How do I get Firefox to open .eml attachments in Lotus?
My team uses both Firefox and MSIE at work out of necessity. We have a contact tracker for communications with outside agents, and we will save emails from Lotus Notes into .eml files and save them in a web application.
If we open the .eml file in MSIE, it opens up in Lotus and we can see the attachment exactly as it was saved. (good!)
If we open the .eml file in Firefox, it says "Invalid directory name or device not ready". This is after telling it to open with notes.exe.
Updates:
-Firefox thinks this is: "Firefox HTML Document (42.9 KB)"
-This affects 11 computers on my team, not just my PC.
-We are on Firefox 24.2.0, and are not allowed to upgrade. Help?
Modified by limbodog
All Replies (6)
Is this something that used to work correctly but recently stopped working? If so, I would suspect a corrupted or obsolete mimeTypes.rdf file, the settings file that stores preferred download handling actions. There's no good way to edit it, so the standard medicine is to rename it and let Firefox start building a new one.
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
- (menu bar) File > Exit
Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to mimeTypes.old.
Start Firefox back up again and see whether you can save Notes successfully as the download handler.
If this never worked, can you take a close look at the download dialog (the Open/Save/Cancel dialog) and see what type of file Firefox thinks the EML is and whether the filename has any spaces or other possible reasons that the hand-off might fail.
Another way to check this is to open the Web Console below the page (Ctrl+Shift+k) before trying the download, then when you get the dialog, cancel it. Click the URL of the download in the console and it should display request and response headers. I'd be interested in the response headers related to the content-type and file name (often different than the name of the page pushing the download).
jscher2000 said
Another way to check this is to open the Web Console below the page (Ctrl+Shift+k) before trying the download, then when you get the dialog, cancel it. Click the URL of the download in the console and it should display request and response headers. I'd be interested in the response headers related to the content-type and file name (often different than the name of the page pushing the download).
This has never worked. It is a new thing we're trying. And I should add that it's affecting 11 people's computers, not just mine, so I doubt it is a corrupt file.
I tried the console as you suggested. Here's the single line it showed when I clicked on the .eml file and cancelled it:
[10:43:12.542] GET https://intranet.[name of my company removed.com]/pls/edbprd1/f?p=303:200:3265686598360880::::P200_EDI_ACCT_ID:709 [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 83ms]
I already tried associating .eml files with Lotus, so I don't know what Mozilla thought it was associated with before that, possibly Outlook (which we don't have installed)
edit: here's what the window showed when asking me how I wanted to open it: You have chosen to open File.eml which is: "Firefox HTML Document (42.9 KB)"
Modified by limbodog
limbodog said
I tried the console as you suggested. Here's the single line it showed when I clicked on the .eml file and cancelled it: [10:43:12.542] GET https://intranet.[name of my company removed.com]/pls/edbprd1/f?p=303:200:3265686598360880::::P200_EDI_ACCT_ID:709 [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 83ms]
When you then click the URL in the console, a small pop-up window should show the Response Headers. Apologies if that extra step was not clear.
Edit: delete stray quoted material.
limbodog said
You have chosen to open File.eml which is: "Firefox HTML Document (42.9 KB)"
The last line may be part of the problem: the server is indicating the text/html content type for the EML file. If possible, please associate "message/rfc822" with the .eml extension on the server. The method for doing this varies among web servers.
But, if the file cannot be opened by Notes after Firefox passes it, that probably is not a complete solution. If you save the file to disk and then double-click it, or right-click>Open With, does Notes open it without complaint?
Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
If I open the website in MSIE and open the .eml attachment, I have no issues. If I save the attachment from Firefox to my hard disk, and then open it with Lotus, I have no problems. It's just when I try to open it directly from Firefox to Lotus without first detaching it to my hard disk that I have a problem.
After you get the usual error message, could you check:
Downloads list (arrow on the toolbar in Firefox): is the file listed there?
If yes, click the folder icon (or right-click > Open Containing Folder): is the file still there (in the Temp folder, usually) or has it vanished somehow?
If it's still there, does it launch in Notes on a double-click from there?