AquaMail Forum
English - Android => Bug reports => Topic started by: JHSesq on November 05, 2013, 05:45:39 pm
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I can't attach anything other than music files. Screenshot attached.
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You need an app associated with the file type you want to add. For example for attaching images you need a picture viewer. Also any file explorer will do the job.
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How does one associate such an app with Aqua mail? To me, I should be able to compose an email, click the paperclip icon which should allow me to browse for the file I wish to attach (in this case a PDF file). But instead, it only goes to music files.
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How does one associate such an app with Aqua mail? To me, I should be able to compose an email, click the paperclip icon which should allow me to browse for the file I wish to attach (in this case a PDF file). But instead, it only goes to music files.
You can attach more or less any file if you have a file manager. As android does not have the equivalent of windows explorer, you need an app for that. I use file manager from rhythm software. Once you have such a thing, its icon appears on the list of choices to use. Click it and you are looking at your folders, pretty much as in any desktop system.
Easier still, start in your PDF reader - I have foxit and adobe reader, and both do this - select share, and then aquamail is an option. Select that, aquamail opens, edit your message and the file is already attached. If you want to edit your message first or attach more than one file, use a file manager app.
Some file manager apps are designed for rooted devices. The one I use is not, and my device is not rooted.
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Thanks. I'll try that. The "Easier still" idea didn't work either. That's what I normally do. It gave me a weird error message so then I tried it the other way, which wasn't successful, and here I am.
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Thanks. I'll try that. The "Easier still" idea didn't work either. That's what I normally do. It gave me a weird error message so then I tried it the other way, which wasn't successful, and here I am.
well, I just tried it again. I opened a file in adobe reader (the official one) and chose share, and aquamail, and it worked as planned. When opening the email, clicking on the attachment opened in adobe reader.
I tried the same using foxit, that I prefer in many ways (but for one), and it did just the same. I thought it was not going to arrive as the refresh hung for about 50 seconds, but I blame my connection, in a busy coffee shop right now, as other network-facing apps also were unresponsive.
Again opening the email opened it in adobe reader (and yes, that is my one reservation about foxit. It does not support opening automatically from another app).
I am using aquamail 1.2.5.14.
I am not conversant with internals of android, so cannot advise - I am sure on past form there are others who can!
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well, I just tried it again. I opened a file in adobe reader (the official one) and chose share, and aquamail, and it worked as planned. When opening the email, clicking on the attachment opened in adobe reader.
I tried the same using foxit, that I prefer in many ways (but for one), and it did just the same. I thought it was not going to arrive as the refresh hung for about 50 seconds, but I blame my connection, in a busy coffee shop right now, as other network-facing apps also were unresponsive.
Again opening the email opened it in adobe reader (and yes, that is my one reservation about foxit. It does not support opening automatically from another app).
I am using aquamail 1.2.5.14.
I am not conversant with internals of android, so cannot advise - I am sure on past form there are others who can!
I don't want to be rude, Beaky - although I guess it will be - but your reply is meaningless. I know how to attach files and I know it's supposed to work that way, and congratulations that your experiment worked perfectly. But my phone doesn't do what yours does. And knowing that it is supposed to do what yours does, I began started this thread to help resolve the issue. It was not intended to be a poll to find out whose phone works the correct way, it was to find a solution. If your phone works, great; but if you're not conversant in android and cannot advise, then why chime in at all?
And I have File Manager, version 3.1.15056 installed on my phone but for some reason, Aquamail isn't using File Manager, hence my question about how to associate this program with Aquamail.
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You need an app associated with the file type you want to add. For example for attaching images you need a picture viewer. Also any file explorer will do the job.
How does one do this?
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Why chime in? I hoped to narrow the scope of your problem. For example whether it was linked to one or other version of aquamail. More data points often narrow down a problem. That is also why I posted my aqua mail version. I am genuinely sorry that I cannot explain your problem and fix it.
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Aquamail version: 1.2.5.5
AqualMail Pro Unlocker version 1.0.12
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Aquamail version: 1.2.5.5
AqualMail Pro Unlocker version 1.0.12
I am happy to try the file manager you use to see if I get the problem, you have posted a version number for it earlier, but who is the app author? There are several called file manager, including one I use, but it is obviously not the same.
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It's just the default app that came with the phone. I can't seem to get any developer or author information. But I think the problem is that Aquamail is not using file manager but rather some other program which looks only for music & picture files.
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It is not a problem of AqualMail.
Try to install TotalCommander, a free file manager. Then attache again a file and you will see that you got the choice via TotalCommander to choose any file you want.
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I uninstalled the generic file manager and installed File Explorer by Nextapp. It now gives me 4 "choose with" options instead of 3, and FX File Chooser (the Nextapp app) is an option (screenshot attached), so it's better.
But this still doesn't make sense to me because Aquamail did not perform this way on this phone before. Something was reset and then this problem arose. And I would prefer to not have to pick the app each time in order to look for the file I want to attach. I would like to associate this function automatically with Aquamail but it doesn't give that option.
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I dug this out of the android documentation. http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/sending.html (http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/sending.html)
Compare figure 1 and figure 2: It suggests that it is the developers choice whether to have a 'use this by default' check box (rather like windows). It is present in aquamail for opening a link from an email (I see it because I have two browsers installed).
I am offered a choice of the two browsers and a choice of 'just once' or 'always'. If I was to check the 'always' I would in future not be offered the choice, I believe. I always check the 'once' box, as I don't know how to undo the 'always' choice.
The attach file function, though, does not offer that 'always/once' choice. I would guess it is not offered because if you have no file manager, but just a music app and a photo app, it is not predictable which kind of attachment you want to add every time.
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I dug this out of the android documentation. http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/sending.html (http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/sending.html)
Compare figure 1 and figure 2: It suggests that it is the developers choice whether to have a 'use this by default' check box (rather like windows). It is present in aquamail for opening a link from an email (I see it because I have two browsers installed).
I am offered a choice of the two browsers and a choice of 'just once' or 'always'. If I was to check the 'always' I would in future not be offered the choice, I believe. I always check the 'once' box, as I don't know how to undo the 'always' choice.
The attach file function, though, does not offer that 'always/once' choice. I would guess it is not offered because if you have no file manager, but just a music app and a photo app, it is not predictable which kind of attachment you want to add every time.
Thank you for your reply. Interesting information. I'll say you're partially correct. First, if you check "always," you are correct, in the future you would not be offered the choice. But that's okay because you can undo that home/system settings/apps then select the app and select "clear defaults" so you can undo that pretty easily. (Another way is to uninstall the defaulted to program and then reinstall it, but that may be inconvenient.) When I click links in Aquamail, it goes right to Naked Browser, which I have on my phone (I have two other browsers). I set that browser as the default in Aquamail.
The other thing is that I do have a file manager - in fact, I have two now, but Aquamail still doesn't give me the option to select the file manager as the default choice when I want to attach a file. (See the pic in my previous post.)
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The attach file function, though, does not offer that 'always/once' choice. I would guess it is not offered because if you have no file manager, but just a music app and a photo app, it is not predictable which kind of attachment you want to add every time.
This may be correct. But I would think that file manager can attach any type of file, right?
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I just drafted an email with my phone and attached a *.mid file, a *.jpg file and a ZIP file, all with file manager. It's better but I still think the extra step isn't necessary. I think this version of Aquamail only has the app chooser and lacks the selection dialog which your link nicely explains.
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You really do not want to have a "use by default" option when picking attachments --
-- because that'll use one app out of all app capable of picking files, and not e.g. one default file manager, one default image picking app, etc.
You stated above that how this window / dialog works changed, while AquaMail was installed. This can only be something outside of AquaMail. Maybe the "use by default" checkbox selected in some other app, I really have no way of X-raying your device from here :)
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Personally I would prefer one default app rather than the extra step of having to pick the app that picks the attachment. The file manager I have installed allows me to choose all types of files - pdf, image, music, etc. My desktop PC is that way. I've been using Aquamail pro for a while and I don't recall ever having this extra step. I'm pretty sure on my old phone and then on this one beforessomething reset it just defaulted to file manager and it worked fine.
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Personally I would prefer one default app rather than the extra step of having to pick the app that picks the attachment. The file manager I have installed allows me to choose all types of files - pdf, image, music, etc. My desktop PC is that way. I've been using Aquamail pro for a while and I don't recall ever having this extra step. I'm pretty sure on my old phone and then on this one beforessomething reset it just defaulted to file manager and it worked fine.
But of course in a PC, the one component that is always present is windows explorer, the nearest equivalent on android is a file manager app. It is logical on a windows machine to make the attach dialog use explorer. Indeed, you can use no other.
A file manager app is not normally bundled in most new phones or tablets, but is optional. On Android, you WILL find a photo app and a music app. So what is a developer to do? It does not make sense to have one default app if the only app that makes sense as a default is not included in most devices. Risking having a naive user set the default app to be 'gallery' is going to generate so many support requests....
I think behind the differences is the different business models. Android exists to sell you content, music, video,etc. So apps for those will always bebe bundled. Windows starts as a platform with few apps (OK, programs), and you build on it as a platform. A means of selecting and organising files is included and used by all programs. In android, each app in some sense manages its own files (and only those). Although it must use some android functionality to do this, it is not exposed to the user.
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Interesting thoughts. To answer your question, What's a developer to do? I guess my answer would be to make it one of those "always" or "just once" options so the app can be associated with Aquamail.
Anyway, thanks for explaining.
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FWIW - Android 4.4 has a new built-in way to "pick stuff".
http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html#44-storage-access
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FWIW - Android 4.4 has a new built-in way to "pick stuff".
http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html#44-storage-access
Except that many users will never get 4.4.
I guess this means that you have to make hard decisions about what android versions you will support in future - except I hope your plans extend beyond the measly 18 months for android itself.
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Re: "many users will not get 4.4" -- if you look back, many users never got 4.0, or 4.1, and yet:
http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
2.3 is down to 26% from something like 45 earlier this summer
2.2 is down to the negligible 1.7%
2.0-2.1 are not even on the radar.
Oh, and I'm already getting bug reports for 4.4 (I don't have any real devices with 4.4 myself yet... and not sure if my 2012 Nexus 7 will get the update...)
Re: "hard decisions" -- I'm probably going to drop 2.1-2.2 and require 2.3+ later this year, but I don't see removing all 2.* code and requiring 4.0+ any time soon, at least until 2.3 drops below 1-2%.