rather than
> just reporting or referring it????

I have already investigated and given pointers as to how this bug may be fixed. It is not a primary focus of the next release although to have it would be nice to have.

Patches are always welcome and comment 9 should give some directions.

Comment 14

[Ray Verth]

Why is it not a priority? The message from Joshua Nixon was spot on - if this is not available people will move to other mail platforms. In fact when I called MS support about this they told me to stop using Thunderbird and move to Entourage - which is what I will do if you guys do not commit to a fix with a firm date. Do you want another deserter from the crusade against MS???

Comment 15

[rjreinertsen]

In all due respect to Mark Banner - your "solution" assumes that we who want this fixed are hi-tech gurus who would understand your pointers - you are way off-base on that, my friend. 

I'm not a computer programmer - I specialize in City Planning (and being a Dad).  I'll speak for myself, but I think we are (not so hi-tech) users who like Thunderbird but want this bug fixed by those more well versed to do as such. 

I know how to change spark plugs in my car - does not make me an auto mechanic.  Your tips are on "auto mechanic" level and are therefore useless for this frustrated user.

Mozilla needs to get off their butt and fix this issue. 

Other comments are welcome - am I off base here?

Comment 16

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Other comments are welcome - am I off base here?

Yes you are. Please read https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html before commenting on any more bugs.

Comment 17

[rjreinertsen]

(In reply to comment #16)
> (In reply to comment #15)
> > Other comments are welcome - am I off base here?
> 
> Yes you are. Please read
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html before commenting on
> any more bugs.

All,

It seems that I (unintentionally) committed a faux pas on my post 15 and did not comport with some of Mozilla's etiquette protocols.  I don't want one stray comment to distract from the rest of the message - which I think stands on its own an is still valid.  

If I had an edit button for my post 15 I would remove one line (the "Mozilla needs to get off their butt") line from my post 15 , as I would concede that it does not comport with Mozilla's etiquette protocols (and maybe remove the the quotation marks around the word (solution) earlier in the post, as well.  My apologies for the oversight.

That said, with the removal of said material, I stand by the content of the rest of my post. 

Anyone trying to help out on a matter has good intentions - that said it's not a personal attack in the least to point out that many of us (otherwise satisfied) Thunderbird users are not on the same tech level as others in the Mozilla community.  In general advice that may seem like a feasible solution to a programmer is not to a non-programmer (like myself). 

I note this bug was first reported in 2005. 

I send attachments right from the programs countless times a day (land use plans, constructions drawings and the like) - it is a given that this is a function that is essential to any e-mail package.

People from all walks of life (a Planner like myself, a college professor, among others) have taken the time to report on this bug and ask for a fix. I'll speak for myself, but at this point in my life I don't have the expertise to dig in and fix it with the solutions given - they are over my head. 

It seems (from other comments posted earlier) that this bug still will exist in TB3 - respectfully, that is a major oversight.

Regards.

Comment 18

[karl reed]

I am with those who think this is a real issue..

It is enough for me to move off Tbird, and for my 83 year old mother to do so as well..

Unlike   [e-mail]  I am a retired computer professional and software engineering educator in (in fact, a pioneer in Australia), you can look me up..To be honest, I cannot understand how a developer could leave such a feature out when their comnpetitors have it. Plus, what does Tbird do under Windows?

All [e-mail]'s comments are entirley warranted. She or he has nothing to appologise for, and, at the risk of being provocative, I think the reputation of the open systems community is sullied by the failure of one of its most important icons to be responsive to what is clearly an implementation oversight.

Regards

Karl Reed

Comment 19

[Ray Verth]

I absolutely and completely agree with Karl Reed.

Comment 20

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Whether you agree or disagree with Thunderbird's development decisions, comments 11 to 20 (including mine) are nothing to do with actually getting this bug fixed. Therefore they should not be here. If you don't like what we're doing, I suggest you move this discussion to the newsgroup mozilla.dev.apps.thunderbird on news.mozilla.org which is the proper place for discussions like this.

Comment 21

[Jason Yeo[:jyeo]]

hi,

I would like to help fixing this bug. I understand that I first have to modify http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mail/app/macbuild/Contents/Info.plist.in

But I am having some problems. Where can I find the cocoa code for the mac build?

Comment 22

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to Jason Yeo(:jyeo) from comment #21)
 
> But I am having some problems. Where can I find the cocoa code for the mac
> build?

What do you call the cocoa code ? (Thunderbird, like firefox doesn't use much cocoa code for it's UI, we use xul). Expand what you want and we'll try to answer:-)

Comment 23

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Maybe this is a better place to start looking around... http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mail/components/shell/nsMailMacIntegration.cpp

Comment 24

[Jason Yeo[:jyeo]]

> What do you call the cocoa code ? 

I meant the objective C stuff. The Info.plist has to know which objective C function to call when the user clicks "New Email With Selection".

Comment 25

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Jason Yeo(:jyeo) from comment #24)
> I meant the objective C stuff. The Info.plist has to know which objective C
> function to call when the user clicks "New Email With Selection".

That's the main bit that needs writing, we don't have that at the moment. Comment 9 indicates code that may be useful to copy but I never worked out where/how that code should go to integrate into Thunderbird.

Comment 26

[Jason Yeo[:jyeo]]

> That's the main bit that needs writing, we don't have that at the moment.

so should i just go ahead and write that part?

> Comment 9 indicates code that may be useful to copy but I never worked out
> where/how that code should go to integrate into Thunderbird.

I guess I will go and explore the code and see where would it fit.

Comment 27

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to Jason Yeo(:jyeo) from comment #26)
> > That's the main bit that needs writing, we don't have that at the moment.
> 
> so should i just go ahead and write that part?

Yes. That's the way to implement this.

Comment 28

[Oliver Knoll]

Hi there, I just tried again with the latest of greatest 10.0.2, and it seems that the requested functionality still is not in place. To give this issue a bit more weight count another +1 vote ;)

Unfortunatelly (as a developer) I cannot much contribute in coding (to many other projects, you know ;)), but I once dove into Objective-C and the Apple API docs as to implement "Lion Fullscreen" support for my Qt application.

Anyway, I thought I'd help out by digging some (possibly) relevant Apple docs:

  https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServices/Articles/providing.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000853-BABDICBI

It probably repeats what has been said in comment #9, but here we go:

Once you have implemented your "Mail Service" you register it with:

  [NSApp setServicesProvider:mailService];

where 'mailService' is an instance of your MailService class (in the Apple docs they use an 'encryptor' as example).

Where do you do that? In the docs they mention "You create and register your object in the applicationDidFinishLaunching: application delegate method (or equivalent) with the setServicesProvider: method of the NSApplication class." Or in the mentioned "application delegate".

I did a quick Google research and came up with this:

  http://cocoawithlove.com/2008/03/cocoa-application-startup.html

It explains how a Cocoa application is initialised. Since TB on Mac must also have some sort of Cocoa interfacing - and I guess there must be also some kind of "NSApplication delegate" instance around. Sorry, I know, very sketchy, but my Cocoa knowledge is very limited (Qt does that all for me usually ;))

In my Qt example - where I added fullscreen support - I called the appropriate Cocoa APIs in the c'tor of my main window. The actual implementation of my Cocoa calls was off course in its own *.mm file (I also had to learn how to link Objective-C with my C++ code, which is really easy: in *.mm you can mix C++ code with Objective-C, write the appropriate *.h header and call these methods from within the rest of your C++ application - simply compile the *.mm with gcc suite and link with the rest - done :))

So basically you would register the service "anywhere soon after the main() function
"


The price-winning question is off course: "How and what do you advertise, such that when a user chooses TB as default mail client that YOUR service is called? And what is the interface of such a service?"

Do you simply overwrite the service advertisement from Apple Mail? I don't know. I did not find anything useful after a quick 15 minute Apple developer docs browsing session, but I believe the answer is related to how you define the properties of such a service:

  https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServices/Articles/properties.html


Or coming from "the other side", how your mail service is called from clients:

  https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServices/Articles/using.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000854-97273

So programmatically a client application (which wants to send text and an attachement, for instance) would call

  BOOL NSPerformService(NSString *serviceItem, NSPasteboard *pboard)

where 'serviceItem' is a string:

"The name of a Services menu item (in any language) is contained in serviceItem. It must be the full name of the service; for example, “Search in Google.”"


So assuming you could simply provide the Thunderbird mail services with the same service name as Apple Mail, and the TB service would be called first IF TB is set as standard email client, you would be halfway there :)

Off course the above information has just been quickly extracted from the Apple docs and my thoughts about it could be plain wrong. But I hope it gives you some hints, together with the example code mentioned in comment #9.


Good luck,
  Oliver

Comment 29

[James Rome]

I agree that this is really important for Mac users.

Comment 30

[MBP133]

Hello,
I just tried again with the latest 13.0.1, and it seems that the requested functionality still is not in place. (+1 vote)

MBP133

Comment 31

[Bill Hamilton]

I can perhaps take a look at this, but I won't have any time to do so for a few weeks,

Comment 32

[Oliver Knoll]

We're all holding our breath - I mean, it's just been about 7 years so far since this issue was reported ;)

Comment 33

[theo]

This has to be crazy - while I appreciate all the efforts of the developers - most of the features being developed are "nice to haves" - whereas this one is simply essential. I concur with the others here - I must use that sort of functionality at least 50 times a day. Now I have to first save, then create mail, then attach........... most of the time I have no need to save the file in the first place.

Can anyone shed light on whether this is now on some timeline with light at the end of the tunnel? I really would hate to switch email clients, but if this will not be fixed I won't have a choice as it's simply hampering my work.

Awaiting answer eagerly

Theo

Comment 34

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Nomis101, any interest? Comment 9 may have a plan.

Comment 35

[Nomis101]

Attachment: Example of a NSServices part in Info.plist

(In reply to Magnus Melin from comment #34)
> Nomis101, any interest? Comment 9 may have a plan.

This patch adds an NSServices entry to our Info.plist (inspired from Apple Mail and Sparrow). But than we will also need a file ServicesMenu.strings at Thunderbird.app/Contents/Resources/[locale].lproj/ServicesMenu.strings.
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/cocoa/conceptual/SysServices/Articles/properties.html

But I don't know how to add the call to NSApp setServicesProvider and in which file it must be added. But should be something like this http://cocoadev.com/wiki/MakingAppServices

Comment 36

[Jason Yeo[:jyeo]]

> But I don't know how to add the call to NSApp setServicesProvider and in
> which file it must be added. But should be something like this
> http://cocoadev.com/wiki/MakingAppServices

I tried to work on this not too long ago and I encountered the same problem. I know how to create the service but I don't know which file to add the service handler.

I've tried asking around in IRC but sadly no one seem to know.

Comment 37

[Till]

I just switched to OS/X and I was surprised to find this not implemented and the discussion stale. It's a rather big deal.

Comment 38

[Oliver Knoll]

Pah! What's twelve years when compared to the age of our galaxy. But "nice" to see people still stumbling over this one ;)

And hey! I am still using Thunderbird on OSX... oops... I meant macOS ;)

Back then the way to implement this would (probably) have been to provide Apple Script functions which implement some (public? Documented?) "mail interface". At least Outlook seemed to have managed that.

Today one would probably hook into the new "Share" API...

Comment 39

[Till]

Yes that's what I gathered when researching what it would take to make it work. I'd be happy to help, and I know how to code, but I have no experience developing for Mozilla / Mac...

The thing we need is an 'app extension', right? https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014214-CH20-SW1

Comment 40

[Oliver Knoll]

(In reply to Till from comment #39)
> ...
> The thing we need is an 'app extension', right?
> https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/
> ExtensibilityPG/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014214-CH20-SW1

Quite possibly. Looking at the list of possible extension points the "Action" probably comes closest to what would be needed.

However I would cross-check this. E.g. how does Outlook 2016 do it nowadays? I mean more from a user point of view (from which the underlying implementation could maybe be guesstimated): e.g. does a "Send with Outlook" item show up somewhere as "Action" in some "Share" menu?

Or are macOS "services" (still?) the way to go? https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/Introduction.html

I honestly don't know.

Disclaimer: while I am a software engineer myself I am not at all involved with Thunderbird development, nor do I have any practical Cocoa/macOS API experience going beyond peeking at the Apple developer docs every then and when. So the above words are not to be considered "recommendations", but rather "possible pointers to investigate, coming from a long-term Thunderbird user (and compiled during some breakfast in Brasil in my holidays - for what it's worth ;))

Comment 41

[claros]

It's a pity that after 10 years this issue has not yet been resolved: thunderbird is the best email client available on mac os and definitely deserves this feature.

Comment 42

[Oliver Knoll]

The previous comment just triggered another quick Google search and after 6 years it came up with the „new way“ (since OS X 10.8) of „sharing things“:


  https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nssharingservice

From the docs: „A service that lets users share content with other services, such as social media services, or apps, such as Mail [sic!] and Safari.“

Is NSSharingService the way to go forward?

Comment 43

[karl reed]

Hi All, I think I was one of the first people to report this issue.
Two points..
1. The reaction from some of the developers provides part of my arguments against open source.. 
2. I did find a solution that would not please everyone..
2.1 Open the Applications folder on your Mac.
2.2 Make a copy of apple Mail (for backup purposes)
2.3 Make a copy of Thunderbird
2.4 Delete the original version of apple Mail
2.5 rename Thunderbird to Mail.app
Restart your machine,
Then "send to" should work from Word, but, you have lost apple Mail.
I didn't explore renaming Mail..
Be careful to make a copy Mail.app Thunderbird before doing this so you can be sure to go back.
Regards
Karl

Comment 44

[Oliver Knoll]

(In reply to karl reed from comment #43)

Hi Karl,

> 1. The reaction from some of the developers provides part of my arguments
> against open source..

As both a software engineer and avid user myself I can understand your frustration. But specifically in my former role - working for a "closed source" software company - I can *assure* you that whether a feature (user request) is being implemented or not has absolutely *nothing* to do whether we are talking about open vs closed software. Even when you're willing to actually pay it is still up to the software company whether that particular feature is in their own (product) interest, whether they can free up resources or basically whether "they just feel like the urge to take your money"...

But why don't you come up with a "bounty" for open source features, say, 1000 $ or so (crowd-funded), that might give another motivation boost to some open source developer here ;)
 
> 2. I did find a solution that would not please everyone..

That's... interesting. That merely "renaming" the "Thunderbird" package into "Mail" would make macOS actually launch Thunderbird (that I can believe) AND actually create a new email with the file (which was "Shared") attached, ready to be sent...


But I wanted to add some more findings here, the results of some recent experiments of mine (unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to attach screenshots here, so I have to describe my results):

* "Share" context action

First of all we note that the default Email client always appears in the "Share" Extensions (under macOS System Settings - sorry, I have macOS with locale German: is it called "Preferences" in the English locale?): it is disabled, so you cannot even untick it, and the entry always shows the "default email client" (e.g. Thunderbird, Apple Mail or Outlook - btw you need to launch Apple Mail in order to change the "default email client" in its Preferences *hint* *hint*)

* "Share" with Thunderbird

When we have "Thunderbird" as default email client then it does appear in the System Preferences (as noted above), but when actually right-clicking on a file, say in Finder, then in the context "Share" menu there is no "Thunderbird" entry.

* "Share" with Outlook 2016

Interestingly when doing the same with Outlook 2016 (I have the latest Outlook version 16.13.1) there is *no* entry in the actual "Share" context menu either, or in other words: I haven't yet found a way in macOS how to "send a file as email" with Outlook (as default email client). (As I am not an Outlook user I have only played with this scenario a couple of minutes, but since the "Share"-way seems to be the way to go I don't think I would find another possibility for Outlook. @Karl, you might want to file a feature request with Microsoft and see how long it takes them to (re-)integrate Outlook into macOS ;)

* "Share" with Apple Mail

Not surprisingly when setting Apple Mail aus default email client then it *does* appear in the actual "Share" context menu: when selecting the "Mail" entry then a new "email edit" window opens (nice: only that small "edit window" appears, not the entire Apple Mail application is launched, at least not in a visible way) and the selected file (e.g. a text file selected in Finder or a photo selected in Apple Photos) is automatically added as attachment.



I think what we can take from the above observations is that the "Share" functionality (extensions) seems really the way to implement this (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nssharingservice) - at least Apple Mail seems to be integrated that way.

What surprises me though is that Microsoft Outlook seemingly did not implement this - somewhat important - feature. Is this because Apple still implements some "secret (non-public) mail protocol" over this "Share" extension? What would prevent Microsoft from implementing this feature?


Anyway, I hope I got some developer inclinded here to look deeper into this "Share" topic...

Comment 45

[Tudor Holton]

At the time*, Microsoft Office had an *installer* on Apple, which was virtually unheard of.  Apple installation was drag-and-drop which usually did very little other than copy files.  From this I concluded that they were doing something unusual to the OS to make the "Send To" function work, which they chose only to share with Microsoft (being a part-owner of Apple).

I can't speak to the current status of things as I no longer work for a company with a large number of Apple products, however it seems likely that Microsoft haven't (yet) got to implementing via the new "share" feature because the old functionality still exists, however, it looks like the share feature is much better documented and more likely to succeed.

*(bear in mind this was 13 years ago I originally filed the report)

Comment 46

[Oliver Knoll]

Oh, THAT'S interesting: by chance I just stumbled over a feature - namely the possibility to share iCloud files with others - which actually does call Thunderbird (defined as default email client), opening the "Write Email" window and pre-filling both recipient, subject ("the name of the file on iCloud to be shared") and text body ("the link to be shared").

In detail (prerequisites: iCloud Drive is enabled):

* Select any file in Finder (e.g. a PDF), stored on your iCloud Drive and which you may want to share with others
* Right-click on that file, select "Share" -> "Add Person" (in German: "Teilen" -> "Person hinzufügen" - so the English text is just a guestimate of the original English text)
* A "Add Person" ("Personen hinzufügen") dialog appears, showing various options how to share the iCloud Drive link, followed by the desired recipient and some options (which I left unchanged for now - mostly related to who has what read/write access to the file)
* The first option for me is "email", and the Thunderbird logo appears (next is iMessage, "Copy Link", "facebook", ...)
* Choose "Mail" (the Thunderbird logo)
* Choose any recipient's email address (except your own (*))
* Finally click on the "Share" confirmation button

And lo and behold, a Thunderbird "Edit Email" dialog now shows up, with the above mentioned features: email recipient pre-selected, subject and text body filled.

As observed on latest macOS 10.13.6 ("High Sierra"). By the way this also works if Thunderbird is not yet opened at that time of "sharing". Nice: in this case only the "Edit Email" window appears (not the entire email folders, for instance - at least not initially).

So it seems that the OS is able to figure out how to call the default's email client "Edit Email" window and prefill all the expected data. 

Not sure about attachments though: that would be the expected feature when one would directly "Share" a file (not necessarily stored on iCloud Drive) via Email. 

That most likely means that Thunderbird must *already* be implementing the corresponding API which is then called by macOS (when sharing "iCloud Drive links"). So all that seems to be missing is making that API available/known to the "Share" service of macOS itself.

:)


(*) it seems that you cannot select any email of your own: the logic of macOS here seems to be that you cannot share a file with yourself (according to your macOS Address Book presumably), so you need to choose an email address of some friend - but no worries: as long as you don't push the "Send" button no invitation is sent yout later on - however you still may want to "Stop Sharing" after you're done with your experiments. Or simply delete the (test) file.

Comment 47

[Prabhjot]

(In reply to Oliver Knoll from comment #46)
Thanks for pointing it out. I tested the share as Email from various applications sharing text or links e.g. Chrome, Firefox etc work correctly if Thunderbird is set as the default mail client. 

I can confirm although Thunderbird doesn't appear as a Share context action in Finder, if you click "More", it does show up as "Mail" with the Thunderbird icon. 

>That most likely means that Thunderbird must *already* be implementing the corresponding API which is then called by macOS (when >sharing "iCloud Drive links"). So all that seems to be missing is making that API available/known to the "Share" service of >macOS itself.

So essentially this file sharing API needs to be linked to Thunderbird and it will fix another bug I'm trying to find a solution to: "No supported mail client" in Microsoft Office. 

Is there a bug that is open on the same topic?

Comment 48

[Mark Foley]

Add my vote for this bug/feature. Our office is converting from Windows to Mac. We've use Thunderbird on Windows and Linux workstations for many years, but the inability of Office, Preview and ScanSnap on Mac to be able to Share opened documents with a Thunderbird email client is a show-stopper for us. Users want this. As this bug/feature is 13 years old at this point I'm not optimistic it will be fixed any time soon. We'll likely be going to Outlook on the Mac, unfortunately.

Comment 49

[karl reed]

This is still a serious problem and needs fixing!

Comment 50

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Mark's support topic https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1241211

Comment 51

[Mars]

Any update on this? It seems very important to me!

Comment 52

[Tudor Holton]

@Mars, After 17 years from my original request, and 3 years since the last comment, it seems unlikely this is going to get attention soon.

I'd suggest looking at Mark's support topic above, specifically the attachment to bug #606908 which purports to use Automator to create a "Send to Thunderbird" service.

Unfortunately, I can't confirm it works or make any futher suggestions since I have long since moved onto other jobs (and countries, even!).

Comment 53

[Tudor Holton]

Sorry, that should be bug #606918.

Comment 54

[Siebert]

Hello !
I quote Nomis101 in Bug606918 which is closed in the meantime:
"Now that Thunderbird supports the "open -a" command, we can use it for various things. E.g. I would like to rightclick in the Finder on a file and attach it to a new Thunderbird compose window."
I would also appreciate if this function would be available a.s.a.p. I know this function out of the Airmail application and I love it !
Can I do more here than underline the reporter's wish ?
Cheers, Siebert

Comment 55

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

duplicate of bug 334206?

Comment 56

[Chris Andrichak]

It's similar but not a duplicate of bug 334206

Comment 57

[Ash F]

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/share-menu-extension-for-mac/idi-p/45552
Please vote for this

Comment 58

[karl reed]

I vote for this! For heavens sake, just do it!