Closed Bug 571101 Opened 14 years ago Closed 3 years ago

Enhancement to upload huge attachments via (S)FTP to a Server and only send the downloadlink in the email.

Categories

(Thunderbird :: FileLink, enhancement)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
FileLink
Type:
enhancement
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: boxnumber, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_8; de-de) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7
Build Identifier: 

I suggest an enhancement or an addon to send huge attachments. The idea is, that thunderbird loads the attachment via FTP/SFTP to a FTP server (or HTML to webspace - however), and inserts a link for the download into the email. The mail should not be sent before the upload is finished. After the upload is finished, thunderbird verifies the link (tries to download the first couple of bytes) and if successful send the mail if the user wishes so. The receiver of the mail clicks to the link and can so get the huge attachment. Nice to have: to define a lifetime for each file, so you don't have to remember to delete the file by ftp if your ftp or webspace is small.

The same can be done by hand, but it is much work, start ftp, upload file, define the link, test the download, write the mail and send it and remember to delete the file after some time.

Reproducible: Always




I don't found, where suggestions for addons can be done. Hope it is not to bad to post it here.
Summary: Enhancement to upload huge attachments via (S)FTP to a Server and only use the link to download in a email. → Enhancement to upload huge attachments via (S)FTP to a Server and only send the downloadlink in the email.
I vote for this one, but also need a configuration option to alter the ftp-link automatically to fit to the resulted http web download.
e.g. alter 
ftp://someone@some.ftpserver.com/path/to/file
to the web download link
http://some.webserver.com/download/file
It would be nice too, if the attached files could be zipped into an archive before upload them, to reduce the number of download links.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Component: General → FileLink
Ever confirmed: true
QA Contact: general → filelink
Hi - I came here via the Thunderbird Filelink discussion board where somebody else has put forward a similar suggestion. I just wanted to add my voice to the suggestion, as I have been using the manual FTP / add link to email method to send my files for many years now. While I think the idea of linking to a file sharing service is a good one - some people - myself included don't like using them in all circumstances. The option to upload to one's own server space would be an excellent addition to Thunderbird. 

P.S. Thunderbird is awesome - keep up the good work!
I just registered to Bugzilla to be able to vote for this feature.
This would make life so much easier for everyone at our company and for so many others as well for sure!
yes please, ftp storage AN ABSOLUTE MUST!

and i love the idea of Thunderbird keeping track of link expiry ages you give (have a default age or per-attachment override) and removing the file after that age

d
I have a much saner generic suggestion:

Offer a way to add a storage provider by selecting a script to call with the correct parameters, which itself returns the new link.

That (shell) script could do whatever it wanted internally.
Like use an existing sshfs or curlftpfs mount, to simply copy the file to the server, change the permissions, and return a calculated URL. Really simple. And much more sane than having a built-in FTP client and kitchen sink for no reason.

Works perfectly on and Linux/Unix/BSD/OSX system.
Of course stupid Windows is crippled in this aspect, and so crippled the minds of its users too. But nowadays with PowerShell, I see no reason at all, that this should not be just as simple on Windows.

This would allow nearly infinite power and freedom, with nearly zero work. A clear winner, which takes probably about 15 minutes in total, to implement.
Bug #791438 obsoletes this one, IMO.
Navid, whatever is implemented needs to be usable by a large number of people. Therefore, some system of people just entering their ftp details needs to be provided ready-made for them. d
(In reply to D Merrick from comment #8)
> Navid, whatever is implemented needs to be usable by a large number of people.
Are you telling me, it can not be expected of users, to select a file in a “open file” dialog? ^^
The scripts would obviously be made by those who actually use computers, and available online for the appliance users.
No problem here. :)

> Therefore, some system of people just entering their ftp details needs to be provided ready-made for them.
Well, have SERVER="…", USER="…" and PASSWORD="…" at the top of the script. Or a filelink.conf.d with one file per connection, containing those settings. And point them there. I trust people can edit a txt file? ^^
(In reply to Navid Zamani from comment #9)
> (In reply to D Merrick from comment #8)
> > Navid, whatever is implemented needs to be usable by a large number of people.
> Are you telling me, it can not be expected of users, to select a file in a
> “open file” dialog? ^^
> The scripts would obviously be made by those who actually use computers, and
> available online for the appliance users.

Adding another operation (downloading an additional file, selecting it, adding params) would actually complicate the system beyond most user's capabilities, as well as needing detailed instructions. Just entering server and login details is far simpler for the majority of people.
(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #10)
> Adding another operation (downloading an additional file, selecting it,
> adding params) 

What other operation?? What downloading? What params?

*One* single-line input field, with a “select file” button next to it, and *nothing else*, in a OK/Cancel dialog called “Add filelink provider script”. Done. 

As opposed to implementing a whole damn (S)FTP client. Have you seen the complexity of a proper (S)FTP client’s “connection settings” dialog?

If you think that a single input field is more complex than *anything*, you should seriously lay off the bottle…

God almighty… I feel like I’m talking to the cabinet in Idiocracy here!
I also registered on bugzilla to add a comment here.
This feature is really needed.
I vote for this feature request too. Filelink is very good idea, but I don't want to store my attachements on some unknown servers in the internet. I have my own webspace allowing access via ftp, ftps or webdav and it would be great, if I could simply add my ftp user credentials in the TB config to upload huge files to my own server and sending a link to it in the mail.
Yes, Please ! we need it !

We have it ! Ok, we have the general support for cloudFile attachments. The actual protocol support is added by add-ons using the cloudFile API:
https://webextension-api.thunderbird.net/en/91/cloudFile.html

Available cloudFile add-ons:
https://addons.thunderbird.net/tag/filelink

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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