413458 - Firefox is not escaping parentheses when sending a mailto command to an external mail-client.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[gml4410]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11

I have Firefox set to invoke Thunderbird as my mail client by defining network.protocol-handler.app.mailto in my user.js file to be a script which checks for a running thunderbird and passes it the mailto URI.
However, Firefox is not escaping parentheses which exist in the Web page title when it sends them as the subject, so thunderbird cannot parse it.
The example URI produces this:

/local/thunderbird/thunderbird -remote 'mailto(?body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howtoforge.com%2Faccess-linux-partitions-from-windows&subject=Three%20Ways%20To%20Access%20Linux%20Partitions%20(ext2%2Fext3)%20From%20Windows%20On%20Dual-Boot%20Systems%20%7C%20HowtoForge%20-%20Linux%20Howtos%20and%20Tutorials)'
Error: Failed to send command: 500 command not parseable

If I change the ( and ) in "(ext2/ext3)" to be %28 and %29 thunderbird works as expected.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open example URI in Firefox
2. Click on File -> Send Link...
3. If you have Thunderbird set up as your mailer - nothing happens.
Actual Results:  
Nothing happens

Expected Results:  
Thunderbird should open a Compose window with the Subject and body completed.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

gml4410 Does it work for you when using Firefox 3?

The example in bug 477955 works for me using FF3 and Thunderbird 3. Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1b4pre) Gecko/20090325 Shredder/3.0b3pre

Comment 2

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

fyi: the shell integration code in Firefox is for checking default client and a few other things but it doesn't handle sending mailto or escaping of mailto commands. Chances are this is an external protocol handling bug but I am moving it back to general for triage.

Comment 3

[gml4410]

The problem is still there with Firefox3.

Whereas it escapes / (%2F), : (%3A) and space (%20) it sends out raw ()s.

It's easy enough to get the shell script to handle this itself (which I do). Perhaps just note the fact?

The problem arises as this string has to be interpolated into:

  -remote "mailto($mailto)"

for Thunderbird, so must not contain ()s.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was originally reported on Firefox 2.x or older, which is no longer supported and will not be receiving any more updates. I strongly suggest that you update to Firefox 3.6.8 or later, update your plugins (flash, adobe, etc.), and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
http://www.mozilla.com
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+mode

Comment 5

[gml4410]

As noted - the problem persists in FF3.
I've just tested with 3.6.8.

http://glacksco.homedns.org/parentheses+firefox.html is a test page with ( and () in the title.

The argument passed to the external script is:

mailto:?body=http%3A%2F%2Fglacksco.homedns.org%2Fparentheses%2Bfirefox.html&subject=Title%20with%20(%20and%20)%20for%20testing

Note that the problem is not about the shell interpreting (), but that when Thunderbird is alreayd running the command to use is:

   ${dist_bin}/thunderbird -remote "mailto($mailto)"

and the () in the mailto uri mess up the command line parsing to the mailto(..) command-line syntax.

My script fixes it with:

   mailto=`echo "$mailto" | sed -e 's/(/%28/g' -e 's/)/%29/g'`

but it should be usable as sent.

Comment 6

[Tanner M [:Tannn3r]]

Reporter, can you still reproduce this bug in Firefox 6?

Please update to Firefox 6 or later, update your plugins, and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated version of Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME.

http://getfirefox.com/

Comment 7

[Jan Sonntag]

Resolving this bug as WFM because no more information was provided by the reporter.
Feel free to reopen this bug if the issue is still relevant.