317007 - When attaching, create a temp file immediately and edit that instead of the original

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 378046

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, enhancement)

Description

[steve]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Thunderbird needs to copy attachments into a temp directory when attached to a message.  

Example:
We have a sales rep.  He has a base document that he attaches to a new message.  he opens the attachment, and adds customer specific info.  He then saves the attachment, and sends the message.  No problem yet,  but when he creates another message, sending the same base document to another customer, the previous info is saved into that base document.  this is because when thunderbird attaches, it links to the path of the attachment.  

A PITA workaround I found for him was to compose the message, save it as a draft, close the original, open the draft, then modify the attachment.  (the other workaround was create N copies of the base, for each customer)

This problem is causing issues with our roll out of thunderbird in our workplace, because people "want it to be like outlook".

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.create new message
2.attach a file
3.modify the file, and hit save

Actual Results:  
view your original file, and see that it's been modified.


Expected Results:  
original file shouldn't have changed, only the one for this message.

Comment 1

[steve]

This happens on linux also

Comment 2

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

Just create a base email and attach the base document to that.  Save the base email as a template and then all your sales rep needs to do is double click the base in the templates folder to create a 'new' email with its own independant base document.  
I say mark INVALID.

Comment 3

[steve]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Just create a base email and attach the base document to that.  Save the base
> email as a template and then all your sales rep needs to do is double click the
> base in the templates folder to create a 'new' email with its own independant
> base document.  
> I say mark INVALID.
> 

I mentioned that this is how we "fixed" it for now, but this problem really turns people off when we start pushing for users to make the switch.  

It's like if you had to back your car out of the driveway, stopped then shut off the engine.  exited the vehicle, got back in, started it up then drove off.  what a PITA.

Comment 4

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

No, you said you have to do this each time in your solution and the message should be saved as a Draft.  I said save as a template and you only have to do this once.

I don't know what PITA is either, other than a type of bread that you put kebab in.

Comment 5

[steve]

the template idea would be okay, if there were a few messages that the salesperson sends out, but this is really for every email that a user send that has attachments, they most likely open it to check for correctness, then send it.

the real issue here is that any attachment needs to be copied into a temp location (unless there isn't enough free space, then kick an error, or straight link) during email composition (or forwarding, replying for that matter).

oh and by the way, PITA besides being a bread, is Pain In The Ass.

Comment 6

[steve]

this is still happening even in 1.5 and in the development branch.

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

xref bug 314732 => bug 222495 [Invalid]

Workaround: Attach file.  Save message as draft.  Close message window.  Reopen draft: now, opening the attachment creates a temp file.

Comment 8

[steve]

Any news on this?  this is a major inconvenience for our users, as they proof documents, and pass them on they need to create copies so that the original doc doesn't get ruined.

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

This problem is currently under discussion in bug 378046, with a tendency among developers to use immediate snapshot copy (create temp file at the time of attaching), as requested in this bug. However, it has also been suggested to remove the option of editing that temp file from within Thunderbird, which will prevent the usage pattern that you intend. Editing the snapshot from within TB might have some technical and usage problems, though personally I'd like that option, too. My feeling tells me that there might be a lot of businesses using it that way, if only because it works in Outlook. But I don't have any actual usage data. Let's wait what comes out from bug 378046 and if editing the snapshot actually gets disabled, I think that should go into a follow-up bug.