66376 - Improve AccountCentral page

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect, P2)

Description

[racham]

We received lot of suggestions while implementing this feature. We accommodated
as much as we could while fixing bug 63251 and this bug is to polish that page
further and improve it based on feedback we receive.

Here are couple of things that are already in the list :

* News page should have Subscribe Item
* Header 'Email' and items below it need to be modified appropriately for news
accounts.
* Think about option #9
(http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/specs/proposals/AccountLevel.html) from the
feedback we receive.
* Anykind of UI polishes (image icons, background images and font styles etc)

Please feel free to extend the above list.

Adding all people from cc list of bug 63251.

Comment 1

[racham]

Adding nsbeta1 keyword.

Comment 2

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Didn't we want to use the same labels for the menu / toolbar buttons and the
text in the Account page? E.g. "New Msg" vs. "Compose".

Comment 3

[Henrik Gemal]

*** Bug 66567 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Ninoschka Baca]

- The spec states "Compose a new Email message" but it now states "Compose a new
message". I like the way it looks now. Including "Email" in the statement seems
redundant.

- The spec states "View settings for this account" but it now states "View
Settings for this account". The "S" in Settings should be lower case.

Comment 5

[scottputterman]

marking nsbeta1+ and moving to mozilla0.9

Comment 6

[jglick]

OK, some rough ideas as attachments to follow. Note these are just for ideas 
only.  "Netscape 6 Mail" would be "Mozilla Mail". And the Netscape logo would be 
replaced with the Mozilla logo as appropriate.

Comment 7

[jglick]

Attachment: One

Comment 8

[jglick]

Attachment: Two

Comment 9

[jglick]

Attachment: Three

Comment 10

[jglick]

Attachment: Four

Comment 11

[jglick]

Attachment: Five

Comment 12

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Jennifer, those look great, can you mock one up with the help text in the right
portion of the window?

Comment 13

[Håkan Waara]

I would vote for something non-Netscape specific (this is still Mozilla), so I
like "One" or "Four" best.

Comment 14

[scottputterman]

I like #4 the best of these because it blends into the area where there's
actually text.  Have you tried moving it more center in the page?  Does it ever
become hard to see the text?

Comment 15

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> Mozilla Mail

IIRC, we dicided on "Mozilla Mailnews" for now (just "Mail" appearing the chrome
is a bug).

> I would vote for something non-Netscape specific (this is still Mozilla)

Jen said that the Netscape logo will be replaced with the Mozilla logo. However,
I'd like to see something without a logo for Mozilla, since otherwise,
distributors *have* to care about one more logo to replace. They *can* still do
so, if they want to.

Even apart from that, I happen to like 1 and 4 best.

Comment 16

[scottputterman]

I think the idea was that it would say Mozilla Mail in a mail account and
Mozilla News in a news account.

Comment 17

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

jglick, are these mock ups, or actual implementations?  do how big are actually
images (in kb) and does having that image slow down the displaying of the
account central page?

Comment 18

[jglick]

Currently these are just mockups. We'll need to figure out what size and format 
we'll need the background image to be to work best.

Anything about these can be changed. The size of the image, the opacity, the 
location.  If we get a consensus for a certain style, we can experiment with it. 
 
Seems like folks like the non-logo specific approach.  We can do a non-logo 
specific one that is bigger/smaller, repeated, tiled etc.

p.s. for credit purposes, Gail White created most of these ideas originally (but 
she doesn't have a bugzilla acct yet).  ;-)

Comment 19

[kmurray1115]

I agree with Ben wrt the ability to customize the graphic. For distribution,
this is critical. So, we need to make sure this graphic, whatever is decided,
can be skinned/themed. Is this possible?
For branding, on behalf of the commercial build, either #2 or #3 are best. #3
then seems the safest wrt differing screen sizes/resolutions. There is no danger
with the "multiple" images in them looking awkward when cut off by a small screen.

Comment 20

[kmurray1115]

Also, FWIW, I am using a laptop (DELL) and the images are not being displyed
well. I had to tilt my screen to a very sharp angle to see the images. I thought
I was going crazy when, at first, I didn't see any differences between any of
the screen shots! :-)

Comment 21

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> We can do a non-logo specific one that is bigger/smaller, repeated, tiled etc.

I like them as they are - one large image with just lines. Size is not that
important to me, though.

> So, we need to make sure this graphic, whatever is decided,
> can be skinned/themed. Is this possible?

I assumed so.

> the safest wrt differing screen sizes/resolutions. There is no danger
> with the "multiple" images in them looking awkward when cut off by a small
> screen.

Very valid point. I think, we can make Gecko scale the image, so that it always
fills all (or 70$ or whatever) of the background. (I know that this is possible,
if nothing else, then with absolute positioning - I'm wondering about
performance, but I don't think, this is a problem.)

Comment 22

[jglick]

cc'ing Marlon.

Comment 23

[racham]

Attachment: improvement patch #1 - Get New Messages on clicking 'Read messages'

Comment 24

[gayatrib]

r=gayatrib

Comment 25

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

sr=sspitzer 

(that code is only executed accounts with an inbox, right?)

Comment 26

[racham]

Yes. the request comes from the AccountCentral and we display ReadMessages item
only to such servers.

Thanks for reviews.

Comment 27

[racham]

improvement patch#1 landed. Thanks for reviews.

Comment 28

[scottputterman]

What do we have left on this bug?  Jennifer, do you know if we are going to get
the background image?  Bhuvan, do you know if it's going to be possible to do
this? I remember you mentioning to me that this may not work out.

Comment 29

[jglick]

Marlon is working on the background for this.  Marlon, any eta?

Comment 30

[marlon bishop]

Yes, I am working on this one. ETA will be between 1-2 weeks with my current 
schedule. 

Comment 31

[racham]

It is possible to put the background images. I tried with stack tags first. But
css has an easier alternative (thanks to hewitt). 

So, I used image #1 posted by Jennifer and created a background jpeg. Will post
the the way it looks like now after the changes I did to msgAccountCentral.css
to display the background image.

So, once we get the right images from marlon, it should be easy to effect those
background images on AccountCentral.

Comment 32

[racham]

Attachment: AccountCentral with background image

Comment 33

[scottputterman]

do you think we'll get a background image or should we push this off to 0.9.2?

Comment 34

[kmurray1115]

Marlon, your last entry on 3/27: "Yes, I am working on this one. ETA will be
between 1-2 weeks with my current 
schedule."
How are you doing on this, and are you going to use the image that Gail came up
with, or are you creating a new one?

Comment 35

[marlon bishop]

it would help if we could push this to 0.9.2

Comment 36

[scottputterman]

moving to 0.9.2

Comment 37

[scottputterman]

moving to 0.9.3

Comment 38

[racham]

Attachment: Decription patch to be applied whenever we have the background image ready

Comment 39

[scottputterman]

moving to 0.9.4

Comment 40

[Scott MacGregor]

Mail news triage meeting --> .9.5. We'll takle improving account central after
eMojo.

Comment 41

[Sebastian Späth]

adding bug 90373 as dependency (alternate 3-pane layout makes the layout jump
when showing account central)
This would improve account central a lot for me

Comment 42

[scottputterman]

moving to 0.9.6

Comment 43

[scottputterman]

really moving to 0.9.6

Comment 44

[scottputterman]

moving to 0.9.7

Comment 45

[jglick]

What still needs to be done with this bug?

Marlon, do you consider this bug closed with the icons/background work you 
previously did or is there more to come?

Kevin, what are you expecting from this bug?

Comment 46

[kmurray1115]

For mozilla, we can close this. I'll open a new bug for commercial.

Comment 47

[marlon bishop]

the only thing remaining that i intend to do is make sure that the icons become
active (not just the text), and, design a background image.  we can track that
in the new bug

Comment 48

[racham]

Yes. It was kept open to put a background image on accountcentral page. Making
icons active as suggested by Marlon will be nice.

We are going have a background image for Mozilla also..right ? Then, the new bug
can stay in bugzilla itlsef.

Marking this one fixed.

Comment 49

[Ninoschka Baca]

Verified Fixed.