Matt Coughlin wrote:
>> How about replacing the attachment with an attachment of type 
>> message/external-body with an access-type of "LOCAL-FILE", as defined 
>> in RFC 2046 
>> <http://www.nacs.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/MIME/2046/rfc2046.html#5.2.3>? 
>> That could contain all of the necessary information (a short 
>> disclaimer could go in the attachment's "phantom body").
> 
> 
> This looks promising, Timeless seems to favor using 
> message/external-body as well; however, the first stage of work, the 
> work specifically covered by bug 2920, doesn't cover saving and linking 
> to attachments (detaching files from a message), it only covers deleting 
> attachments.

Hmm...true. There isn't really a "null" MIME-type.

> But for future reference, to help coordinate some of the discussions 
> here with later work done on saving and linking to attachments, and for 
> clarification...
> 
> Are attachments part of the body of a message, or are they separate from 
> the body?

Attachments are part of the body of a message. A message with 
attachments is of type multipart/related. In a multipart MIME message, 
the body is a series of "parts", which have their own MIME types.

> Can message/external-body be applied to an attachment?

Yes, definitely. Parts of a multipart message can have any MIME type. 
The MIME types RFC (RFC 2046) even mentions this specifically, 
suggesting the use of multipart/alternative with message/external-body 
parts giving different access-types or locations for the file...a sort 
of MIME mirroring system.

> Would 
> message/external-body only be useful for saving and linking to 
> attachments (detaching files), or would it also be useful for deleting 
> attachments?

Not with the currently defined access-types, but Mozilla could create 
its own "experimental" access-type to mean external-bodies that can't be 
retrieved. Call it X-DELETED, X-REMOVED, X-UNAVAILABLE, or something. A 
little weird, but legal, and it would work (to the best of my knowledge).

-- 
Mozilla 1.0 Guide: http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/guide/
Mozilla 1.0 FAQ: http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/faq/

End-user discussion and peer support:
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.general
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.win32
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.mac
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.unix


Reply via email to