525215 - about:config etc. in email messages is auto-linkified but doesn't work

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, defect)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

STR

1 have an email which contains the word pattern about:something where something might be config, credits, licence etc.
-> about:something is auto-linkified (URL = about:something)
2 click on the link

Actual result
- nothing useful (TB asks which app it should use to open, but opening with tb fails)

Expected result
- something useful, probably open the respective about: dialogues etc. in their original shape (window, dialogue etc.) or in a new tab

Comment 1

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

I'd suggest that we simply shouldn't linkify these things.  They're not likely to be meaningful to most users, and my suspicion is that more of the time, they're actually likely to be referring to the use of those magic URLs in the browser rather than in Thunderbird, at least given current relative market share.

Comment 2

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

This is possibly a dupe or extension of (reverse dup) bug 437264.

As a note, this is probably something in core that is doing this automatically.

Comment 3

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

I don't see why it would be a bad thing to linkify these items.  I guess I could see some possible confusion but it seems like an unlikely pattern to run across in the wild.  At best it would mean that people could send mail with instructions to "Open the about:config"...  Hopefully there isn't some kind of related security issue I don't understand.

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

= SeaMonkey bug 345266

Comment 6

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

This is a Thunderbird bug. Bug 345266 is a SeaMonkey bug about the same problem. Dupe to 345266 and move to MailNews Core? Or even to Core (and possibly WONTFIX) if <a href="about:config">All Preferences</a> doesn't do anything either in a webpage in the (SeaMonkey or Firefox) browser? Wayne, what do you think?

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Perhaps Mark will know how/whether about: links should work

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?f1=OP&o3=anywordssubstr&list_id=7199112&short_desc=about%3A%20link&classification=Client%20Software&classification=Components&o2=anywordssubstr&f4=CP&query_format=advanced&j1=OR&f3=keywords&f2=short_desc&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr&product=Core&product=Firefox&product=MailNews%20Core&product=Thunderbird

Comment 8

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #7)
> Perhaps Mark will know how/whether about: links should work
[...]

See also Neil's reply in bug 345266 comment #4.

Comment 9

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Yep, Neil's comment applies here as well. I wouldn't want to let it be linked if Web Pages don't.