When I get the email conformation of an online order from Rapid, it
arrives as a blank email with HTML attachment. And the HTLM attachment
opens blank too. Looking at the HTLM file in an editor shows it to contain
code.

The email headers show:-

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

Now I have got a prog to decode base 64 - but is a hassle I could do
without.

Last time I used Rapid I didn't have this problem. Wonder why they've
changed things?

(the e-mail confirmation is an easy way of storing what I've bought from
then if needed later - saves having to scan in the actual paper receipt
when the goods arrive)

--
*Why is a boxing ring square?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:39:45 UTC, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

When I get the email conformation of an online order from Rapid, it
arrives as a blank email with HTML attachment. And the HTLM attachment
opens blank too. Looking at the HTLM file in an editor shows it to contain
code.

The email headers show:-

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

Now I have got a prog to decode base 64 - but is a hassle I could do
without.

Last time I used Rapid I didn't have this problem. Wonder why they've
changed things?

Just a new mail client I suspect...it's been happening since at least
April 2008.

If you've only noticed it recently, perhaps you turned off base64
decoding in your own email client....?

Mail clients ought to be able to handle this transparently....it's
within the rules.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Jun 22, 12:39*pm, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
When I get the email conformation of an online order from Rapid, it
arrives as a blank email with HTML attachment. And the HTLM attachment
opens blank too. Looking at the HTLM file in an editor shows it to contain
code.

The email headers show:-

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

Now I have got a prog to decode base 64 - but is a hassle I could do
without.

Last time I used Rapid I didn't have this problem. Wonder why they've
changed things?

(the e-mail confirmation is an easy way of storing what I've bought from
then if needed later - saves having to scan in the actual paper receipt
when the goods arrive)

I don't recall having this problem quite recently (last couple of
weeks). I've found their website help desk very responsive and helpful
in the past, try asking them what's going on.

They have also obsoleted quite a lot of the lines they used to carry,
or at least the ones I used to buy from them.

Farnell are a lot more competitive that they used to be, and get a lot
more business from me, that used to go to Rapid.

MBQ

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
Just a new mail client I suspect...it's been happening since at least
April 2008.

Ah - right. I don't use them very often.

If you've only noticed it recently, perhaps you turned off base64
decoding in your own email client....?

No - it can't handle it. I'm told others don't either. I'd really like to
keep using this machine for email rather than the PC - no worries about
viruses etc.

--
*A plateau is a high form of flattery*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article
,
Man at B&Q wrote:
I don't recall having this problem quite recently (last couple of
weeks). I've found their website help desk very responsive and helpful
in the past, try asking them what's going on.

I have emailed sales and asked them to pass it on to their IT dept.

They have also obsoleted quite a lot of the lines they used to carry,
or at least the ones I used to buy from them.

Farnell are a lot more competitive that they used to be, and get a lot
more business from me, that used to go to Rapid.

I'd say the recession is hitting these guys hard.

--
*Why is the word abbreviation so long? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
scribeth thus
When I get the email conformation of an online order from Rapid, it
arrives as a blank email with HTML attachment. And the HTLM attachment
opens blank too. Looking at the HTLM file in an editor shows it to contain
code.

The email headers show:-

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64


I used to that the problem with RS components but it seems OK now..


PDF is a much better way for order confirmation and invoices

Now I have got a prog to decode base 64 - but is a hassle I could do
without.

Last time I used Rapid I didn't have this problem. Wonder why they've
changed things?

(the e-mail confirmation is an easy way of storing what I've bought from
then if needed later - saves having to scan in the actual paper receipt
when the goods arrive)


--
Tony Sayer

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:59:03 UTC, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
Just a new mail client I suspect...it's been happening since at least
April 2008.

Ah - right. I don't use them very often.

If you've only noticed it recently, perhaps you turned off base64
decoding in your own email client....?

No - it can't handle it. I'm told others don't either. I'd really like to
keep using this machine for email rather than the PC - no worries about
viruses etc.

My mail client doesn't either. In fact, it's got to the point where
there's so much it doesn't handle, I'm going to have to change.

As an experiment, I fed some of the offending emails to Kmail on one of
my FreebSD systems. It displayed it as real text, straight away.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...


(the e-mail confirmation is an easy way of storing what I've bought from
then if needed later - saves having to scan in the actual paper receipt
when the goods arrive)


I have installed CutePDF as a printer on my machines, so any online booking
confirmation page is 'printed' to pdf. The same allows me to produce an
image of items such as online maps, etc etc.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
Just a new mail client I suspect...it's been happening since at least
April 2008.

Ah - right. I don't use them very often.

If you've only noticed it recently, perhaps you turned off base64
decoding in your own email client....?

No - it can't handle it. I'm told others don't either. I'd really like to
keep using this machine for email rather than the PC - no worries about
viruses etc.

Can you just save the whole message to a file? If you give it a .UUE
extension and then transfer the message to your PC, something like
winzip on the PC will then open it transparently.

Failing that, a MIME encoder/decoder like mpack for the arc should do
it. See something like:

http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~tlyeh/mpack.ftp


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
No - it can't handle it. I'm told others don't either. I'd really like to
keep using this machine for email rather than the PC - no worries about
viruses etc.

My mail client doesn't either. In fact, it's got to the point where
there's so much it doesn't handle, I'm going to have to change.

This is the first time I've come across it not handling an HTML file.
Obviously it won't do WMF etc, but nothing important gets sent as those.

As an experiment, I fed some of the offending emails to Kmail on one of
my FreebSD systems. It displayed it as real text, straight away.

I'm sure Outlook Express handles them OK too. But that's not the point. I
just wondered why they've decided to use this encoding when others don't.

--
*If they arrest the Energizer Bunny, would they charge it with battery? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
OG wrote:
(the e-mail confirmation is an easy way of storing what I've bought
from then if needed later - saves having to scan in the actual paper
receipt when the goods arrive)


I have installed CutePDF as a printer on my machines, so any online
booking confirmation page is 'printed' to pdf. The same allows me to
produce an image of items such as online maps, etc etc.

Can't see why they don't just send it as plain text. That's the important
part. Saves bandwidth, too.

--
*I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
No - it can't handle it. I'm told others don't either. I'd really like
to keep using this machine for email rather than the PC - no worries
about viruses etc.

Can you just save the whole message to a file? If you give it a .UUE
extension and then transfer the message to your PC, something like
winzip on the PC will then open it transparently.

Failing that, a MIME encoder/decoder like mpack for the arc should do
it. See something like:

http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~tlyeh/mpack.ftp

Yes - I can export the whole email including headers into Attacher which
converts from base 64. Then drop the resulting data file into an editor
and change the filetype to HTML. Then put the email reader into edit mode,
remove the original HTML file and replace it with the new one. But life's
too short... ;-)

--
*Some days we are the flies; some days we are the windscreen.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:41:18 UTC, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
No - it can't handle it. I'm told others don't either. I'd really like to
keep using this machine for email rather than the PC - no worries about
viruses etc.

My mail client doesn't either. In fact, it's got to the point where
there's so much it doesn't handle, I'm going to have to change.

This is the first time I've come across it not handling an HTML file.
Obviously it won't do WMF etc, but nothing important gets sent as those.

As an experiment, I fed some of the offending emails to Kmail on one of
my FreebSD systems. It displayed it as real text, straight away.

I'm sure Outlook Express handles them OK too. But that's not the point. I
just wondered why they've decided to use this encoding when others don't.

I think it's because email is essentially a 7-bit medium and this allows
the 8th bit! I notice that emails from Canford are like that too...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
I'm sure Outlook Express handles them OK too. But that's not the
point. I just wondered why they've decided to use this encoding when
others don't.

I think it's because email is essentially a 7-bit medium and this allows
the 8th bit! I notice that emails from Canford are like that too...

Wonder what they think they're putting in an invoice that requires the
extra bit? It could be written on a standard typewriter...

--
*Why is the word abbreviation so long?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:43:08 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
OG wrote:
(the e-mail confirmation is an easy way of storing what I've bought
from then if needed later - saves having to scan in the actual paper
receipt when the goods arrive)


I have installed CutePDF as a printer on my machines, so any online
booking confirmation page is 'printed' to pdf. The same allows me to
produce an image of items such as online maps, etc etc.

Can't see why they don't just send it as plain text. That's the important
part. Saves bandwidth, too.

Agreed. I don't have HTML email capability switched on here a) because the
vast majority of emails sent in HTML are spam and b) I don't want all your
crappy graphics, ta very much - I'm only interested in the information
that's actually useful to me. If there are layout reasons that makes
the sender think they can't make do with plain text, then use PDF...

Thankfully *most* "account-based" places who send out emails do give the
individual the option of how to receive things (even if they sadly make
HTML the default in some cases). Some don't, and are best avoided IMHO.

cheers

Jules

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:46:00 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Wonder what they think they're putting in an invoice that requires the
extra bit? It could be written on a standard typewriter...

It all adds up; they can send you extra crap without using any extra
bandwidth. Quantity over quality wins out every time, don't y'know?

In article . com,
Jules wrote:
On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:46:00 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Wonder what they think they're putting in an invoice that requires the
extra bit? It could be written on a standard typewriter...

It all adds up; they can send you extra crap without using any extra
bandwidth. Quantity over quality wins out every time, don't y'know?

But having decoded it the HTML file just contains plain text. Nothing more
at all - no adverts etc or graphics.

--
*He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, dead.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.