520300 - Restore "Copy Link Location" on mailto: link context menu

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Menus, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

Attachment: patch

There used to be both "Copy Email Address" and "Copy Link Location" on the context menu for mailto links. Bug 349865 removed the "Copy Link Location" item because it was redundant when you have both "Copy Email Address" and "Properties" (for anything else you might want to do). Bug 513147 removed the properties menu. So now you can only copy the email address, even if there are other things specified in the link (subject, etc), see bug 349865 comment 2. The only other way to copy this information would be to manually type it out, which is hard since the mouse must be over the link to see it; or view the source of the page.

Comment 1

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Bug 349865 comment 2 doesn't apply anymore, since you can make gmail your mailto handler.

Comment 2

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

You can, but you may use more than one mail account, and have your mailto sent to another place, or you may just not have mailto setup because you don't know where to do it (like me). Plus, there is no other way to copy that information. Just like any other link on the web, you should be able to copy it in full and send it to someone else to use.

Comment 3

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Comment on attachment 404358 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Users with multiple mail accounts are the exception, mailto links with extra parameters are the exception, users who would even think of extracting these parameters are the exception. Combining these factors, I don't think the menu item adds value in enough cases to outweigh the uselessness in the other cases.

Anyway, if this gets ui-review, feel free to re-request review.

Comment 4

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

I think users who use webmail and don't have mailto setup for that are pretty common actually.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Right, but most of these users will be happy with copying the address, which has its own menu item.

Comment 6

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

I don't think we should bin those users as being happy to do anything. I am one such user, and if a Firefox developer fits in that category I don't think we can apply any sort of profile to such a user.

Comment 7

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

How about just putting the "Copy Link Location" option when the mailto link has a '?' and hence something more than an email address?

Comment 8

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

That's certainly better than always showing Copy Link Location, but I'm not sure it's better than never showing it for mailto links. Whoever does the ui-review should decide.

Comment 9

[David Balažic]

(In reply to comment #8)
> That's certainly better than always showing Copy Link Location, but I'm not
> sure it's better than never showing it for mailto links. Whoever does the
> ui-review should decide.
... in this decade, if possible ;-)

2.) I miss this too.
3.) Rarely used is no excuse. There are many features in FF that are used rarely or most people don't even know they exist.

Maybe a hidden-by-default item that can be enabled in about:config?

Comment 11

[Nicolas Barbulesco]

My request bug 678927 is about "Copy link address", which is missing.
Even if "Copy email address(es)" becomes perfect and copies 10 email addresses, that will not give me the link address. I want to copy the link address, like for any normal link. With "mailto:" and the email addresses and the subject and whatever. Web browsers have been providing that simple feature for 10 years. Please bring it back. Thanks.

I particularly miss this feature because sometimes the link address is not fully shown although there is plenty of space : bug 658918.

And here is another scenario where the user wants the whole link :
The user wants to paste it in a place where it has to be a whole "mailto:" link, like an HTML page the user is writing.

Regarding the "Properties" way (bug 349865, comment 3) :

In Firefox 3.0.1, I have "Properties" in the contextual menu and then I have the link address in the properties. This is less handy than the "Copy link address" contextual menu item, but this is a good idea.
But in more recent version of Firefox, I don't have any "Properties" contextual menu item.

(In reply to Timothy Nikkel (:tn) from comment #0)

> The only other way to copy this information would be to manually
> type it out, which is hard since the mouse must be over the link to see it;
> or view the source of the page.

And even viewing the page source does not always give the right result :
Let's write "&" in the page source in the link address ; "Copy link address" gives the "&" sign, which is correct.

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #1)

> Bug 349865 comment 2 doesn't apply anymore, since you can make gmail your
> mailto handler.

In this case, Gmail is the exception. I know several webmails which can't be made composing an email from a "mailto:" link.

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #8)

> That's certainly better than always showing Copy Link Location

IMHO, that's worse : in this case, even for a "mailto:" link without question mark, I lose the "mailto:" part.

Comment 12

[Nicolas Barbulesco]

Let's suppose I want to compose the email with the subject and everything, but not now, because my email program is not ready yet (I am downloading it, or installing it, or tweaking it…).
I don't click on the "mailto:" link. Instead, I right-click : copy its address. And when ready, I "paste and go" in my navigator, and the email gets composed.

Comment 13

[g6k9a5blw5qxO92-m0z]

Requesting addition of "Copy Link Location" to the contextual menu for "mailto:" links.

Comment 14

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 404358 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Not sure if this is still relevant, am sure I'm not the right reviewer :)

Comment 16

[13hu]

This is still relevant after all these years and Quantum.

In order to copy out a complex mailto: link, had to inspect source and copy it from the href. "Copy Email Address" only copies the email addresses, not the full "mailto:"

FF64

Comment 17

[Ralph Corderoy]

I need Copy Link Location for mailto: anchors. Copy Email Address is simply not sufficient quite a bit of the time as it copies only the email address. Please restore this menu item. It's a daily annoyance.

Comment 18

[Vincent Lefevre]

I miss the "Copy Link" for "mailto:" URLs too. The additional parameters are necessary in some contexts, such as mailing-list subscription and sometimes bug reports.

As a workaround, one can drag & drop the link to a text editor, but this requires more steps to perform the action.

Comment 19

[Ania]

We will accept the patch for an extra menu item for mailto links (to be displayed under Copy Email Address option). Given the team's size, backlog, and priorities, this is not something we have capacity to work on, as we have to prioritize for impact and reach of enhancements and defects.

I would suggest "Copy Link Data" for this menu option.

Comment 20

[Hugo Osvaldo Barrera]

This function was super useful. Links like this simply cannot be copied with ease:

mailto:~exec64/[e-mail]?cc=%22builds.sr.ht%22%20%3Cbuilds%40sr.ht%3E&in-reply-to=%3CCKWTMPZW2TXS.199YMIUYPUQI4%40cirno2%3E&subject=Re%3A%20%5Bimv%2Fpatches%5D%20build%20failed

I had to copy it from the page source, but all the question marks are escaped there, so actually recovering the link doesn't seem possible with Firefox. Is there any known workaround?