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external MIME parts?
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Ivan Shmakov
May 2, 2012, 1:20:00 AM5/2/12
to
>>>>> Gene E Bloch <not...@other.invalid> writes:
>>>>> On Tue, 1 May 2012 19:39:56 -0400, tlvp wrote:
[Cross-posting to news:comp.mail.misc, for the question is about
MIME, and dropping news:news.misc from Followup-To:.]
[…]
>> I guess if you want NG participants to *see* it the way it might
>> look in a book, you just have to make a .png or an .svg or a .gif or
>> a .pdf out of it and *attach* it to your post (and hope that the NG
>> accepts attachments).
>> But, like you, I'd rather do only what *can* easily be done :-) .
> Another use for YouSendIt and similar sites that allow a user to
> upload a file and give other people access to the file.
> This is not needed if you have a site of your own you can use for the
> purpose.
> You can upload the item and put a URL in your post.
Somehow, I've had an impression that MIME allows for “external”
parts. I wonder if I could wrap an URI into such a part, so
that the user agent on the recipient's end would download such a
part as soon the user chooses to operate on it?
--
FSF associate member #7257
>>>>> On Tue, 1 May 2012 19:39:56 -0400, tlvp wrote:
[Cross-posting to news:comp.mail.misc, for the question is about
MIME, and dropping news:news.misc from Followup-To:.]
[…]
>> I guess if you want NG participants to *see* it the way it might
>> look in a book, you just have to make a .png or an .svg or a .gif or
>> a .pdf out of it and *attach* it to your post (and hope that the NG
>> accepts attachments).
>> But, like you, I'd rather do only what *can* easily be done :-) .
> Another use for YouSendIt and similar sites that allow a user to
> upload a file and give other people access to the file.
> This is not needed if you have a site of your own you can use for the
> purpose.
> You can upload the item and put a URL in your post.
Somehow, I've had an impression that MIME allows for “external”
parts. I wonder if I could wrap an URI into such a part, so
that the user agent on the recipient's end would download such a
part as soon the user chooses to operate on it?
--
FSF associate member #7257
Robert Bonomi
May 2, 2012, 5:34:15 AM5/2/12
to
In article <868vhb88...@gray.siamics.net>,
a half-dozen exceptions -- the major news providers will either strip the
binary attachment, or drop the message entirely.
> >> But, like you, I'd rather do only what *can* easily be done :-) .
>
> > Another use for YouSendIt and similar sites that allow a user to
> > upload a file and give other people access to the file.
>
> > This is not needed if you have a site of your own you can use for the
> > purpose.
>
> > You can upload the item and put a URL in your post.
>
> Somehow, I've had an impression that MIME allows for 'external'
> parts. I wonder if I could wrap an URI into such a part, so
> that the user agent on the recipient's end would download such a
> part as soon the user chooses to operate on it?
Virtually _all_ modern mail clients *expressly* disallow any such external
references. There are -massive- security risks with allowing them. They
bypass all the anti-virus and security checks applied to incoming mail,
and there are no provisions in most -mail- client for the kinds of 'anti-
virus/anti-malware checks that are (a) built in to web browsers or (b)
provided by 'extensions' to the browser. mail/news clients generally do
-not- have the same kind of programming hooks for such add-ins/extensions.
'MIME aware' newsreaders usually use the MIME rendering engine of a mail
client. The few true stand-alone newsreaders directly render 'text/plain'
parts _only_. And call external rendering engines only for _selected_
attachment types -- the typical 'built in' list (*only* if running in a
graphical/windowing environment) is 'image/*' and -maybe- 'application/pdf'.
Anything else has to be MANUALLY added to the application configuration file.
The 'simple' -- but generally unusable(!!), see above -- implementation of
your idea would be a 'text/html' part with an:
<img src="http://host.domain/path/to/file">
The single "accepted" means for solving your problem is:
Put a cite/reference/pointer to the 'somewhere else' that the
binary can be found as PLAIN TEXT in your USENET article.
That 'somewhere else' can be:
1) an 'alt.binaries.*' newsgroup, with the newsgroup name, article date, and
subject line. Optionally include the Message-ID, but many newsreaders
cannot retrieve directly by that ID.
2) a web-page URL at somewhere like photobucket, flickr, Google Docs, etc.
3) a web-page URL on your own server, or a hosting service.
4) an FTP URL, where you have made the binary available.
5) etc.
Ivan Shmakov <onei...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Gene E Bloch <not...@other.invalid> writes:
>>>>>> On Tue, 1 May 2012 19:39:56 -0400, tlvp wrote:
>
> [Cross-posting to news:comp.mail.misc, for the question is about
> MIME, and dropping news:news.misc from Followup-To:.]
>
>
> >> I guess if you want NG participants to *see* it the way it might
> >> look in a book, you just have to make a .png or an .svg or a .gif or
> >> a .pdf out of it and *attach* it to your post (and hope that the NG
> >> accepts attachments).
If it a newsgroup _not_ in the 'alt.binaries.*' hierarchy -- with only about
>>>>>> Gene E Bloch <not...@other.invalid> writes:
>>>>>> On Tue, 1 May 2012 19:39:56 -0400, tlvp wrote:
>
> [Cross-posting to news:comp.mail.misc, for the question is about
> MIME, and dropping news:news.misc from Followup-To:.]
>
>
> >> I guess if you want NG participants to *see* it the way it might
> >> look in a book, you just have to make a .png or an .svg or a .gif or
> >> a .pdf out of it and *attach* it to your post (and hope that the NG
> >> accepts attachments).
a half-dozen exceptions -- the major news providers will either strip the
binary attachment, or drop the message entirely.
> >> But, like you, I'd rather do only what *can* easily be done :-) .
>
> > Another use for YouSendIt and similar sites that allow a user to
> > upload a file and give other people access to the file.
>
> > This is not needed if you have a site of your own you can use for the
> > purpose.
>
> > You can upload the item and put a URL in your post.
>
> Somehow, I've had an impression that MIME allows for 'external'
> parts. I wonder if I could wrap an URI into such a part, so
> that the user agent on the recipient's end would download such a
> part as soon the user chooses to operate on it?
references. There are -massive- security risks with allowing them. They
bypass all the anti-virus and security checks applied to incoming mail,
and there are no provisions in most -mail- client for the kinds of 'anti-
virus/anti-malware checks that are (a) built in to web browsers or (b)
provided by 'extensions' to the browser. mail/news clients generally do
-not- have the same kind of programming hooks for such add-ins/extensions.
'MIME aware' newsreaders usually use the MIME rendering engine of a mail
client. The few true stand-alone newsreaders directly render 'text/plain'
parts _only_. And call external rendering engines only for _selected_
attachment types -- the typical 'built in' list (*only* if running in a
graphical/windowing environment) is 'image/*' and -maybe- 'application/pdf'.
Anything else has to be MANUALLY added to the application configuration file.
The 'simple' -- but generally unusable(!!), see above -- implementation of
your idea would be a 'text/html' part with an:
<img src="http://host.domain/path/to/file">
The single "accepted" means for solving your problem is:
Put a cite/reference/pointer to the 'somewhere else' that the
binary can be found as PLAIN TEXT in your USENET article.
That 'somewhere else' can be:
1) an 'alt.binaries.*' newsgroup, with the newsgroup name, article date, and
subject line. Optionally include the Message-ID, but many newsreaders
cannot retrieve directly by that ID.
2) a web-page URL at somewhere like photobucket, flickr, Google Docs, etc.
3) a web-page URL on your own server, or a hosting service.
4) an FTP URL, where you have made the binary available.
5) etc.
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