has anyone discoverd the (maybe kubuntu centered) kmail problem with distribution lists on kde4.1.2 ?

there is the kadressbook module named "contacts" where you can add new distribution lists and drag your contact into it.

if you check "new message" then beside the "to" line click on "select" and sort out the distribution lists there are NO lists.. they simply don't show up..

but..
if you make a big list the button "save list" appears.. and you can save a distribution list that will be selectable in the future.. BUT it won't show up in the "contacts" module under "distribution lists" and therefore are not editable or deletable forever!

it seems that these two (the "composer" and the "contacts" module) don't know what the other side is doing^^ ??

please help.. i really need working distribution lists.. is this a known bug of Kontact or a kubuntu issue?
thx

I remember to have read from some problems with the distribution lists. And you are right, it doesn't work for me, too.
But i found a way.
When you set up a new distribution list in kaddressbook, you can view your new distribution list and which adresses you added.
Then go to one of the names in the list. Now you see on the right side details for this address. And above you see "distribution list: ".
The name is a link. And when i click it a new mail gets openened in kmail with all needed recipients.
Hope that helps a little.

Other than that, the distribution lists part is under rewrite for the transition to akonadi.

thx for the reply.. i already found out how to use the distribution lists created in kadressbook (even if it took a little time to find the link "distribution list: nameoftthelist" because you have to click on a name in the list first to get to this link) but using them in the composer window would be great...

you say they are working on this part? so theres hope that this will be fixed soon...

The probable reason why it does not work is because at some point a merge from a development branch ended up removing distributionlistwidget from KAddressBook. this would have caused a build failure, resulting in a "fix" to KMail, etc. which ripped out this support partially.

This has caused issues when the Akonadi people implemented distribution list support, and now come to build the bridge for it to kresources, and cannot because it does not exist.

I hope to have time this weekend to restore proper distribution list handling.

It is quite unfortunate that the unintentional breakage due to the merge of a different branch got by unnoticied by those doing the merge.
For them everything continued to work because they had also changed respective backends.

But we know the cause now and should be able to fix this in time for 4.1.4

Cheers,
_

hey... just found out.. it's fixed in 4.2beta... thats great! thx everybody!

Happy to hear it is fixed in 4.1.4 + 4.2 Trunk. if this issue is solved, could you please add [SOLVED] to the start of the thread subject? Thanks in advance.

sure... do you know about the "solved" solution they use in http://forum.ubuntuusers.de? everyone can push the solved button and an image that indicates that the problem is solved appears infront of the title automatically.. could be useful for this forum too...

We did have a Solved link at the top of the Topic in the beginning but it was broken for some reason and was removed All hitting solved did was add [SOLVED] and lock the thread though, no image. You might want to raise this in Forum Feedback.

Well, I don't know why this is marked "SOLVED" since it is NOT solved.

My versions KDE 4.14 / Kontact 1.3 / Kmail 1.10.4 running on Ubuntu 8.10 have this same problem -- adding to KMail/Kontact's stellar reputation as one of the buggiest apps available. Really folks -- reading the "solutions" to this problem had me laughing out loud:

"When you set up a new distribution list in kaddressbook, you can view your new
distribution list and which adresses you added. Then go to one of the names in
the list. Now you see on the right side details for this address. And above you
see "distribution list: ". The name is a link. And when i click it
a new mail gets openened in kmail with all needed recipients.

"Hope that helps a little."

Not to knock this suggestion, and not to flame Neverendingo -- but these are not "solutions." I could just as well stand on one leg on alternate Tuesdays facing East and get equal results with this suggestion.

Other primo email apps out there (thunderbird/evolution) don't have so many basic functions go wrong with them. Kontact/Kmail is an app I used to like a lot -- mostly for its integration. But I have not been able to use it for the last year or two precisely because there is always something basic broken, like distribution lists. My last "I give up on Kontact" was over the (im)possibility of editing categories -- a function that was broken practically forever before the jump to kde4.

Why does KDE allow software to go live, with such basic functionalities so badly broken?

I know this is "free" software. caveat emptor, etc. etc. But really! Why release something at all if it has not been properly tested, and why allow a broken release to remain broken for months and months and months? (I am replying to this thread four months after the original bug was reported, and now three months after it is declared "SOLVED"). My software is updated daily -- but where's the KDE4.1+ fix? The answer: "Ain't none!"

-dp

It is possible that the fix never went into KDE 4.1.4, however it has been confirmed above as being present in KDE 4.2, so please update it is highly recommended for many other feature enhancements / bug fixes.

Why is it broken? Lack of developer power in KDE PIM. In the process of being converted to Akonadi, most things are being rewritten ( KAddressBook for instance is becoming KContactManager, a complete rewrite ) which will hopefully remove the bugs.

Why do the others not have problems? Evolution is the flag ship email client for Novell's SUSE Enterprise, and is therefore well debugged. I do not know about Thunderbird though.

dailyplummet wrote:Not to knock this suggestion, and not to flame Neverendingo -- but these are not "solutions."

It is a description of one way of doing it.
Distribution lists are also available directly in KMail's receipient editor, e.g. name completion.

Unfortunately somebody re-added an older implementation of distribution list handling without noticing (their distribution lists probably were stored in a compatible fashion and worked, while newly created ones wouldn't).

I think I fixed that for 4.2 but if I remember correctly the amount of changes didn't allow to backport the fix to the 4.1 branch, or it happend after or close to the tagging of the last 4.1 version.

Cheers,
_

sadly the problem is back again..

now new distribution lists are filled with references to contact IDs. instead of contact names and addresses... (i opened a list in kate)

kaddressbook knows how to handle them... but kmail does not!

who does this! this is all a big bunch of **** and i am very dissapointed.. switching my dads pc to thunderbird right now..

on my own workstation i am working with kmail2 and the distribution list thing does not work either.. i just can not click on a distribution list and add it as "to"

is the name of the list "test" then kmail will say "test@wald is rejected"

what the ****?