Offtopic: TB possiblities

[Mihovil Stanić]

Would like to get answers to some questions and since lots of people
experienced in TB coding are on this list, I'm snatching it for quick
question. :)

Right now Thunderbird locks attachments so when you open it they are
read only (Excel files for example). I'm interested in unlocking those
file so they can be edited and saved back to original email, Outlook style.
1. Is this enhancement possible with addon or you need to dig into TB code?
2. How complex would something like that be?

Thanks for answers.

Best regards,
Mihovil
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[Magnus Melin]

On 1.4.2013 20:05, Mihovil Stanić wrote:
> Right now Thunderbird locks attachments so when you open it they are read
> only (Excel files for example).

FWIW, outlook does this too, unless it's an office file (try e.g. a txt file).

> I'm interested in unlocking those file so they can be edited and saved back
> to original email, Outlook style.
> 1. Is this enhancement possible with addon or you need to dig into TB code?
> 2. How complex would something like that be?

I doubt it's possible to implement at all for the general case, where you
don't control all the applications involved.
If you don't care about multiple computers and such you could hack around it
by detaching the file to edit, make it readable and then open it for editing.

-Magnus

["Thomas Düllmann (bugzilla)"]

On 01.04.2013 19:05, Mihovil Stanić wrote:

Would like to get answers to some questions and since lots of people experienced in TB coding are on this list, I'm snatching it for quick question. :)

Right now Thunderbird locks attachments so when you open it they are read only (Excel files for example). I'm interested in unlocking those file so they can be edited and saved back to original email, Outlook style.
1. Is this enhancement possible with addon or you need to dig into TB code?
2. How complex would something like that be?

I assume you're talking about editing the attachment of a *received* msg and saving it back to the same original received msg.
In fact, Outlook seems to have an "Edit Message" mode to edit *received* msgs freely (e.g. subject, body, and attachments).
For those not familiar with that feature, here's more:

Short general info on OL's "Edit Message" feature:

http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/qt/et_edit_receive.htm

Customizing newer versions of OL to include Edit Message Button, including video showing the customization and the process of editing and saving changes back to the original msg:

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlook-2010/edit-and-save-outlook-2010-attachments/

I don't know about the code in question in TB, but I suspect it won't be easy to code up an addon to do that, given that TB itself cannot even handle editing of attachments while *composing* consistently (Bug 378046), where the current behaviour of editing attachments from within TB (described in Comment 60) is pretty confusing and inconsistent, as it depends on the method of attaching (MAPI vs. non-MAPI methods) and whether you ever closed and reopened your draft composition. So for average users it's pretty hard to tell if they'll edit the original source file from their FS, or the TB-owned snapshot copy of that file.

FTR: The proposed solution for bug 378046 is to get (or even embed) immediate snapshot copy of anything (files, images, messages...) as soon as it is attached to current composition (instead of just referencing such external parts and not having any control whether they will still exist or be the same when sending).

Starting from Bug 817245 Comment 12, Magnus Melin, WADA, and I have once again established and confirmed that this solution proposed by bug 378046 will solve a lot of other dataloss and privacy bugs including Bug 817245. That's notwithstanding the RFE of bug 722929 that seeks to make the currently intermittent/unreliable behaviour into a reliable alternate composition feature where editing the attachment will *always* edit the actual source file (instead of the snapshot), and that file will be attached only later when sending (so that the most recent version of the source file gets sent).

I welcome any initiatives that will lead to more insight into the current broken and unpredictable behaviour; I also strongly recommend to fix that behaviour first before adding new features or coding addons based on the current inconsistent code and behaviour.

Thomas

[Mihovil Stanic]

Your html email got scrubbed.
Yes I'm talking about editing attachments of received emails.

Was just interested in finding out is it possible to achive which addon, so I know if I'll pursiut it futher or not.

Best regards,
Mihovil