484109 - Sending to multiple email addresses using a ';' instead of a ',' results in an empty "To" field

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 242693

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Earl Wallace]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009021910 Firefox/3.0.7 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b4pre) Gecko/20090318 Shredder/3.0b3pre

When composing a new message, I entered two valid email addresses on a single "To:" line, and used the semicolon (;) instead of a comma (,)  Didn't notice the mistake, and went ahead and sent the email message off as normal.  No errors during the sending of the message to the SMTP server.  When I checked the Sent folder to look at the sent message, the "To:" field showed nothing but "".  It looked like this:  To: ""

The Error Console didn't show anything (that I could tell anyway).

The problem with this bug is that someone can easily enter ';' instead of ',' when entering multiple email addresses on the same line, and send the message off and may never know the message never arrived at the recipients since there is no error message from Thunderbird, and the SMTP server didn't give a bounce message back to let you know.  You would have to look in the Sent folder and read that message and look at the "To" field to get a clue.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Write a new message
2. Enter two valid email addresses separated by '; ' (semicolon and a space)
3. Send the message
4. Look in the Sent folder at the message you just sent
Actual Results:  
You will see that the Sent message contains no email addresses.  It's just an empty "To" field.  Expanding the headers results in the same info.

Expected Results:  
The message should have been sent to both email recipients.  

Thunderbird should have warned you that you need to use a comma (,) to separate email addresses.  Or allow semicolons (;) as well as commas for that purpose (doesn't Outlook use semicolons?)  Also, it should not have tried to send a message that had a empty "To" field.

Comment 1

[Earl Wallace]

I was using 'relay.pair.com' for the SMTP server during the tests, and it did not complain during the test.  I tried a different SMTP server (smtp.gmail.com) and it did complain with the message "5.5.2 Syntax error" and the mail was not sent.  So it appears Thunderbird leaves it up to the SMTP server to say everything is ok?  I think I would at least do a simple check before contacting the server because I just found out some servers don't do much checking for address errors.

Comment 2

[Earl Wallace]

I don't think a "" (space) is a legal email address, so perhaps if you see a space on the "To:" line, that would be a good time to pop up a warning message to the user.

Comment 3

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Comment #0)
> Steps to Reproduce:
>(snip)
> 2. Enter two valid email addresses separated by '; ' (semicolon and a space)
>(snip)

Please read at least RFC for "group address" first.
> http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822#section-3.4
And read Bug 457873, and read Bug 242693 Comment #2 to which Bug 457873 was DUP'ed.
Earl Wallace(bug opener), are you still eager for ";" as alternate of ","?

Comment 4

[Earl Wallace]

RFC822 and RFC2822 both say use the comma (,) to separate the addresses.  I think Bug 242693 covers my feelings about this quite well.  The semicolon should be an option that can be turned on so both comma and semicolon can be used. That would allow some people who are use to the semicolon to continue doing so.  I have personal first-hand knowledge that a certain user of mine was ready to dump Thunderbird and go back to Outlook because they were late sending in a column to their newspaper.  Why?  Because they sent the email to the various depts using a semicolon to separate the address.  All the addresses were valid, but the mail didn't get delivered.  This was a user who was getting used to Thunderbird, that one little error has them mad as heck.

Please remember just how many Outlook users are out there, and how many might move over to Thunderbird if they don't have to relearn everything.  Sometimes you have to insert "compatibility" code into your work of art to make the everyday users happy.  Gee, how would I know that I wonder? :-)

There needs to be some sort of address check on the 'To' field or at least don't send mail if the To is parsed and ends up empty.  In the Sent folder has emails with empty "To" fields, that's just wrong at every level don't you think?

Comment 6

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Cleanup *dupeme* whiteboard flag from bugs that are marked as Resolved Duplicate!