text/calendar attachments are not shown at all

[jan]

Upon receiving mail with an attachment with type text/calendar (generated by e.g. outlook), no sign of the attachment is shown in seamonkey.
In seamonkey 1.x, a reasonable summary of the request was being shown, so I consider this a regression bug.
Only in view source mode, I am able to find THAT an attachment is sent.
However, I would not know what kind of viewer to use.

--_002_5240B5C44ACEC641A6E6EA33B496D0950101982319earth_
Content-Type: text/calendar; charset="utf-8"; method=REQUEST
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

the message header contains (amongst other information):

x-tm-as-user-blocked-sender: No
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="_002_5240B5C44ACEC641A6E6EA33B496D0950101982319earth_"
MIME-Version: 1.0

[Keith-hopkins (keith-hopkins)]

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803

Moz1.7.2 hides text/calendar of multipart/alternative messages (from MS-Exchange
200x) because it does not know how to display them.
"Unknown" or non-displayable types should not be hidden, but should be shown as
attachments.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
example msg: (bits)

[beginning of msg]
[header]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C4995B.04833D80"
Content-class: urn:content-classes:calendarmessage
[header]
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------_=_NextPart_001_01C4995B.04833D80
Content-Type: text/plain;
 charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
[plain text content]
------_=_NextPart_001_01C4995B.04833D80
Content-class: urn:content-classes:calendarmessage
Content-Type: text/calendar;
 method=REQUEST;
 name="meeting.ics"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
[vcalendar entry]
------_=_NextPart_001_01C4995B.04833D80--
[end of msg]
Actual Results:
"Content-Type: text/calendar;" is completely hidden if some other content is
displayable.

Expected Results:
Fix:
Display as attachment.
(alt fix: see http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=130119)

Enhance:
If a text/calendar type is detected, and Calendar(Sunbird) is integrated into
Moz/Tbird, create a button/popup/icon in the window to export the text/calendar
part into Calendar.

Related items: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=130119#c4
and http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142092#c4

[Dan-mellem (dan-mellem)]

I can confirm that this happens, but isn't the point of alternative parts to
have a failback for browsers that don't support some of these functions? I do
see the RFE for recognizing and exporting vcalendar items and will confirm that.

Status->new
HW->All
OS->All
Severity->enhancement

[Keith-hopkins (keith-hopkins)]

The problem is how Mozilla decides which part to display, and which part to
hide. Is there some standard that says use first recognizable and ignore the
rest? or is it an internal design decision for Moz?

If I install a calendar plugin, can that plugin tell Moz to utilize
text/calendar; types instead of text/plain; types? (If so, maybe I need to log
this bug against the calendar/sunbird project, because they are not doing it.)

[Dan-mellem (dan-mellem)]

It's supposed to chose the best form that it knows how to handle. It will choose
HTML over text, for example.

From http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc1341/7_2_Multipart.html, section 7.2.3:

'The user agent should either choose the "best" type based on the user's
environment and preferences, or offer the user the available alternatives. In
general, choosing the best type means displaying only the LAST part that can be
displayed.'

[Mcow (mcow)]

*** Bug 336436 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Moco (moco)]

sorry for the spam. making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs. filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1pre) Gecko/20090718 Shredder/3.0b4pre

I have received a .ICS calendar meeting attachment, but no visual evidence of the invitation exists; no attachment item, nor text display within the message. I used to receive these as just text within the message.

Here is the MIME type and beginning of attachment (from message source):
Content-class: urn:content-classes:calendarmessage
Content-Type: text/calendar;
 name="meeting.ics";
 method=REQUEST
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft CDO for Microsoft Exchange
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20090717T002452Z
DTSTART:20090723T163000Z

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Is the change to component "Lightning" correct? I don't have lighting installed, I'm using MeetingMaker to handle my calendar info. Also, this issue is evident in Tbird safe mode so I'm sure it is not being affected by add-ins.

[Standard8 (standard8)]

Hmm maybe I read that wrong then.

[Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla)]

Do you have View | Display Attachments inline checked?
Can you attach a sample .eml?

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Created attachment 389696
.eml of message with issue.

Calendar attachment does not appear even when display attachments inline is turned off.

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

BTW, I tried to do some cleanup of the data within the calendar invite; if it doesn't work, let me know of an individual working on this issue and I can send the original to them so I don't post potentially sensitive information to the ticket. However, I did open the email with the altered data and it still appears the same - no attachment and no text, with or without display attachments turned on using Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1pre) Gecko/20090720 Shredder/3.0b4pre.

[Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla)]

The sample shows just fine for me. (As an invitation text without lightning, an invitation with lightning.)

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Interesting. I have two different machines (one XP 64bit, one Xp 32bit) and both don't show any attachment, even with attachment not displayed inline (they have completely different profiles, one is not a copy of the other).

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.2pre) Gecko/20090727 Shredder/3.0b4pre.

I don't know if it matters, but I've never had lightning installed in my profiles, but they both are upgrades from 2.0 profiles.

[Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla)]

You tried it as .eml file?

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Correct, I saved the file from the bug and double-clicked on it to replicate your experience.

[Gijskruitbosch+bugs (gijskruitbosch+bugs)]

I just experienced this issue with TB 3.0b2 and then b4 (tried the upgrade to see if it'd help). I'm on Mac OS X 10.4. The profile used to be in use on TB2... so it looks like it is related to that. I don't recall having lightning installed - it certainly is not installed now. Are there any steps I could take to narrow down what the issue is? It seems like something one would want fixed before 3.0 is released --> requesting blocking3.0 for that reason -- attachments are just invisible, and it'd be better if it was at least an attachment or even visible as plaintext inside the email...

[Philringnalda (philringnalda)]

The steps I'd start with would be:

* reduce the testcase to something more obvious, like just the text "I'm the text/plain part" "I'm the text/html part" "I'm the attachment description" to be sure that everyone will know what they are seeing

* make sure it's a regression - when I open the .eml in 2.0, I see the same thing I see in 3.0 - and if it is find the one-day window, which will do more good than anything else possibly could

* make sure whether it's associated with having used a profile in 2.0, or with having updated from 2.0, or both, or neither: does a new profile on 3.0 do the same? does a fresh install of 3.0b4 do the same? does a new profile created by the fresh install do the same? does it actually require having installed Lightning (in 2.0, or in 3.0? a particular version of Lightning?)?

* see whether it's Tb-only, or the same in a comparable build of SeaMonkey

[Dmose (dmose)]

Given reproducibility issues, we can't block on this bug as it stands today. Please follow the suggestions in comment 11, and, once those issues are sorted out, if it still seems like it should be a blocker, please renominate. Thanks!

[Negativeduck (negativeduck)]

Possibly related but perhaps not.

Even in the sample email that was submitted the message can be opened viewed and all the invite information is present. It's not "lost". Question I have is more that the invite correctly interpreted and displayed in the message offers no interface (that I see) where you could save or run the invite against an external calendar.

For example here on OSX I expected to see a .ics or calendar attachment that I could save to my desktop. But that option doesn't exist instead if I wanted to enter this information into iCal I would have to manually create the invite.

This seen via TB3B4, fresh install no addons or anything. I do see the same behavior in TB2 so (OSX again) I'm wondering if this is by design? Is this a ''bug'' or an interface design decision? Should I be able to save/view/ download the Calendar information from a message?

Assumption is that the same logic that interprets 'text and html' and doesn't provide and interface for "saving the Text Version" of a the original email and doesn't display a multipart message with text and html versions as having attachments is what 'hides' you from being able to save a calendar invite?

(mind you if this is seen entirely off topic from this posted bug let me know and I'll take my thoughts elsewhere)

[Gijskruitbosch+bugs (gijskruitbosch+bugs)]

(In reply to comment #13)
> (mind you if this is seen entirely off topic from this posted bug let me know
> and I'll take my thoughts elsewhere)

I believe your problem is described in bug 242937 - this bug is about not seeing anything (so not even seeing the ICS data in the email text itself).

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Created attachment 405560
Reduced test case of email containing VCAL

Attaching reduced testcase.

Per comment 11, confirmed that this behavior is not a regression, the same behavior exists in Seamonkey, Tbird 2, and Tbird3; it exists in clean profiles or upgraded profiles.

Lightning is not installed, nor has it been installed in prior versions either.

I played around with the .eml quite a bit, and essentially the VCAL doesn't show as text as long as the attachment type is text/calendar. Messing with that at least allows the text to show, but clobbers the actual message text.

[Baffoni (baffoni)]

Removing regression. Can we mark this dataloss since there is no practical way in the standard UI interface to retrieve the data in the message short of saving the email as a file and cutting out the VCAL information manually (or is that considered a reasonable workaround)? Half the time, I don't know the VCAL is there to go retrieving it from the message source....

I'm surprised that if Tbird doesn't understand the application type it doesn't at least just display it as an (unknown) attachment. It would be reasonable to at least just save the meeting.ics as a standard text file....

[Dossy Shiobara (dossy)]

First, I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this bug.

Without looking at the code (I'll be doing that shortly), my hypothesis is that Thunderbird only displays one text/* multipart MIME part, and Outlook invitations are sent with text/plain, text/html and text/calendar. The code needs to be changed to "teach" Outlook that text/calendar should be presented as a file attachment, not "ignored" when displaying the text/html or text/plain.

Now, to see if I can come up with a fix ...

[Dossy Shiobara (dossy)]

I believe Bug 505024 is a duplicate of this bug, but it has seen a bit more detailed investigation.

[Dossy Shiobara (dossy)]

Just thinking out loud ... it looks like src/mailnews/mime/src/mimemalt.cpp:MimeMultipartAlternative_display_part_p might be a starting point for the fix for this bug.

As an aside, won't line 255 return in a memory leak as *ct isn't PR_FREEIF'ed?

[Ludovic-mozilla (ludovic-mozilla)]

Keith this might have been fixed by bug 351224. Could you take a few minutes and download the latest nightly ( http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-central/ ), backup your profile and test and let us know if this is fixed or not ?

[Euryalus-0 (euryalus-0)]

*** Bug 646779 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Mi+mozilla (mi+mozilla)]

I still have this problem using Thunderbird-3.1.10

[Mi+mozilla (mi+mozilla)]

Actually, once I uninstalled the old Lightning add-on, the problem disappeared...

I wish, Lightning actually worked with modern Thunderbird, but that's another story.

[Brian-derocher-q (brian-derocher-q)]

The problem we are experiencing at work is the Exchange server generates the text/html and text/plain alternates for calendar event invitations and these alternatives are blank!

"<html>
...<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Exchange Server">
...<div>&nbsp;</div>
...</html>"

Since Thunderbird without Lightning will ignore text/calendar, it correctly displays this blank html message.

So i recommend that if Thunderbird sees text/calendar that at least it tells the user there is a preferred format. This gives the user the option of installing extensions. This could probably be added generically for any type of file.

[Brian-derocher-q (brian-derocher-q)]

BTW, with the Lightning extension, the text/calendar alternative is displayed and appears to be working fine.

[Jim (squibblyflabbetydoo)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> The problem we are experiencing at work is the Exchange server generates the
> text/html and text/plain alternates for calendar event invitations and these
> alternatives are blank!

Really, that sounds like an Exchange bug, since it's essentially lying by providing a blank part as an "alternative". However, this can be worked around via bug 602718. Personally, I think that's sufficient, since Exchange really needs to get their act together in this regard, and there's only so much that other clients should have to do to accommodate its broken behavior.

[Jan-mozilla (jan-mozilla)]

Actually, often the alternative is NOT blank.
It is used by Outlook to display comments that accompany the invitation.

In this specific case, I suggest this kind of mails (even if they arguably do not conform to all standards, as Microsoft occasionally does) should not be handled as multipart/alternative but rather as multipart/mixed.

[Jan-mozilla (jan-mozilla)]

I cannot modify the status, but I find it strange that a regression from a user's standpoint (not being able to see when you are invited to a meeting, while it was possible in earlier versions of mozilla) has importance "enhancement". For a user, this is a regression bug.
I cannot modify the importance. Who judges ?

[3-john-k (3-john-k)]

I just wanted to mention that I'm having the same issue with Thunderbird 9.1 on Mac OS X 10.7.

[3-john-k (3-john-k)]

Correction Thunderbird 9.0.1.

[M-wada-7 (m-wada-7)]

All of attached mails is multipart/alternative and text/plain, text/html, text/calender part are contained in it. Because of multipart/alternative, any part in it is ALTERNATIVE each other. Where can we see ATTACHMENT in multipart/alternative?

To see this special part in malformed mail as if attachment, two ways are currently available.
(i) Lightning extension shows this text/calender as if attachment.
     (broken by Tb 8, but will be fixed by Tb 10. see bug 713380)
(ii) View/Message Body As/All Body Parts,
     with mailnews.display.show_all_body_parts_menu = true
     (implemented by Bug 602718. available since Tb 8)
     In order to see any part, any multipart/xxx is treated as multipart/mixed,
     and any part is shown as if attachment at attachment pane.

Similar malformation is seen in multipart/related which was perhaps originally born by MS. Bug 674473 is for such malformed multipart/related case.
By that bug, "non-referred part and non-displayable part in malformed multipart/related" will be shown as if attachment.

Similar enhancement will be needed in case of wrong use of multipart/alternative by some mailers and some mail systems of some companies who don't respect mail RFC.
  - Limit application of "alternative" to mime part which Tb knows only.
    Apply to text/plain, text/html, and some predefined text/xxx only.
  - Show any other part as if attachment at attachment pane.
I believe this is natural enhancement if mail like next.
  multipart/alternative
    text/plain, text/html, application/pdf, audio/wav, video/x-mpeg
  In this case, any part can be actual/valid ALTERNATIVE, because PDF version
  of mail, voice version of mail, video version of mail is possible.
  Even if Tb can render text/plain or text/html only, I believe audio/wav etc.
  is better shown in attachment pane for user's convenience.
And, "doesn't choose single part only" and "doesn't ignore other parts than part of mail sender's highest preference order" is never RFC violation by Tb.

This enhancement can do nothing for "reversed order in multipart/alternative" case. I think reversed order case is far rare than "text/calender in multipart/alternative" case and is relieved by View/Message Body As/All Body Parts. However, enhancement like next, partially ignore "mail sender's preference order", is better for multipart/alternative.
  - When View/Message Body As/Original/Simple HTML, search text/html part only.
    If only text/plain is contained or if text/html part is null/blank,
    use text/plain part.
  - When View/Message Body As/Plain Text, search text/plain part only.
    If only text/html is contained, or if text/plain part is null/blank,
    use text/html part and convert it to Text.

[Jim (squibblyflabbetydoo)]

Duping this to the bug where I'm fixing the issue (and which has test cases).

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 505024 ***

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jorg K (jorgk)]

I've visited this bug far too many times :-( - So let's try a summary.

Attachment 389696 has a multipart/alternative structure
multipart/alternative
  text/plain
  text/html
  text/calendar

The so-called "reduced" (not!) test case in attachment 405560 has:
multipart/mixed
  multipart/alternative
    text/plain
    text/html
    text/calendar
but there is no further "mixed" part :-(

TB with Lightning shows the invitation, TB without Lightning shows the HTML part, no indication of any attachment since for an attachment we need multipart/mixed with the attachment in a "mixed" part.

Nothing new here, already explained in comment #122 (!!).

Now the add-on, I got this version:
https://github.com/sebastianha/sfoa/blob/master/dist/sfoa-v0.1.4.xpi
I briefly browsed the code (being an add-on reviewer as well) and it all looks good at first glance. It overlays the expandedHeadersBottomBox to display a "Download ICS" button. Somehow it doesn't work, I don't see the button using the test messages here.

If you can make it work, great, submit it at addons.thunderbird.net. Drop a comment here and I'll review/approve it. Thanks for your contribution ;-)

[Social-mozilla (social-mozilla)]

Hi,

thanks for your comments, I have to admit that I did not test with the attached mails here as I thought these kinds of appointment invitations are obsolet. I did only test with a recent one I got from a colleague.

However, please check v0.2.1 which should now support all three types of known outlook invitations (my sample and the two
 attached here). All sample I used for testing are in the "samples" folder.

There might be encoding issues in the VCAL-file itself in some fields but at least it should be able to import into a calendar.

Regards, Sebastian

[Jorg K (jorgk)]

Yes, that works fine. You need to know that you have to use Customise to place the button. You can submit this at ATN and let me know when it's ready so I can approve it. PM is OK. In general I'm a Lightning user, so it's not to terribly useful for me. That said, we have a long-standing issue that Lightning can only handle one attached event, bug 547754. Can your add-on save more than one? Or does Outlook only ever send one. For multipart/alternative, multiple text/calendar parts are imaginable.

[Social-mozilla (social-mozilla)]

Good to hear! I will submit the addon soon and let you know.

The hint for the button is quite hidden but inside the Readme. I added another when within the "Installing" section. I could not figure out a way to add a button which is not fixed but visible right after installing. Can anyone help me with this?

Currently it will only handle only one (the first found) calendar event. I do not know if its possible to send multiple appointments in one mail, I will ask a colleague which is using Outlook.

[Jorg K (jorgk)]

*** Bug 1521050 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Craigus (c-o-hopkins)]

Installed the addon but still no joy. I'll look out for further updates on this bug.

[Social-mozilla (social-mozilla)]

Hi,
if you like send me an email or open a bug on github: https://github.com/sebastianha/sfoa
Perhaps we can find a solution, until now I only a small sample of test messages. It could be that the message is not being detected correctly.
Regards, Sebastian

[Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla)]

*** Bug 1664993 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Bugzilla-4 (bugzilla-4)]

The work-around with an add-on mentioned here is not compatible with TB 68.
Can someone with the power to do so please set a prority for this bug? It has been over a decade. Thank you.

[Worcester12345 (worcester12345)]

This actually used to work for quite a while. I was able to see a calendar invite, and click it to add to my calendar. This stopped working maybe a year ago? I don't know if it has to do with Thunderbird, or the sending application. Too bad there is no standard that all programs can follow.

[Bugzilla-4 (bugzilla-4)]

It is not correct that this is only for "Windows XP". In my case, it is Linux. So this bug likely affects all platforms. I couldn't fiugure out how to add Linux as an affected platform for this bug.

[Stephane-gourichon-mozbugz (stephane-gourichon-mozbugz)]

Same as Daniel here. I experienced this bug on Linux.
Can reproduce it now by displaying sample e-mail from comment 4 ( https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=505024#c4 ) on 68.10.0 (64 bits).

In my case I received automatic invitation e-mails which did not have any text, just the calendar entry. They appeared as totally blank e-mail, only showing the e-mail source code allowed me to realize there was a calendar entry.

[Markus Kuhn (markus-kuhn)]

Dear newcomers to this issue. As explained above in [comment 122](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=505024#c122), this issue is really a bug (violation of the MIME standard) **in the calendar function of Microsoft Exchange** that sends these messages. Regarding Thunderbird, this issue is a **feature request for a workaround for a violation of the MIME standard by a Microsoft product**.

For history buffs: The underlying issue is that Microsoft Exchange was originally designed to be an in-house X.400 mail server that added an Internet (RFC822+MIME) email gateway only later as an after-thought. X.400 only allows a flat list of attachments, but MIME allows (and requires in this case) a hierarchical tree of a multipart/alternative inside a multipart/mixed attachment. Microsoft still has not yet fully resolved all the ancient early-1990s legacy of the in-house X.400 mail product that eventually became Microsoft Exchange, and probably as a result their Exchange Calendar function keeps sending out malformed MIME. (To better understand the complex ways of how Microsoft Exchange internally maps RFC822+MIME messages onto their own X.400-style message objects, see [[MS-OXCMAIL]: RFC 2822 and MIME to Email Object Conversion Algorithm](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/exchange_server_protocols/ms-oxcmail/b60d48db-183f-4bf5-a908-f584e62cb2d4). Warning, this is not for the faint hearted. Don't use Microsoft Exchange if what you really want is proper RFC822+MIME email. It never was. Spread the word.)

Repeat: this is a feature request for a workaround of a long-standing Microsoft Exchange bug. This is not a Thunderbird bug.

[Worcester12345 (worcester12345)]

It seems that the defacto is that this should work. Maybe it is time to update the MIME standard to agree with what is reality.

Meanwhile, Thunderbird users are left holding the short straw.

[Stephane-gourichon-mozbugz (stephane-gourichon-mozbugz)]

Thanks @MarkusKuhn for taking care of explaining.

I understand that it is vexing when users complain about a problem caused by a bug in a third party program.

Still, thunderbird not displaying any hint feels wrong.

I'm also aware that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle can sometimes hurt. I guess the question can only be resolved pragmatically, like "Do we have the power to force Microsoft Exchange to fix that?", "Does implementing the wish cause costs, like extra code complexity?" or "What happen if we refuse to do anything about this problem experiences by users?".

Anyway, thanks again Markus for enlightening us.

> Don't use Microsoft Exchange if what you really want is proper RFC822+MIME email. It never was. Spread the word.

I'm already self-hosted and since the hosting company of my freelancing activity switched to MS Exchange I'm considering to self-host that, too, for what it's worth.

> Repeat: this is a feature request for a workaround of a long-standing Microsoft Exchange bug. This is not a Thunderbird bug.

I'm willing to change the field "Type: defect" to " Type: feature request" but Bugzilla does not let me do that.

[Ben-bucksch (ben-bucksch)]

> the ancient early-1990s legacy ... Exchange

I bet even today's Microsoft engineers fear that code.

> violation of the MIME standard in the calendar function of Microsoft Exchange that sends these messages

Right. "Microsoft doesn't respect Internet standards" isn't new. Thunderbird always had the policy to treat this as bug and fix it.

The reality is that people working in companies send these invitations, to people inside and outside the company, and if you are unfortunate enough to use Thunderbird without Lightning, you don't even see the meeting time or location. Guess who the meeting organizer will blame? Try arguing with him that Exchange has a bug.

--------

That said, I know (comment 118, and from my own testing), the bug appeared only if you use Thunderbird without Lighting. Since Thunderbird 78, Lightning is integrated into Thunderbird core. Can somebody reproduce this bug in Thunderbird 78 with Lightning enabled?

[Bugzilla-4 (bugzilla-4)]

Yes, this is malformed MIME. Thunderbird should be able to handle it. It does not, so it's a bug.

Iff I where 2 introduse malformation s IN my writting, u wud still understend. As you should.

[O-jose-w (o-jose-w)]

*** Bug 783603 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[O-jose-w (o-jose-w)]

Since TB78 Lightning is always "installed" (integrated into TB), so this bug here can be closed. There is also bug 760412 which is about only showing the last text/calendar part of multipart/alternative.
To make it clear:
This bug here: Invite not showing when no Lightning installed.
Bug 760412: text/html part not shown in multipart/alternative if text/calendar comes last.

[O-jose-w (o-jose-w)]

FIXED in TB 78 be integrating Lightning, so it is never "not installed".

[Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla)]

->WTF (easier for tracking), and basically true as well.

[Mozbugs-w (mozbugs-w)]

One question: is it possible to call another MIME handler instead of Lightning? That was my original bug back in the dark ages, back when there were dinosaurs.

[Mitra-lists (mitra-lists)]

@Eliot - I think for most users that would be a preferable solution - for those who want to avoid Lightning entirely.

For my own purposes I finally navigated the complex steps of integrating it so Lightning uses iCal - no mere mortal will ever succeed with those steps - but until that point one of the worst features of TB was failure to integrate with the same calendar used for all other functions on OSX, and given how much calendars are integrated into people's workflow these days must be a significant driver away from TB and towards Apple's Mail.

[Mozbugs-w (mozbugs-w)]

Ok, should there be a separate bug (again) for that?

[Worcester12345 (worcester12345)]

(In reply to Michael Baffoni from comment #0)
> Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1pre)
> Gecko/20090718 Shredder/3.0b4pre
>
> I have received a .ICS calendar meeting attachment, but no visual evidence
> of the invitation exists; no attachment item, nor text display within the
> message. I used to receive these as just text within the message.
>
> Here is the MIME type and beginning of attachment (from message source):
> Content-class: urn:content-classes:calendarmessage
> Content-Type: text/calendar;
> name="meeting.ics";
> method=REQUEST
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> BEGIN:VCALENDAR
> METHOD:REQUEST
> PRODID:Microsoft CDO for Microsoft Exchange
> VERSION:2.0
> BEGIN:VEVENT
> DTSTAMP:20090717T002452Z
> DTSTART:20090723T163000Z

Michael Baffoni, is this REALLY "working for you"?

[Miguel J (mjulier)]

(In reply to Worcester12345 from comment #152)
> Michael Baffoni, is this REALLY "working for you"?

Not working for me, since about one week:
- problem with message in MIME multipart, with invitation in .ICS
- I see a header saying "this message contains an invitation", I can accept it or not, but I cannot see its contents
- but the invitation is displayed in human-readable form if I select Display / Message body as / Plain text
    (maybe not exactly these messages, my Thunderbird is not in English)

Version: release, 91.3.0 (64 bits), Windows, French.

[Miguel J (mjulier)]

(In reply to Miguel Julier from comment #153)
> (In reply to Worcester12345 from comment #152)
> > Michael Baffoni, is this REALLY "working for you"?
>
> Not working for me, since about one week:
> - problem with message in MIME multipart, with invitation in .ICS
> - I see a header saying "this message contains an invitation", I can accept it or not, but I cannot see its contents
> - but the invitation is displayed in human-readable form if I select Display / Message body as / Plain text
> (maybe not exactly these messages, my Thunderbird is not in English)
>
> Version: release, 91.3.0 (64 bits), Windows, French.

Well, it actually works, but by default the event description is folded in (I just see the title), and I must click on the small arrow to unfold it.
This is not convenient at all since, when an invitation is sent, the receiver most likely wants to see the description.

[gggeek (giunta-gaetano)]

I confirm the last comment from Miguel Julier: the event description is always folded in when the message is displayed, and having to click on the small arrow can get tedious and frustrating.
Still, I dare say this is working better now than in previous versions, as at least there seems to be some certainty that the invitation data will be shown within the message without having to go to extreme measures such as "display message body as plain text"

[Brian Candler (b-candler)]

I didn't realise until now that the event details were folded away, and became visible if the arrow is clicked. Thank you, this is awesome! It would be more awesome if it was open by default - but I don't know if this is Thunderbird's rendering of an ics file, or something controlled by Microsoft's HTML/CSS.

Getting invites from Office365: "View Message Body > All Body Parts" didn't show the event details, and "View Message Source" just showed a bunch of base64-encoded junk. So I wasn't able to see the event details at all, until I learned the click-to-expand trick.

[Rdingman (rdingman)]

(Using 91.4.1)
I agree with [comments 154](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=505024#c154) through [156](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=505024#c156). Until I read these comments, I had no idea this arrow was clickable and am fairly certain I had tried clicking on it previously to no avail. (I likely missed it because it's so small.)
As the the other commenters said, hopefully we can get this description to show automatically.

[Ben-bucksch (ben-bucksch)]

REOPENing. In all fairness, while it might work for developers who know what's happening, it doesn't work for end users as-is.
Even strictly speaking, the original problem "calendar (VCal) [content] is not visible" is not fixed.

[Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla)]

We can track that in bug 1742101.

[Ben-bucksch (ben-bucksch)]

Makes sense.

[Oliver-brendel (oliver-brendel)]

Sorry, but I can't see where the arrow is to see the date and time of an invitation. I get buttons to accept / refuse or do other things (in the screenshot, if I find a way to add it, I have cliqued on "Plus" and then used the option "save a copy". However this will only create an event in the calendar, but as I have not idea as to the date ....

[Oliver-brendel (oliver-brendel)]

Created attachment 9257450
shows the top of an email with an invitation and the proposed options

I do not see in the proposed options of this email with an invitation, where I can see the actual date and time of the invitation.

[gggeek (giunta-gaetano)]

Created attachment 9257452
the small triangle which can be used to make the invitation data display

[gggeek (giunta-gaetano)]

Comment on attachment 9257452
the small triangle which can be used to make the invitation data display

@oliver see the screenshot. The small arrow is highlighted in a red circle

[Brian Candler (b-candler)]

It's at the top of the body of the mail, just below the screenshot you showed:

    |> (Person Name) has invited you to (Meeting Name)

There is a small black triangle next to "Person Name". The usability bug is that it shouldn't be necessary to point this out :-)

[Oliver-brendel (oliver-brendel)]

thanks for the explanations, I would have never thought that the small black triangle was something clickable.
Perhaps this should e made more evident, usually clickable things are blue ... or underlined ... or have a downward arrow that indicates the direction in which something will be happening. But that's for others, I now know ;-)
On the other hand, once one has accepted the invitation, there is a "Details" button in the top blue frame and one also gets the details in this way

[Brian Candler (b-candler)]

> thanks for the explanations, I would have never thought that the small black triangle was something clickable.

Me neither. Bug 1742101 is now dealing with this usability issue.