Message filtering using the "Body" filter appears to ignore the HTML part of an email(?)
I have been trying to filter out and delete emails with certain URLs in the HTML section of the body of the message.
I can get the Body filter to activate and delete the email if I send the specified URL within a simple text message. So the Body filter can activate on sequences in the text part of a multimode or simple text email.
It doesn't, however, seem to activate for the thing I truly need, which is to see a URL (or other sequence) in the HTML part of a multimode. It appears to ignore the HTML section.
Would it be possible to either:
1) allow the current Body filter to scan all parts of a multimode message? OR
2) create a new filter, perhaps named Rawbody, or Raw, etc., which doesn't break down and separate the parts of a multimode first, but simply does a raw scan of the entire body: text, HTML, and all?
Thank you.
All Replies (9)
There have been a number of requests over the years:
It doesn't look like any devs have responded in a useful way to this request?
Original request for a raw body filter goes back 10-16 years!!! 453385&1211128
Most evilspammers and even a lot of goodspammers don't provide useful filtering sequences in the mail header, and the text part of the body is similarly useless.
The only useful patterns for capturing these are in the HTML section - which the Body filter ignores.
It looks like a RFE(request for enhancement) has already been made or mentioned - but no bites by the devs(?)
Message filtering is (guess) 80% dead in the water if you can't pick out a URL in any of the parts of the body, and block on it. It's gotten more and more this way over the last 10 years.
Do I need to buy one of the devs a case of beer to get this RFE acted on?
Is it just a time limitation for the devs, or a design issue? If a design issue, the design is deep-sixing effective spam blocking on the part of the users. It's inadequate, (or antiquated).
Do you happen to know what the proper procedure is for prioritizing this RFE? Piles of $$$$$? LOL!
I might have to crack open the 20-year-unused c-coding part of my brain(ouch!) and take a look at the source.
Thanks for responding.
I tend to think that most requests for changes that come from outside the TB developer group have little chance of success.
I don't pay much attention to TB's junk controls and have never used them, finding that the limited amount of spam I receive is well-managed by the mail providers. A judicious deployment of one's accounts is probably the best means of limiting junk mail.
I agree with sfhowes about spam/junk. Blocking/filtering at the server and prevention are best. I would be depressed if much spam/junk reached Thunderbird.
I have several email addresses from various vendors. Thunderbird does an amazing job at handling all of them.
Trying to manage the various spam filtering provided by the 3-4 different vendors would be an annoyance.
Controlling it in one, central location allows a reduction in effort.
friendlygrey60 said
I have several email addresses from various vendors. Thunderbird does an amazing job at handling all of them. Trying to manage the various spam filtering provided by the 3-4 different vendors would be an annoyance. Controlling it in one, central location allows a reduction in effort.
Makes sense, especially if you do not use web mail or other e-mail clients.
-hate- web mail/clients. WHY would I subject myself to having to use 20 billion different web UI's, all different?
I never log into the web UI's except for those unfriendly providers that fail to fully delete old mail
when I archive&purge the accounts every 3-4 months. That was using POP for some of them,
and since converting to a pure IMAP environment, that issue has pretty much evaporated.
Using thunderbird as the central contact point and UI for all of my mail is bee-youtiful!
This lack of a functioning multimode Body filter is a minor issue compared to the simplicity that TB provides in compensation.
If the devs were listening to me, about the only other thing I can think of that I'd ask for (other than a more functional Body filter) would be a -global- message filter that applies to all of my several email addresses.(IE, even more simplification). That was easy enough to correct for with a simple script that replicates the msgFilterRules.dat out to all accounts from a template/source account, but it would be cleaner if TB could to it.
Other than those two minor issues, life is beautiful with TB.
Regarding global filters: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1535654
I seldom access webmail, but make use of the generally effective providers' spam filtering, and monitor Spam/Junk IMAP folders in TB.
>>make use of the generally effective providers' spam filtering
Icky! LOL
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