MossyRock

Smartphone: Droid X2, Gingerbread
App involved: K-9

I discovered today that the K-9 android email client apparently uses the "content-type" tag in an email for an attachment to find out what app to use to open the attachment.

Here's what happened: an email was sent out from a server-based proposal system (Pursuit 7, in fact) with a PDF attachment. We opened the email in K-9, and we then attempted to open the PDF attachment, but K-9 said "Unable to find viewer for application/x-unknown".

I then manually sent out an email from my laptop (using Thunderbird) with this exact same PDF attached. We opened this email in K-9 and were able to open the PDF attachment with no problem (it gave us a choice of Adobe Reader or QuickOffice, BTW, just like normal).

I looked into the internal source code of the first email and it had this:

Content-Type: application/x-unknown; name="PROPOSAL1001293.PDF" Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="PROPOSAL1001293.PDF"; size=8922

Next, I looked into the internal source code of the second email and it had this:

Content-Type: application/pdf; name="PROPOSAL1001293.PDF" Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="PROPOSAL1001293.PDF"; size=8922

I don't think the Pursuit 7 software vendor is going to fix their email engine, so I'm trying to find a way to work around this with K-9. If K-9 would use the attachment's extension (".pdf") instead of the content-type tag then there would be no problem.

Any ideas, anyone?

PS: Does K-9 have a support forum? I can't seem to find one.

Thanks.

Last edited by MossyRock; September 21st, 2011 at 09:35 PM.

MossyRock

Ok, maybe too much information.

Is there any way to get K-9 to look at the filename extension (i.e., ".pdf") of an attachment, rather than the content-type flag in the email so it can choose the right app to use to open the attachment?

KaosStorm

That doesn't seem like it could be an option to be found on settings, since it involves changing how the app actually reads and manages the mail (and attachment) it receives.

I'd say that your best bet is to got its homepage and try to contact the developer to see if a solution is readily available or can be worked on a future app update.

MossyRock

Thanks, KaosStorm.

MossyRock

I posted this issue on the actual K-9 developer's forum... got literally a firestorm of responses, mostly saying that K-9 shouldn't be expected to handle this type of situation. My point is, if every mainstream desktop email client can successfully determine what app to use, then K-9 is out in left field here.

PDF attachments - K-9 Mail | Google Groups