164436 - [RFE] Some prefs to control scaling behaviour of different view areas in Calendar

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Calendar :: Sunbird Only, enhancement)

Description

[summertime]

With all the new features and side and bottom bars plus the automatic rescaling
I'd suggest some user options to control the behaviour of the different display
areas:

There should be a calendar preference option to both fix the size of the side
bar (servers, tasks) and the bottom bar (events).  If checked, Calendar
remembers the width/height the user has dragged those bars to the last time. 
When the user one-click opens the sidebar or bottom bar, it will automatically
expand to this width or height setting.  Of course, by dragging it
wider/narrower or higher/lower the user can always change these settings.

Alternatively, if the user of more prefs is not wanted, this behaviour should be
default.  I much prefer those bars to one-click open with the width/height I
prefer to view my data.

The size of the day/week/month view should by default be scaled to fit into the
size of the main Calendar window as set by the user.  With another user pref
like "scale calendar view" the behaviour of the day/week/month view could be
controlled:  If checked, the day/week/month view should be scaled down to the
new size of it's viewing area when the side bar and/or bottom bar are opened. 
If unchecked, the size of the day/week/month view remains as it is, i.e. larger
than the new viewing area, but scrollbars to the right and/or bottom will be
added to the day/week/month view.

(If you wanted to make it really perfect, you could add independent scaling
prefs for each of the three views (day/week/month), and for horizontal and
vertical scaling seperately.  But I guess that would require a "scaling prefs"
submenu in Calendar prefs...)

I think this would make working with Calendar much more convenient, especially
if the users system is set to lower resolutions, or the user prefers to have
Calendar set to a smaller window that does not fill the whole screen.

Comment 1

[Mike Potter]

The problem with the splitters not remembering their position has been filled as
another bug, and its fixed in CVS and it should be in the builds available from
now on.
I'll leave this confirmed as new for the second part, which would be to make a
scaling view for the week and day views (month view already scales).
I'm also tempted to resolve this as won't fix, since I disagree with that part
of it.  I think its more than useable in its current state, which is to show a
scrollbar if its too long.

Comment 2

[summertime]

Yes, but the problem right now is that it seems a bit inconsistent - at least to
me ;-)

When I use a Calendar main window which is about as wide (hor) as the days view
with the scrollbar (some 600 pixels I'd guess) and the sidebar is closed, of
course the day view fits nicely.  

Now I do the following:

a)  Open the sidebar.  The scrollbar and the right part of the day view gets
pushed out and a scrollbar appears at the bottom of the main calendar window. 
Useable, but I would think that sometimes users would prefer to have their day
view just scaled horizontally and maintain immediate access to day views
vertical scrollbar.

b) Close the sidebar, switch to weeks view.  Weeks view has a horizontal and
vertical scrollbar.  So far so good, but again some user might prefer it scaled
in one or both of the directions.

c)  Now I open the sidebar again.  Weeks view gets pushed to the right, still
has it's scrollbars plus there is another horizontal scrollbar on Calendars main
window.  Argggh ;-)   I personally find it becoming confusing, but of course see
the logic behind it.  Again, the suggested user prefs would let everyone adjust
this behaviour to their liking.

Regarding the months view, I just realized it seems to do the following:  When
(in my above window example)  I open the bottom bar to display 6 rows of events,
the bottom bar covers up a part of the months view, and months view gets a
vertical scroll bar.  When I then close the bottom bar, months view is rescaled
to fill ONLY the area which before had not been occupied by the bottom bar, and
leaves the area which had been occupied by the bottom bar white.  Is this just a
case of reversed scaling settings, i.e. the internal vertical scaling values for
open/closed bottom bar are mixed up?  Shall I file this as a seperate bug?

Comment 3

[summertime]

Oops, just noticed, regarding my last paragraph in my last comment:  The months
view scaling is adjusted correctly when the window is slightly resized or items
in the event list are clicked on.  Maybe there's just a window refresh missing
after opening or closing the bottom bar ....

Comment 4

[Mike Potter]

I see what you're saying now.
I'm working on this.

Comment 5

[Mike Potter]

OK, I'm going to mark this bug as fixed.
The day and the month view are now good, they scale properly.
The week view sucks, I'm tempted to drop the way it is now and change it to
something completely different, since its so hard to do what we're doing in XUL.

Comment 6

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

The bugspam monkeys have been set free and are feeding on Calendar :: Sunbird Only. Be afraid for your sanity!