RE: HTML attachments

From: Tom von Alten <Tom_vonAlten_at_boi.hp.com_at_hypermail-project.org>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 10:20:40 -0700
Message-ID: <01BE2361.17F0A7C0.Tom_vonAlten_at_boi.hp.com>


Ken Clark [ken_at_gesn.com] wrote:
>>> The archives though show both the plain text and the HTML for email
>>> created using Microsoft Outlook.  I want the archive to just show the
>>> HTML. Any ideas how to set hypermail up to do this?

Daniel Stenberg asked:
>> Aren't they multipart/alternative?

> Don't know. They are HTML mail messages created with Microsoft Outlook,
> Outlook Express, and Netscape Messenger. When a reader sees messages in
> these mailers, they display as just HTML, not as a seperate attachment
> (they might also have a file attachment, but that's a different story).

It sounds like they are multipart/alternative components. You should understand what this means, and be able to identify the difference between this and an attachment (which could be plain text, an HTML file, or something else). You need a MUA or other means that allows you to look at the message verbatim, or at least at its headers (message and MIME).

"multipart/alternative" means the same information is being presented in different ways (typically as plain text, and as HTML), and the MUA is supposed to choose the preferred one for the user.

I think the goal for 2.0 is to allow configuration to set either text or HTML as preferred, and have hypermail process accordingly?

The question of how to treat an HTML *attachment* is a different one, and I have requested that such an attachment not be brought inline. Daniel's been working on making this a configurable option, also.

Simply bringing an HTML document into the middle of the larger hypermail HTML wrapper has a number of difficulties inherent in it - given the wide range of proper, improper and extended HTML that's floating around. For that matter, similar difficulties arise in dealing with HTML information given as an alternative.

Cheers,
_____________ Hewlett-Packard Computer Peripherals Bristol Tom von Alten mailto:Tom_vonAlten_at_boi.hp.com Received on Wed 09 Dec 1998 07:51:27 PM GMT

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