This is an ubuntu gnome configuration issue not an f-spot issue.  F-Spot just
calls the command that gnome uses to handle mailto: urls.

Some additional comments to this bug thread.

For Mozilla mail options, please check
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html

In short:
"to='foo@nowhere.net,foo@foo.de',subject=cool page,attachment='a.jpg,b.jpg,c.jpg'"

Seems to be problems with 
1) attach (for evolution) and attachment (for thunderbird)
2) &attach=a.jpg&attach=b.jpg (for evolution) and
,attachment='file://a.jpg,file://b.jpg' (for thunderbird)
3) Thunderbird: Enclosing all parameters in one set of ""

Sample from command line for mozilla-thunderbird
 mozilla-thunderbird -mail -compose
"subject=Hejsan,attachment='file:///tmp/a.jpg,file:///tmp/b.jpg'"

Sameple from command line for evolution
evolution-2.4 mailto:?subject=Pictures\&attach=/tmp/a.jpg\&attach=/tmp/b.jpg

Forgot that if thunderbird is still running, then a new profile is asked for by
default. 

It seems that Thunderbird does come up with a correct compose window (ie not
bringing up the profile selector) when one of the subject or attachment
parameters is present.

So 'mozilla-thunderbird -compose' brings up the profile selector, whereas
'mozilla-thunderbird -compose subject=test' correctly opens a compose window.

The difference in passing information to the mail clients is a problem I think.
Is there some standard fot this? If there is, Thunderbird and/or Evolution
should support it. If there isn't, I think the solution would be for F-Spot to
try very hard to support different mail clients.

Ugh this is a mess, I'll ping the evolution developers about it.

Looking over the discussion again I guess the easiest way to deal with this is a wrapper script for firebird that parses the mailto url and reformats it.  I don't thing the extra parameters are formally defined anywhere but regardless the gnome url stuff expects a url not a list of arguments.

Evolution would start an instance if one was not running already. Else would just open a new instance of the composer window, which is what the reporter wants :-).

I think that the possibility to send a photo by email from inside F-Spot, together with the possibility to shrink it down in size (not sending 3 MB's photos if not neeeded) (bug #314559)

Would it be possible to this bug and #314559 fixed, if not perfect, then temporarily ? Unfortunately we missed the dapper train, but still...

:( Sorry, press the Save button a bit quick.
To clarify, I think the feature to be able to send a couple of photos to your friends quick and easy is a major feature for the normal user. 
Quick and Easy = F-Spot should accomodate the users email client
Couple of photos = F-Spot should offer to shrink them down, since other wise you are easily looking at mails in excess of 10MB in size.

yeah but this particular problem is not something f-spot can do much about.  if thunderbird is configured by they distributor as the mailto: handler then it needs to handle the extended mailto syntax for things to work.  About the only other options I could offer are sending mail via sendmail (not something that would for for me personally) or sending mail directly via smtp through some well known server.  I went so far as to adapt the mono smtp code to support tls so that I could send mail directly to gmail, but it was slow and isn't a general solution.

Perhaps an preference option.
Using Evolution
Using Thunderbird
Using other mail client = customized string (or just use default)

I know, it is a hack until the mail clients starts to behave in a syncronized fashion.

Any news on this one?

I still think a slight hack in F-Spot to accomodate the more common mail clients.

Some preference options:
1) Use Gnome Default
2) Use Thunderbird
3) Use Evolution
4) Customized

Where the customized, you specify mail client and syntax for subject, attachments, and recipients.

This together with pushing Evolution and Thunderbird to standardise upon a nice protocol (which do not exist last I checked)

This will *not* solve the entire discussion, but at least answer the original bug about starting multiple thunderbirds:
As I writed http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314559#c23, you can create a new message inside the running thunderbird using thunderbird -remote

Is this one fixed with the wrapper script?

No, at least on KDE it opens Kmail with no attachments. For the interested, the command string for Kmail is:
kmail --body "Hi, you have pics from..." --attach /path/to/your/file.exe

Created attachment 79664 [details] [review]
email support for thunderbird, seamonkey and kmail

This is a first try to add support for thunderbird, seamonkey and kmail. Patch was written for 0.3.0. Please test/comment.

Hi Sascha,

thanks for your patch, and the time you spend on trying the different mailers. 2 things missing in your code:
- a way to call the default mail handler as specified in gnome (mailto: urls)
- maybe a way to set it, for end users (or it could be descibed in a man page with gconftool...)

I'll look deeper at it and eventually commit to close that quite old bug

Hi Stephane,

> - a way to call the default mail handler as specified in gnome (mailto: urls)

That's the problem and as mentioned before in this discussion there is no way to call thunderbird with attachments by the mailto url. I spent hours to find some kind of hack but nothing works. So calling default mail handler will end up with a empty mail in all mailers except evolution.

> - maybe a way to set it, for end users (or it could be descibed in a man page
> with gconftool...)

I thought about that too but I don't think a end user will be capable to do this. Take a look at kmail for example. Each attachment is defined with --attach <file> and separated with a whitespace. But in thunderbird each attachment is defined with file=//<file> and separated by a comma. I don't see a way how those totally different arguments should be passed over to f-spot in a way every end user would understand. 
If you see a way to get use to it let me know and I'd be happy to code it. :)

hi Sascha,

when I say 'a way to set it' for end users, it's a way (or a documented way) for the user to choose between the different preconfigured mailers.

just so you know, some kinds of hacks really works to start thunderbird, Ben M. wrote a script for that attached to another bug.

I'm sure the easiest solution for this issue looks like yours, but we should have one more choice, called 'default', where f-spot rely on the users settings for his gnome session.

Hi Stephane,

now I got you. How about a drop-down in the "Create Mail" window where the user can choose between the "hard coded" mailers and the gnome default mailer? I could add this to my patch.

Sascha,

you can try in the mail dialog...

*** Bug 388594 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

woops, sorry.

as this honor the default gnome setting, no need for any gui in f-spot

Created attachment 81168 [details] [review]
committed version

Here's the slightly modified version I will commit.

Even though this was not an F-Spot bug, now we have a workaround for some mailers. Tested with icedove, evolution and thunderbird.

fixed in r2869