e-mail command parsing error mails are poor
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Launchpad itself |
Triaged
|
Low
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
I added a comment to another bug (https:/
status = efi_call_
This attempt raised another UI issue. I got the following mail back from Launchpad:
"An error occurred while processing a mail you sent to Launchpad's email
interface.
Error message:
The message you sent included commands to modify the bug report,
but you didn't sign the message with your OpenPGP key.
--
For more information about using Launchpad by e-mail, see
https:/
or send an email to <email address hidden>"
This mail is inadequate for two reasons:
* Given that the e-mail interface is designed with this easy-to-encounter ambiguity between commands and text, and assuming pessimistically for the moment that this isn't going to be changed, it should acknowledge that it might have got it wrong and suggest a workaround (for example I understand that it's possible to say 'done' at the start of the mail, though that's pretty ugly, or it's possible to submit the comment through the web interface instead), rather than assuming that its heuristic parsing was correct and telling me incorrectly that I should have signed my message.
* In addition to returning this error message, Launchpad refuses to post the comment. This is a mistake. Consider the case where a bug is being CCed to upstream developers, who proceed to have a discussion about some code, pasting examples just as I did. They're probably not going to bother working around our bug tracking system misparsing their mails; if it rejects it, they'll just shrug and move on, and we'll lose out on their comments. Launchpad should accept the comments anyway in this situation, whether or not it sends an error mail to the sender.
Changed in launchpad: | |
importance: | Medium → Low |
tags: | added: bugs |
Oh, and it doesn't tell me which lines it thought were commands - I have to guess. Most parsers do better than that when returning error messages. :-)