Bug 16345 - kmail layout: preview pane
Summary: kmail layout: preview pane
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: kmail
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Mandrake RPMs Other
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: kdepim bugs
URL:
Keywords:
: 12254 62834 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2000-12-01 10:33 UTC by Joshua J. Kugler
Modified: 2007-09-14 12:17 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Joshua J. Kugler 2000-12-01 10:18:18 UTC
(*** This bug was imported into bugs.kde.org ***)

Package: kmail
Version: 2.0
Severity: wishlist
Installed from: Mandrake

It would be nice to be able to get rid of the preview pane completely like Netscape or Eudora.  I know I can move it down but clicking on a message still changes it to "read" and that is what I want to prevent.  I only want the message to change to "read" when I explicitly open it.

(submitted via bugs.kde.org)
Comment 1 Jonathan Hutchins 2001-07-12 22:40:36 UTC
I second the request to be able to turn off message preview/hide the preview 
pane.  I do not want to preview I do not want messages marked as read simply 
because they happened to be the default one hilighted at a given time.  I 
want to select the message _and_open_it_ for it to be open - two operations!  

Some clients open with a single click making it impossible to select 
messages to be moved!
Comment 2 Steve Lamb 2001-10-09 00:38:54 UTC
I simply cannot stand the preview pane.  If there was one thing that kept me 
from using KMail for so long is the preview pane.  Take a look at either 
TheBat! <http://www.ritlabs.com/> or PMMail <http://www.pmmail2000.com/> for 
two excellent examples of clients which support reading messages through a 
viewing window.

-- 
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest I'm your shrink I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
    To email: Don't despair!   |  -- Lenny Nero Strange Days
-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
Comment 3 Joshua J. Berry 2001-12-03 06:57:42 UTC
I also dislike the preview pane and wish there was some way of effectively 
disabling it (which would then force me to double-click on a message to open 
it in a separate window to read it). Also please don't follow Evolution's 
example and make this a folder-specific option...the preview pane needs to 
either be ON in all folders or OFF in all folders not on in some and off in 
others.

On a corollary note please add a toolbar to the read message window (i.e. 
the one that pops up when you double-click a message) so that you can 
delete/reply to/forward a message from within the read window. Also please 
add buttons to this toolbar for moving to the nex/previous message or new 
message (that's four buttons two for all messages two for just new ones).

Thank you very much...I like KMail a lot and I use it exclusively for email 
but the preview pane and the brain-dead read message window do get annoying.

-- Josh

-----------------------------------------
Joshua J. Berry
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo CA

(805) 756-8899

"I haven't lost my mind -- it's backed up on tape somewhere."
    -- /usr/games/fortune
Comment 4 Ingo Klöcker 2002-11-13 12:16:50 UTC
*** Bug 12254 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 T Baker 2003-01-12 22:20:31 UTC
Never mind the fact that the preview pane is an irritation.  The main problem 
is that it's a HUGE security risk!  There are some very damaging viruses that 
operate by running as soon as they are previewed.  PLEASE allow previewing to 
be disabled or convince me (not likely) that Linux is somehow immune to 
viruses that operate this way! 
Comment 6 Carsten Burghardt 2003-01-13 08:33:00 UTC
In KMail from kde 3.1 you can deactivate the behaviour that messages are marked as 
read. Is that enough? 
Comment 7 T Baker 2003-01-14 03:43:20 UTC
Subject: Re:  kmail layout: preview pane

I don't think that has anything to do with it.  Maybe you can persuade me 
otherwise.  I don't care how the messages are MARKED.  My goal is to prevent 
messages from being opened automatically, so that viruses which execute as 
soon as the mail is opened don't have a chance to run.  As a specific 
example, I have an e-mail right now that I think is a virus.  I am afraid to 
select it -- for purposes of deleting it -- because the act of selecting the 
e-mail causes it to be OPENED in the preview pane, at which point the cat is 
out of the bag!  I want to know how to keep KMail from opening any mail, 
EVER, until I command it to.  If there is no such provision, who do I talk to 
about adding that feature?  This is an outstanding program -- far better than 
Outlook, and I don't mean Express -- except for this HUGE glaring security 
problem which will force me to find another mail program if it can't be 
fixed.  

On Monday 13 January 2003 01:33 am, you wrote:
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are a voter for the bug, or are watching someone who is.

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16345




------- Additional Comments From burghardt@kde.org  2003-01-13 08:33 -------
In KMail from kde 3.1 you can deactivate the behaviour that messages are
 marked as read. Is that enough?

Comment 8 Chris Kuhi 2003-01-14 10:47:51 UTC
Regarding security Mr. Baker, I think you misunderstand the security issue of preview panes. There is not an inherent insecurity in preview panes.  That was a Microsoft *innovation*: by Outlook allowing Explorer to render preview panes complete with Javascript and Active X support it became possible to exploit those technologies. So, it is not a matter of whether Linux is immune, it's a matter of what the mail program *does* in its preview pane.  Note: in effect every mail program *must* open every mail it gets just to read the header (though in the case of imap this is usually happening on the server), so vulnerabilities which could arise from just 'looking' at the contents of the e-mail would happen before you even see the message list.  To clarify: an e-mail program must specifically hand the contents of the mail to another program which allows the content to perform some kind of action before it becomes the kind of security problem Outlook has been plagued with.  KMail, even in its most 'insecure' setting, only uses khtml to render previews.  Javascript support is simply not present, so there is not even the possibility of executing javascript in your preview if you want it, and it goes without saying that Active X controls won't work.  Additionally you can disable the ability to load external references (e.g. images), which is more of a privacy concern than a security concern, since those references could only be non-active content anyway; and finally you can turn off HTML rendering altogether, leaving you with just plain text in your preview pane; admittedly it's always possible that a buffer overflow could be found/exploited, but as I already pointed out that could be exploited without a preview also, and for that matter, without the mail client.  Just to be clear, none of my arguments are against this feature request, I just want to point out that it's a *usability* request, not really a security issue. 
Comment 9 T Baker 2003-01-15 02:38:21 UTC
Subject: Re:  kmail layout: preview pane

Thanks, Chris. In the words of the judge's father on "Night Court", I feel 
much better now!  Security was my only real concern.


On Tuesday 14 January 2003 03:47 am, you wrote:
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are a voter for the bug, or are watching someone who is.

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16345
kdelists@kuhi.net changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |kdelists@kuhi.net



------- Additional Comments From kdelists@kuhi.net  2003-01-14 10:47 -------
Regarding security Mr. Baker, I think you misunderstand the security issue of
 preview panes. There is not an inherent insecurity in preview panes.  That
 was a Microsoft *innovation*: by Outlook allowing Explorer to render preview
 panes complete with Javascript and Active X support it became possible to
 exploit those technologies. So, it is not a matter of whether Linux is
 immune, it's a matter of what the mail program *does* in its preview pane. 
 Note: in effect every mail program *must* open every mail it gets just to
 read the header (though in the case of imap this is usually happening on the
 server), so vulnerabilities which could arise from just 'looking' at the
 contents of the e-mail would happen before you even see the message list. 
 To clarify: an e-mail program must specifically hand the contents of the
 mail to another program which allows the content to perform some kind of
 action before it becomes the kind of security problem Outlook has been
 plagued with.  KMail, even in its most 'insecure' setting, only uses khtml
 to render previews.  Javascript support is simply not present, so there is
 not even the possibility of executing javascript in your preview if you want
 it, and it goes without saying that Active X controls won't work. 
 Additionally you can disable the ability to load external references (e.g.
 images), which is more of a privacy concern than a security concern, since
 those references could only be non-active content anyway; and finally you
 can turn off HTML rendering altogether, leaving you with just plain text in
 your preview pane; admittedly it's always possible that a buffer overflow
 could be found/exploited, but as I already pointed out that could be
 exploited without a preview also, and for that matter, without the mail
 client.  Just to be clear, none of my arguments are against this feature
 request, I just want to point out that it's a *usability* request, not
 really a security issue.

Comment 10 Frigerio 2003-04-17 14:42:23 UTC
I would like to come back to the real bug, which is not a security problem but a
*usability* one.
This 'onMouseOver' behaviour is really bothering, and it exists also in the 
'Save As..' fileselector with the same annoying effect : as soon as the mouse
pass over a filename you loose the real one.

-- 
Jean-Marc Frigerio		INRA - Genetique et Amelioration
69, route d'Arcachon		F-33612 Cestas Cedex  France
Phone : +33 (0)5 57 12 28 29	Fax   : +33 (0)5 57 12 28 81
Frigerio@pierroton.inra.fr
	http://www.pierroton.inra.fr
Comment 11 Jonathan Hutchins 2003-04-25 16:20:59 UTC
The preview pane really should be configurable, not just marking the message as 
read.  While it's useful for some things like mailing lists, there are areas where I want 
to view only the message list.  This "feature" makes kmail unusable for me. 
Comment 12 Freddie Cash 2003-05-07 20:16:40 UTC
This issue has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with usability and performance. 
 
On long distance, mid-to-high latency links, it would be really nice to be able to disable the 
preview pane.  Why?  How does one delete a huge message, with a huge attachment, without 
downloading and opening the entire message, wasting who knows how much time??  With the 
preview pane, one cannot.  Simply selecting the message inthe header list downloads the 
message to open it in the preview pane.  If one could disable the preview pane, one could delete 
this message without ever having to open it. 
 
There are several other times when it would be nice to not have messages open simply by 
selecting them.  It's a real pain to try and select multiple messages for deletiong, only to have to 
wait after every mouse click for the message to be downloaded, opened, and shown in the 
preview pane. 
 
Besides, isn't the point of software to be to work the way *I* want it to, not the way the 
developers think I should use it??  The latter is the Microsoft way, where configurability is 
removed because "the user doesn't need that." 
 
Please add the ability to disable, remove, destroy, eliminate the preview pane.  Not everyone 
works the same way. 
Comment 13 Freddie Cash 2003-05-07 20:19:38 UTC
This is still an issue with the latest released version of KMail (1.5.1). 
Comment 14 Chris Horn 2003-06-28 00:12:11 UTC
Tied to the optional removal of the preview pane (I just don't like it
aesthetically), it would be very nice to get a single key (configurable key
would be best) that opens and closes a message viewing window.  See bug #59927
(<a href="http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59927">link</a>).

Behaviour similar to that of Sylpheed is what I'm looking for here.
Comment 15 Ingo Klöcker 2003-08-18 00:56:31 UTC
*** Bug 62834 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 16 Till Adam 2003-09-08 21:35:12 UTC
Subject: kdepim/kmail

CVS commit by tilladam: 

Allow the user to place the message preview pane either below the messages
list as before or to the right of it or hide it completely. When the reader
window is disabled, messages that are selected are not downloaded (for
imap) and are not marked as read.

CCMAIL: 63647-done@bugs.kde.org
CCMAIL: 16345-done@bugs.kde.org
CCMAIL: 43176-done@bugs.kde.org


  M +18 -0     configuredialog.cpp   1.386
  M +1 -0      configuredialog_p.h   1.70
  M +1 -0      kmfolderimap.cpp   1.128
  M +13 -8     kmheaders.cpp   1.550
  M +1 -0      kmheaders.h   1.132
  M +429 -201  kmmainwidget.cpp   1.82
  M +42 -15    kmmainwidget.h   1.27
  M +98 -7     kmreadermainwin.cpp   1.17
  M +13 -0     kmreadermainwin.h   1.7
  M +5 -229    kmreaderwin.cpp   1.697
  M +3 -46     kmreaderwin.h   1.178