[Tickets #13355] Re: Activesync: quoted replies are broken in half

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Ticket URL: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/13355
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  Ticket             | 13355
  Updated By         | Michael Rubinsky <mrubinsk at horde.org>
  Summary            | Activesync: quoted replies are broken in half
  Queue              | Horde Framework Packages
  Version            | Git master
  Type               | Bug
-State              | Unconfirmed
+State              | Feedback
  Priority           | 1. Low
  Milestone          |
  Patch              |
-Owners             |
+Owners             | Michael Rubinsky
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Michael Rubinsky <mrubinsk at horde.org> (2014-07-12 16:01) wrote:

Some background:

Email reply and forwards in EAS are (usually) handled via something  
called SMART_REPLY or SMART_FORWARD - where only the NEW text (the  
actual reply text of the email) is sent to the server. The server is  
then responsible for fetching the original email from the IMAP server  
and the parse out the needed originally text and append the reply text  
before sending.

EAS assumes "top-posting" - it assumes all replies appear before the  
quoted text.

SOME clients include what you call the [header] text in the text that  
it sends to the server, but some do not. Because of this, Horde adds  
it's own "quoted header" - the "On blah blah, so and so said this:"  
text in the appropriate place based on the user's preference for  
top/bottom posting.

This can lead to strange placements and duplicate headers (the one the  
client sent and the one Horde adds). We can't "sniff" out if there is  
a header in the text already since there is not standard form for it  
to take.

There are two options other than the current situation:

1) Never add a header on the Horde side. The down side is that if the  
user is "bottom-posting" the client provided header still appears at  
the bottom of the email and there is no header at the beginning of the  
quoted text.

2) Disallow bottom posting. This would avoid the problem above, but  
would force the use of a reply style that many feel is inappropriate.  
The small number of clients that don't explicitly add the reply header  
to the text will generate replies without any reply header (though the  
original message would still be quoted).

I've thought about this on and off over the last year or so, and I  
think (2) is probably the best solution. This was the way EAS was  
designed to operate. What Horde is doing is just a weak attempt to  
work around that limitation. While I personally prefer bottom posting,  
I think for mobile/EAS use this seems like the best option.

Any other voices want to chime in?



> Device: BlackBerry 10
> In Summary, Horde does not understand the structure of the message  
> it gets to send and breaks it in half in an attempt to quote it.
> I've tried both the reply text at the top or at the bottom. It  
> doesn't change anything.
> It's the same behaviour for both HTML and text emails.
>
> 1st message looks normal
> BODY1
> SIG1
>
> When I reply, the compose window looks like this
> BODY2
> SIG2
> --------------
> HEADER1
> BODY1
> SIG1
>
> But ater it's sent, the message looks like this:
> user at domain.tld wrote
>> BODY1
>> SIG1
> BODY2
> SIG2
> --------------
> HEADER1
>
>
> So the text of the reply is placed above everything else while the  
> header is placed at the bottom.
>
> At the next reply, the message looks like this
> user at domain.tld wrote
>> user at domain.tld wrote
>>> BODY1
>>> SIG1
>> BODY2
>> SIG2
>> --------------
>> HEADER1
>> --------------
> BODY3
> SIG3
> --------------
> HEADER2
> --------------
>
>
> I've done the same test from the same client, but using gmail and  
> replies look fine
> BODY3
> SIG3
> --------------
> HEADER2
> --------------
> BODY2
> SIG2
> --------------
> HEADER1
> --------------
> BODY1
> SIG1
>
> What I call the header looks like this:
> -----------------
> From:
> Sent
> To:
> Subject:
> -----------------
>