436256 - Thunderbird should open PDF links (URLs) from message reader directly (e.g. with TB-pdf.js or default pdf app) instead of using external browser to resolve the link

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, enhancement)

Description

[Lior D]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008050509 Firefox/3.0b5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008050509 Firefox/3.0b5

I'm getting many emails with links to pdf files (such as "http://domain.com/document.pdf").

thunderbird open the default browser when *all* urls are clicked, regardless of the actual filetype. when the linked file type is not text/html, opening the browser is unnecessary.

This happens also with links to images, and all other filestypes that are located on the web.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. send yourself a message with a link to a pdf file in the body (such as http://domain.com/doc/pdf).
2. get the message from your mail server.
3. click on the link from the thunderbird's message pane.

Actual Results:  
thunderbird opens firefox with the link location. firefox then asks me to open/save the pdf file.


Expected Results:  
when clicking on the link, thunderbird should know this is pdf file and open the default application for pdf viewing itself.


it may be the correct response, but a "smarter" Thunderbird would just download the pdf / image file (to a temporary location?) and open the appropriate program, without involving any other, unneeded application.

Comment 1

[rsx11m]

A link starting with "http:" is (correctly) referred to the browser application. Thunderbird itself is able to issue HTTP requests, e.g., for remote image content. Now one can conclude that it should be possible to directly resolve that link, but it's a bit more complicated than you may think:

 - the link may end in ".pdf", but this doesn't guarantee that the server
   will actually send application/pdf back (it may be just a download page);

 - the server may request authentication, what should Thunderbird do then?

So, what you are requesting would imply that Thunderbird resolves the HTTP link itself first, connect to the server, and verifies that what it gets back actually represents something different than a web page or authentication request. Then, it would be treated like an attachment based on the stated MIME type, downloaded to /tmp and opened with the registered application.

That functionality exists already in the SeaMonkey suite, which combines various applications (including mail and browser) into one. For Thunderbird, given that it is primarily a mail/news/feeds application, the question is how much browser "intelligence" should be provided beyond remote content.

Comment 3

[Jodi Lucas]

Attachment: same problem

Thanks from eleximthi1982.