821745 - Thunderbird doesn't thread messages correctly when I reply (zimbra doesn't include References)

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Thunderbird 17.0 / Linux
Sorted by Date / Descending / Threaded

STR:

I have a thread like this:
> m1
>   m2
>     m3

If replies continue to come in on that thread, it will work fine.  However, if I reply to m3, a second thread will be started:

> m4 (in reply to me)
>   m5 (person replying to m4, etc.)
> m1
>   m2
>     m3 (I replied to this)

The messages have the proper in-reply-to headers.  I'm assuming that since my message is in my sent folder and not in my inbox, Thunderbird sees that there is no existing mail in my inbox that matches that header so it creates a new thread instead of building the tree including messages from my sent folder also.  That's just an assumption though.

Comment 1

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

What about the References headers?

Comment 2

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

References headers are absent

Comment 3

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

Ah, references headers are the proper way to thread messages without having all messages in the thread. (We actually use the References header by itself, but we first append the In-Reply-To header).

Comment 4

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Ah.  So the bug here may be that zimbra doesn't include References headers.  In the two places I looked, it was people replying with the zimbra web client.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Wil Clouser [:clouserw] from comment #4)
> Ah.  So the bug here may be that zimbra doesn't include References headers. 
> In the two places I looked, it was people replying with the zimbra web
> client.

Wil, if zimbra is at fault, why is this bug still open?

Comment 6

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #5)
> (In reply to Wil Clouser [:clouserw] from comment #4)
> > Ah.  So the bug here may be that zimbra doesn't include References headers. 
> > In the two places I looked, it was people replying with the zimbra web
> > client.
> 
> Wil, if zimbra is at fault, why is this bug still open?

I don't own this product.  Whoever does needs to make the decision if they want to take the road focused on blue-sky compatibility and universal standards and wontfix the bug or head down the pragmatic road of working in the trenches and saying "you should use TB because it works and you shouldn't need to care what software the other parties are using."

Comment 7

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

I don't think there is much value in adding more complicated heuristics for threading than that which we already have (thread by references and thread by subject). Since References:/In-Reply-To: are emphatically stated to be the correct heading threaders by the official message standards themselves, there is really no excuse for anyone else omitting them.