[imp] unnamed text/html or unnamed text/plain

[Michael M Slusarz]

Quoting Chuck Hagenbuch <chuck at horde.org>:

| Quoting Ziaur Rahman <zrahman at partex.net>:
| 
| > How can I get rid of the Alternatives parts to show on the message view
| > page? If you are not sure what am I talking about,pls follow the URL
| > below and you will see 'unnamed text/html' and 'unname text/plain':
| >
| > http://mzrahman.com/snaps/snapshot-imp-15thoct02.jpg
| >
| > Is it possible not to show them in the page?
| 
| No, doing so violates the RFC.

Actually, that is not entirely correct.  From RFC 2046 [5.1.4]:

   It may be the case that some user agents, if they can recognize more
   than one of the formats, will prefer to offer the user the choice of
   which format to view.  This makes sense, for example, if a message
   includes both a nicely- formatted image version and an easily-edited
   text version.  **What is most critical, however, is that the user not
   automatically be shown multiple versions of the same data.**  Either
   the user should be shown the last recognized version or should be
   given the choice.

Thus, to be RFC compliant, all the mail user agent (e.g. IMP) needs to do 
is show the _last_ alternative part that can be displayed.  The language in 
RFC 2046 does not require the mail user agent to show all of the internal 
alternative parts.  We happen to combine the functionality identified in 
the last sentence of the excerpt (we show the last recognized version AND 
give the user a choice).  But we NEVER automatically show more than a 
single version of the same data so we are RFC compliant.

That being said, there is currently no way of "turning off" this 
functionality.  However, it should be easy enough to make the necessary 
changes in the alternative MIME_Viewer 
(imp/lib/MIME/Viewer/alternative.php).  I think that showing the 
alternative parts is a good thing (after all, it contains the exact same 
data as the part that is displayed), so I am personally not receptive to 
making this something that can be turned on/off.

michael
______________________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz at bigworm.colorado.edu]
The University of Colorado at Boulder