[imp] Missing indicator for alternative email content

[Michael M Slusarz]

Quoting Jens-Uwe Mozdzen <jmozdzen at nde.ag>:

> Hi *,
>
> from time to time I receive emails where the preview pane shows  
> "there are no message parts that can be displayed directly" (or  
> similar, my locale in non-english) and the details pane above shows  
> no message parts.
>
> The emails do have an HTML part in addition to the plain text part,  
> which is shown when I select "more functions"->"all parts": The  
> details pane then displays a tree with the root member "Alternative"  
> with two sub-elements (plain text icon and HTML icon).
>
> The message source shows both parts, the plain text part is empty.
>
> As I have selected to display plain text rather than HTML, showing  
> the "empty" message part is ok - but shouldn't there be a button to  
> display the alternative part (I see that with other mixed messages)?
>
> My crystal ball shows a blurry image of code that detects the empty  
> plain text body and then stops processing with the "there are no  
> parts that can be displayed directly" message, instead of continuing  
> to where the alternative part is detected and producing the button  
> to trigger its display.
>
> The same problem surfaces when I double-click the message to display  
> it in a separate window.
>
> Should I open a bug for this? Or is this behavior wanted by design?

This is the correct behavior.

You have indicated that you can't display HTML parts (by your config),  
so that part is not available.

And alternative parts by definition should only ever show a single  
part - you should not be given a choice between which representation  
to view.  That's the whole point of multipart/alternative.

Put another way: you should never know you are looking at an alternative part.

michael

___________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz at horde.org]