Closed Bug 360980 Opened 18 years ago Closed 16 years ago

Support for Outlook's 'Winmail.dat' files

Categories

(Penelope Graveyard :: General, enhancement, P5)

Product:
Penelope Graveyard
Component:
General
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 77811

People

(Reporter: mdudziak, Assigned: mdudziak)

References

(Depends on 1 open bug)

Details

From the wiki:
6) Built-in (or plugin) support to decode the abymsal winmail.dat often sent by incompetent Outlook-Users


There are currently third-party utilities out there on the net that know how to read winmail.dat files. Penelope should be able to read them as well. If you agree, vote for this bug.
Core bug 77811.
Depends on: 77811
There are a number of things that the eudora built in html msg viewer will not view correctly. Stuff from outlook users and lotus notes users. I assume that Penelope will use the html engine from Firefox (soon to be cairo in 3.0?)
This is a surprisingly nasty problem on a large network with many Outlook users.
Interesting... I've never had much trouble reading messages from outlook users.  Is this something that Thunderbird also has a problem with?  This sounds more like  one or two bugs rather than a current Eudora feature.  If the voting system let me cast a 'NO' vote, I would do that here.  
(In reply to comment #4)

The issue here is a fairly anti-social part of Outlook. If not set to do otherwise, it e-mails attachments in a winmail.dat file other programs can't read. If I've understood this correctly, the idea would be for Penelope to be able to read them.


Uh... why would you want attachments from Outlook.  I certainly don't.  I've seen these files come in and I always delete the attachment, because when I check with the sender they say there was no attachment -- just something similar to a v-card or signature.

I vote NO.
Years ago I made a filter to trash any incoming message with a 'winmail.dat' attachment. I'm confident I've never missed anything remotely important.
(In reply to comment #7)
> Years ago I made a filter to trash any incoming message with a 'winmail.dat'
> attachment. I'm confident I've never missed anything remotely important.
> 

Well some of us that are self employed cant be so nonchalant about incoming mail not from a pre-screened pool of senders as we get new business from unsolicited emails and most people in business use Outlook. Also many of mu clients use Lotus notes. Not much I can do about that. I dont mind trashing the attachment but I cant do that in Win Eudora. Only Mac users can do that. Let those of us that need the software options have them It wont prevent you from trashing all your messages form outlook users.
(In reply to comment #7)
> Years ago I made a filter to trash any incoming message with a 'winmail.dat'
> attachment. I'm confident I've never missed anything remotely important.

Yeah, that'd go over like a **** in an elevator for government officials to trash incoming messages from their taxpayers.
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
(In reply to comment #6)
> Uh... why would you want attachments from Outlook.  I certainly don't.  I've
> seen these files come in and I always delete the attachment, because when I
> check with the sender they say there was no attachment -- just something
> similar to a v-card or signature.

In most of the cases it's true that emails (with a winmail.dat) from Outlook users don't have useful attachments, exactly as you say. But also legitimate attachments are being send inside a winmail.dat. Unfortunately, non-Outlook email software can't read these files and their users can't lay their hands on the attachments. So, I wholeheartedly support this feature.
See bug 77811 ... big big change in this bug and chance to got an embedded decoder really soon
New version of the LookOut extension put into AMO for review. This one fixes a metadata reading bug and added RTF decoding/decompression. It would be nice if the RTF could be viewed inline but at least it is accessible. RTF and HTML body text (as opposed to an explicit attachment) will now show as body_part_#.rtf or body_part_#.html. Until the AMO folks get around to it you will find the LookOut 1.2 xpi in the AMO sandbox.

Enjoy,
Aron

(In reply to comment #11)
> See bug 77811 ... big big change in this bug and chance to got an embedded
> decoder really soon
> 
Really soon being relative, I guess. 

If anyone is still out there I have yet another version stuck in the AMO sandbox. It should be renamed the AMO tar pit.

I am also half way done the code to interpret MAPI appointment data as ical data.

I still have some correspondents who use old versions of Outlook and sometimes I need to unlock their emails. I use this
http://www.eolsoft.com/freeware/winmail_opener/
I wouldn't implement anything in Penelope but trust fewer and fewer outlook users lag behind with old versions.

I think we all agree in principal. The issue is that Microsoft still embeds a lot of metadata in TNEF/MAPI enclosures which TB and Sunbird/Lightning should be able to read. LookOut is almost able to read all of it including the encapsulated attachments.
Some people send me information cards as winmail.dat I think it would be useful for a lot of people who want to switch from Outlook to Eudora. I don't think users would like to switch if the condition is leave every thing behind them. It would be like asking a migrant to come to the US and one condition would be to forget his/her mother language. 

My vote is YES. Create as much interoperability as possible with other e-mail programs. Maybe as options for the users
Priority: -- → P5
(In reply to comment #17)
> Some people send me information cards as winmail.dat I think it would be useful
> for a lot of people who want to switch from Outlook to Eudora. I don't think
> users would like to switch if the condition is leave every thing behind them.
> It would be like asking a migrant to come to the US and one condition would be
> to forget his/her mother language. 
> 
> My vote is YES. Create as much interoperability as possible with other e-mail
> programs. Maybe as options for the users
> 

I second that. Interoperability with Outlook is important. It will be very convenient by providing this capability.
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.