Bug 318915

Summary: Surplus angled bracket freezes sending operation
Product: [Applications] kmail2 Reporter: hara1br
Component: composerAssignee: kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: normal CC: montel
Priority: NOR    
Version: 4.9.5   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description hara1br 2013-04-26 10:28:11 UTC 
KMail version: 4.8.5, openSuSE 12.2
I composed an email with several recipients. One recipient address which I copied from another email had a surplus angled bracket ">" at the end of the string (my error, didn't catch it). When I pressed "Send", I saw a message 
[quote]email@domain.com>
The email address you entered is not valid because it contains too many closing angle brackets.[/quote]
I cklicked OK and then the whole composer window with this email WAS GREYED OUT and did not react to user actions. 
There was no way to edit anything in this window, to close it or do anything with it.  
Apparently the error processing after the address check has a glitch because it does not gracefully offer either 
(a) that the user corrects the recipient address and tries again to send the email, or, less desirable
(b) that the user can at least in a final action close the window where the error occurred.

When I closed the KMail main window, a message appeared which offered that I save the pending email to the Drafts folder which I did. I restarted KMail, opened the email in the drafts folder and the offending recipient address had been corrected!


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compose a message with a wrong recipient address (example: surplus trailing angle bracket)
2. Try to send it
3. Click on OK when KMail reports the error 
4. Bingo, the "dead" window is there.
Actual Results:  
Close the KMail program.
Accept to save the pending email to the drafts folder.
KMail AND THE GREYED-OUT window both close.
Restart KMail, open the saved email. It shows a corrected recipient address and could now be sent if you want.

Expected Results:  
Of course, no "dead" window. 
Let the user manually correct the offending email address or, since KMail obviously attempts to correct the address itself, present the user with this corrected result and let him try a second time to send this email.
Comment 1 Laurent Montel 2013-04-29 05:42:13 UTC 
could you give me a screenshot about this bug.
I try to reproduce it in 4.11 and I don't have error.
Thanks
Perhaps I don't write correctly "bad emails"
Comment 2 hara1br 2013-05-29 10:26:14 UTC 
Hi Laurent,
No, you are fine, I have to admit that it was my error.  When I first encountered the problem with the "dead" KMail window, I had not noticed that the error message about the surplus trailing angled bracket was hidden behind another window on my desktop. As long as the user does not close the error message, the KMail window remains unresponsive.

After I acknowledged this error message, the greyed-out KMail window responds again to a "close this window"  command. This is the expected behavior.
When I thought I recreated the problem, I must have had my blinders on and got the sequence of events mixed up with the first incident.

I'll tag this problem as "Resolved" since there is no tag "user error".

PS: Maybe it is a good idea to display error messages on top of all other windows on the desktop, as well as KMail log-in requests or password confirmations when the user sends an email. I don't know if this is possible but it would improve handling.  If they are not hidden, the user cannot miss them.