164351 - [SM] Edit | Select | All / CTRL+A, with focus in the attachment panel, does not select all attachments

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

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

Build ID: Latest self-built Windows 2000 trunk.

Summary: Edit | Select | All / CTRL-A are broken when in the attachment panel
for news.

Steps to Reproduce:

1.  View a news message with multiple attachments.
2.  Choose Edit | Select | All.

Expected Results:

Multiple selection is made, and then you can operate on the group of attachments.

Actual Results:

Option, while enabled, doesn't make multiple selection.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Actual results are better stated:
Select All selects all the messages in the threadpane.  This is true in the 
suite and in Thunderbird.

In the suite, you cannot multiple-select using Ctrl-Click, either. However, you 
can use Ctrl-click in Thunderbird -- and if you do, Save will save only the 
selected items.

Of course, there *is* a Save All action when right-clicking in the attachment 
pane.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

This bug is related (not to say identical) with Bug 315144 (Pressing delete on an attachment within the mail window deletes message instead of attachment).
Bottom line is that when the focus is in the attachment pane, user can and will expect that relevant keyboard shortcuts are applied on the attachment(s) and not on any other object which does not have the focus (the message(s) in the message list).

Allow me to rephrase this bug, as stephend's initial description of the bug is perhaps not clear enough, and Mike's comment seems to skip the actual problem of this bug...

1.  View a news or email message with multiple attachments in TB 1.5 (I can't check for TB 2b2) - the bug occurs both in TB main win with msg preview and also when a single msg has been opened in its own window
2. Set focus into attachment pane (at present only possible via clicking on an attachments, due to bug 373996 - attachment panel is not focusable using <tab>)
2.  Choose Edit | Select | All  OR  press CTRL+A

Expected Results:
- all attachments of the active msg should be selected (regardless whether that msg is in preview or full view)

Actual Results:
- in TB main window: All messages will be selected (instead of all attachments)
- in single mail view: Nothing appears to happen, but God knows

In case of the main window, this can result in data loss if user presses ctrl+a and, immediately after, presses del or shift+del because he rightly expect these shortcuts do delete the attachments (but it will delete the messages instead). As long as this bug concerning ctrl+a is not fixed, the current patch for bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=315144 allowing for usage of del and shift+del to delete attachments will not fix the ctrl+a issue!

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

To improve retrievability, CTRL-A should be changed into CTRL+A in this bug's summary.

Due to TB bug 466016 ([1.8 branch] save all, delete all, and detach all attachments disabled), the effect of this bug has become even worse.

Question to TB developers: Since this bug was posted against Seamonkey (in 2002), should we file a Thunderbird equivalent to get this fixed in TB?

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Thunderbird bug 281046 (filed Feb. 2005)

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

This bug has been fixed for Thunderbird (bug 281046, fixed by bug 630759).