735827 - Copy email from Contact Pane context menu

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 365421

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

Description

[sfhowes]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0a2) Gecko/20120313 Firefox/12.0a2
Build ID: 20120313042010

Steps to reproduce:

Select contact so that email address(es) appears in Contact Pane, right-click on address in CP, "Copy" appears in faint text, but clicking has no effect.


Actual results:

Nothing happens when you use the context menu, whereas it worked many versions ago.  http://gsfn.us/t/2pggi  shows a picture.


Expected results:

The address should be copied to the clipboard.  A workaround is to use MoreFunctionsForAddressBook that puts Copy in the contact context menu.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

The missing functionality is bug 365421 (which also mentions an addon). And is not dependent on 96968.

But I've never heard of a disabled "copy" being displayed - it's shouldn't be there afaik.

Which makes me think the "COPY" mentioned in the report is either caused by a) an addon  or b) something related to pictures

Comment 2

[Lloyd DeKay]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #1)
> The missing functionality is bug 365421 (which also mentions an addon). And
> is not dependent on 96968.
> 
> But I've never heard of a disabled "copy" being displayed - it's shouldn't
> be there afaik.
> 
> Which makes me think the "COPY" mentioned in the report is either caused by
> a) an addon  or b) something related to pictures

Prior to installing the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on I didn't see the grayed out 'Copy'... in fact there was NO response to a right-click anywhere in the Preview Pane.  After installing the add-on I now get the grayed-out 'Copy'.  So there is a base problem that isn't remedied with the suggested add-on.

Comment 3

[Lloyd DeKay]

(In reply to sfhowes from comment #0)
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0a2) Gecko/20120313
> Firefox/12.0a2
> Build ID: 20120313042010
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> Select contact so that email address(es) appears in Contact Pane,
> right-click on address in CP, "Copy" appears in faint text, but clicking has
> no effect.
> 
> 
> Actual results:
> 
> Nothing happens when you use the context menu, whereas it worked many
> versions ago.  http://gsfn.us/t/2pggi  shows a picture.
> 
> 
> Expected results:
> 
> The address should be copied to the clipboard.  A workaround is to use
> MoreFunctionsForAddressBook that puts Copy in the contact context menu.

The workaround doesn't work for me.  I now can see a grayed-out 'Copy' that I couldn't see before installing the add-on.

Comment 4

[sfhowes]

(In reply to Lloyd DeKay from comment #3)
> (In reply to sfhowes from comment #0)
> > User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0a2) Gecko/20120313
> > Firefox/12.0a2
> > Build ID: 20120313042010
> > 
> > Steps to reproduce:
> > 
> > Select contact so that email address(es) appears in Contact Pane,
> > right-click on address in CP, "Copy" appears in faint text, but clicking has
> > no effect.
> > 
> > 
> > Actual results:
> > 
> > Nothing happens when you use the context menu, whereas it worked many
> > versions ago.  http://gsfn.us/t/2pggi  shows a picture.
> > 
> > 
> > Expected results:
> > 
> > The address should be copied to the clipboard.  A workaround is to use
> > MoreFunctionsForAddressBook that puts Copy in the contact context menu.
> 
> The workaround doesn't work for me.  I now can see a grayed-out 'Copy' that
> I couldn't see before installing the add-on.

The add-on provides a copy function to the contact context menu, not the contact pane context menu; right-click directly on the contact entry in the address book.

But I misspoke when I said the problem occurs even when MFFAB is disabled: in fact, then the contact pane has no context menu, as you found, although I thought it once did.  So the add-on provides a contact pane context menu, but it's non-functioning.

Comment 5

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Thunderbird has never had a function to copy from the contact pane. This is covered by bug 365421 / bug 96968.

If a menu provided by an extension is no longer functioning, then you need to contact the author for support.

Comment 6

[Lloyd DeKay]

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #5)
> Thunderbird has never had a function to copy from the contact pane. This is
> covered by bug 365421 / bug 96968.
> 
> If a menu provided by an extension is no longer functioning, then you need
> to contact the author for support.
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 365421 ***

Maybe it was a standard Windows feature that has now been disabled, but I and many others were able to do exactly this for years, right through Windows 7.  Then the capability was suddenly lost about a year ago with the install of a TBird update.  I figured it would be fixed soon so I didn't report it then.  It's now been overlong since the VERY USEFUL capability was lost.  So whether it was a specific TBird function is not the issue... it was a capability that needs to be restored.

Comment 7

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Lloyd DeKay from comment #6)
> Maybe it was a standard Windows feature that has now been disabled, but I
> and many others were able to do exactly this for years, right through
> Windows 7.

Window's wouldn't have provided that.

> Then the capability was suddenly lost about a year ago with the
> install of a TBird update.

This would point to it being an add-on providing the functionality and the add-on no longer being supported.

Comment 8

[Lloyd DeKay]

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #7)
> (In reply to Lloyd DeKay from comment #6)
> > Maybe it was a standard Windows feature that has now been disabled, but I
> > and many others were able to do exactly this for years, right through
> > Windows 7.
> 
> Window's wouldn't have provided that.
> 
> > Then the capability was suddenly lost about a year ago with the
> > install of a TBird update.
> 
> This would point to it being an add-on providing the functionality and the
> add-on no longer being supported.

I won't argue with you.  To the best of my knowledge I didn't have an add-on that would have enabled this functionality, but OBVIOUSLY you know better.  I and several others are OBVIOUSLY wrong, so just dismiss this and move on.  I'll go on to another solution.  Thank you very much (NOT)!

Comment 9

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Lloyd DeKay from comment #8)
> I won't argue with you.  To the best of my knowledge I didn't have an add-on
> that would have enabled this functionality, but OBVIOUSLY you know better. 
> I and several others are OBVIOUSLY wrong, so just dismiss this and move on. 
> I'll go on to another solution.  Thank you very much (NOT)!

Lloyd, I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm using my experience of having worked on the address book source, and the apparent symptoms to analyse this problem.

No-one has really confirmed that the menu did work in a previous version of Thunderbird without add-ons, and with the presence of existing bugs, makes me really believe this is an add-on issue rather than a Thunderbird feature now broken.

If someone can test and prove otherwise, then I'm happy to be contradicted.

Comment 10

[Lloyd DeKay]

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #9)
> (In reply to Lloyd DeKay from comment #8)
> > I won't argue with you.  To the best of my knowledge I didn't have an add-on
> > that would have enabled this functionality, but OBVIOUSLY you know better. 
> > I and several others are OBVIOUSLY wrong, so just dismiss this and move on. 
> > I'll go on to another solution.  Thank you very much (NOT)!
> 
> Lloyd, I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm using my experience of having worked
> on the address book source, and the apparent symptoms to analyse this
> problem.
> 
> No-one has really confirmed that the menu did work in a previous version of
> Thunderbird without add-ons, and with the presence of existing bugs, makes
> me really believe this is an add-on issue rather than a Thunderbird feature
> now broken.
> 
> If someone can test and prove otherwise, then I'm happy to be contradicted.

My apology for my flame response. Regardless of how that functionality was implemented, it is obviously something that people found useful, so maybe it can/should be added to future development plans.

Now that TBird has been upgraded I don't think I can prove the functionality existed.  All I can do is 'testify' that the functionality existed and is no longer available.  The only add-on I used in that install was Lightning, but I do not know how I can prove the functionality existed independent of (other) add-ons.