can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by tony chesney -
Number of replies: 9

I couldn't really find the right place to ask this:  for about 30% of the emails I get from moodle forums, I am unable to see the message in my email client (Outlook) until I click "Download Pictures" in the message.  For the rest, there are still pictures missing, but I can see the text of the message, which is what I want.  The ones I can't see seem to generally come from the most experienced, regular posters!

Can someone advise what I should do, other than switching on Download Pictures to be the default, which I don't really want to do?

I had a quick look round (Forums, FAQs) but it wasn't clear where a question like this might have been asked.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to tony chesney

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by Helen Foster -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi Dave,

Sorry I can't answer your question, however I'm going to move this discussion to the general problems forum where hopefully someone will be able to help.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Helen Foster

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by tony chesney -
Thanks for moving the discussion.

It appears to be to do with the html that the forum emailer is generating. (Why do we need html? Wouldn't plaintext text of the message and link to the discussion be safer?)

The emails where the text of the message isn't appearing until I click "Download Pictures" are the ones that have extra pics (beyond pic of the user who posted) such as pixgroup.php/172/f2.jpg (a little hammer, link to Core Developers), the little pencil (Documentation Writers) and so on. My best guess is that the problem is that these pics (unlike the pic of the user) don't have html height and width attributes.

The amount of collective time that could be saved by everybody seeing all forum emails without downloading pics might be a lot.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to tony chesney

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by Helen Foster -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hmm, perhaps you could try editing your profile and setting the email format to plain text.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Helen Foster

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by tony chesney -
Oh yeah thanks, I hadn't noticed that.

Maybe it's still worth someone putting the width and height attributes in the html for the little pics (hammer etc) that appear under the user's picture in forum posts (code which seems to get used "as is" in the html emails) though.

It could make sense that their absence stops the text of the message from being displayed in some email renderers: it gets confused and doesn't know how big to make the first table cell of that row (and the 2nd contains the text of the message).

It might solve a problem for people who prefer html emails (are there any!?).
Average of ratings: -
In reply to tony chesney

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by Ron Meske -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
I believe I have found the pattern that is causing Outlook to not display pictures on all forum emails. It the users email address is listed as noreply@moodle.org then the picture displays and if the email is listed as their personal email address the pictures do not display.

I believe at some point I added noreplay@moodle.org or moodle.org as a trusted address or domain.

Outlook does allow you to change your settings for emails to always download images, however, the reason that is not the default is for spam reasons. A spam email uses this as one way to verify that an email address is correct, as soon as you open that email and it requests the image (specially coded) from the server, it knows it has a valid one.

Hope that helps to clear up this issue.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ron Meske

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by James Whitacre -
We're having issues with html forum emails not displaying the users profile picture but instead substituting the default picture. This is NOT an Outlook issue. It happens in Gmail as well for sure.

Also, I use Outlook regularly and the Moodle.org site displays the user email pictures just fine.

I've checked the source code on the emails and it is calling the correct image to display but for some reason switches to the default image.

We do force a login to enter the Moodle, perhaps that's the real issue? It's some kind of security thing?

I wish someone who knew something about the code would answer this question so I can quit wasting my time trying to figure this annoying little thing out. I've posted this very question several times.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to James Whitacre

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by Karen Taylor -
Hi James,

I am also having the same issue I think. Very frustrating!

When submitting a forum post from the front page with imbedded images, some of the images will not display in outlook even when the program is set to download them.
Outlook seems to be able to retrieve styles, background images etc however I believe that is struggles with the images URL e.g. /moodle/file.php/1/3.gif

From outlook you can right click on the missing images and open them in your browser which works.. but outlook will not display them. If in your forum post you insert an image that is not in the moodledata folders the image will display with no issues.

Does anyone have a way to resolve this issue, other than moving the images out from the moodledata area?

Many thanks
Karen
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Karen Taylor

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by James McLean -
Yes that's expected behaviour, when Outlook attempts to download the images from the files area it will fail, as it does not have permission to view those files because the user is not logged into Moodle from Outlook.

Outlook and Firefox/Internet Explorer are seperate, and while you may be logged into Moodle in your browser, this won't carry over to Outlook.

No way around it other than to move the images outside the file area so they can be accessed without going via Moodle.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to James Whitacre

Re: can't read some forum emails in Outlook without downloading pictures

by Joe Amatrucola -

Having experienced the same behavior and posted about it in another forum thread, I logged it as a bug.  This issue has been logged in the tracker as MDL-43850.  Please vote for it if you believe the behavior should be addressed/changed.

Average of ratings: -