378833 - Ability for saved searches/virtual folders to automatically process new sub-folders

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[David Sitsky]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Build Identifier: 2.0.0.0 (20070326)

I have a "projects" IMAP folder, where I create a new sub-folder for each "project" which I am working on.  In a typical day, I might create 10 new projects, and remove 10 old ones.

I have been using the new tags facility to mark messages with a "Waiting For" tag, so that if I am expecting a reply from somebody in order to complete a project, I have a record of it.

Using the "save as search folder" functionality, I can display all my emails with the tag "Waiting For" and this works quite well.  However, as I create new projects, and therefore new IMAP sub-folders, messages marked as "Waiting For" won't be picked up in the "Waiting For" search folder - I have to explicitly edit the search folder and select the new sub-folders each time they are created, which is a major inconvenience.

Other people have mentioned this too: http://www.flippingheck.com/index.asp?searchTerm=Thunderbird#CommentPlace590.

Unless I am missing something - it would be great when you create a search folder to have an option, such as "automatically apply search over all subfolders", or something to that effect.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Confirming RFE.

Comment 3

[Günter]

This seems to be true also for "Local Folder" -- not only IMAP folders.

'New' folders to "Local Folder" are ONLY included with the previous configured virtual if one add manually that 'new' folder using the menu.

Comment 4

[Bill M]

I strongly agree that TB needs this feature.  It is very important to keep adding features like this that make it easier to organize the huge amounts of email we all get and need to use as part of our To Do lists.

I don't use IMAP folders, but this feature needs to work for regular folders too.  This other issue describes the feature request a little better than the earlier descriptions in this issue, I think:  

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=370682

Comment 11

[evolts]

It's been more than three years that this bug (please don't call it "enhancement") is here. What about a resolution?
This behaviour lets waste a lot of time managing all the saved search folders.
It's so difficult and time consuming making this one?

Thanks.
eV

Comment 12

[Mic]

I do agree with the previous commenter, this is a bug.
Tired of losing too much time adding every single new folder, I've developed an extension, named SavedSearchThemAll.
Check it out: http://micz.it/thunderdbird-extension-savedsearchthemall/

(please, read the warnings on the page)

Comment 15

[me]

Please fix this since it is essential when one uses the archive feature.

Comment 16

[jules.bernable]

Mic's add-on didn't make it for me, so I made my own, which does exactly what the OP wants.
Check https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/thunderbird/addon/savedsearchinsubfolders ,
or https://github.com/ju1ius/SavedSearchInSubFolders for freshest code.

Comment 17

[Zener131]

Hello.

I had posted here a more general description within a context that looks like the typical interest of having Saved Searches:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2457743

The general issue is that a Saved Search records the resulting list of folders at the time it is created, then ignores subsequent changes in the searched tree: creating/moving/renaming subfolders. 
As a consequence the search lies as it is incomplete.

After any such change, all Saved searches have to be updated manually by finding and ticking the checkboxes in the (usually huge) folder list for each of them (with a long response delay) what is a pain.

There is another add-on intended to do it, but it is quite unusable as explained.
I did not try Jules' one yet, I will. But will an add-on keep compatible forever ?

Anyway I can hardly figure how to take advantage of the Saved Searches if they keep unsafe this way.

**** I suggest this solution: ****

1) A Saved Search should record the specification of the search (maybe in addition to the list of resulting folders), and this list should be automatically rebuilt from that when the Search is first reused after any change in the folder tree.

2) In case someone could need to keep compatible with the current behavior (Search frozen to the initial list), this rebuild could itself be an option of the Search.

Doing so reuses most of the existing features, with just a new triggering case, but it will keep the Saved Searches accurate.

Thanks for considering this evolution.
Best regards.

Zener (on Thunderbird 10.0.2)

Comment 18

[Zener131]

(In reply to Mic from comment #12)

Hello Mic.

> Tired of losing too much time adding every single new folder, I've developed
> an extension, named SavedSearchThemAll.

Thanks for this work and sorry I had to say "SSTA is quite unusable", but actually when I tried v.1.1, it blindly added everything to all searches, including the dustbin, accounts, archives, and even the root of the searches itself ! 
Then I had to fix all that by hand, it was actually worse.

Please consider the suggestion done of adding only subfolders of a subfolder already checked, and nothing of the first level anyway.

Best regards.

Comment 19

[Mic]

(In reply to Zener131 from comment #18)

Hello Zener,

I understand your point and I hope to add that feature soon.
I use this addon everyday, but clearly I have a setup different from your one (I have only one account and no archives and my saved folders search on all folders).
I've filed a bug on github to remove all the special folders.
Thanks for your feedback, I hope to release the version 1.2 not too late.

Regards,

Mic

Comment 20

[jules.bernable]

(In reply to Zener131 from comment #18)

Hi. As stated in my comment #16, I've made an addon that does exactly what you want.
Why don't you give it a try ?

Comment 21

[Zener131]

Hi Jules.

Hmmm... (very annoyed). Actually I did try the version of your first link yesterday. 

Once installed and restarted, my TB emptied its Saved Search folder then nothing more.

Then, after some tenths seconds, still no result, and when I opened the folder list in the property boxes to see the result, they had been all completely unchecked...

Is there a special precaution or restriction to use it ?  (TB ESR 10.0.2)

Best regards.

Comment 22

[jules.bernable]

(In reply to Zener131 from comment #21)

Annoying indeed...
Can you take the time to file a bug on github and provide me some debugging information ?
Like the output of your error console ?
I'll be glad tp try and fix your issue.

Cheers.

Comment 23

[Zener131]

(In reply to jules.bernable from comment #22)

Hi Jules.

I'm sorry but I hesitated to take risks with my email database... 
In the console (no timestamp) I have 3 times this error, it must be the one:

Erreur : uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIObserverService.removeObserver]"  nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)"  location: "JS frame :: chrome://messenger/content/search.xml ::  :: line 156"  data: no]

Since I did not experiment more than what I describe in comment #21, this is not worth filing a valid bug description.
Actually I did quite nothing: I installed, checked the unique option, and let it (attempt to) update 6 existing searches... Just one more info: my searches use advanced options from FiltaQuilla v.1.2.0: on tag criteria notably.

Best regards.
Zener

Comment 24

[Mic]

I released version 1.2 of SavedSearchThemAll with only-subfolders capabilities.
It's still not reviewed, but you can download it from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/it/thunderbird/addon/savedsearchthemall/versions/

Remeber to set the only-subfolders option before using it (there is the preference button in the addons page inside thunderbird to access the addon options).

Thanks to Zener for his help in testing it.

Comment 25

[philippe.parriaud]

Hi Mic,

Tested SavedSearchThemAll 1.2 and it worked for me, I have chosen three random folder in my mailbox which had a lot of subfolders and refreshed subfolders by command. It updated all subfolders correctly. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks a lot for the addon update
Phil

Comment 26

[Mic]

savedSearchThemall Version 1.2 has been fully reviewed: https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/savedsearchthemall/

Comment 27

[evolts]

Wayne Mery, the URL you added is for an addon not compatible with Thunderbird 24, I think you should add the addon linked in comment 26, that seems mantained at the moment.

Comment 28

[Guillermo López]

Hi,

This enhancement request has been around for a quite a long time now. After reviewing bug reports on saved searches I can see that there are similar requests still going on ([1], [2]).

I missed this functionality some years ago, when I started using Thunderbird, and now it would ease a lot my daily work. The add-ons provided so far either don't work for the latest Thunderbird releases or require manual intervention to update the saved searches. Anyway, I consider this feature too important to rely on add-ons, so I think that it should be part of the core implementation of saved searches.

Is there any particular problem blocking this feature? Or it is just outside the Thunderbird road-map?

Thank you,

Guillermo

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=271249
[2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1190225

Comment 29

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

> Is there any particular problem blocking this feature? Or it is just outside the Thunderbird road-map?
As you will find with most bugs, the issue is resources, not lack of interest. So commenting on old bugs asking why doesn't help them get fixed :)

If the bug has documented blockers you will see it at the top of the bug report. They also might not make progress because of lack of resources. 

But, bugzilla is not the place to discuss such issues.

Comment 30

[hifromnz]

Hi, I would like this as well.  It is a trap for the unwary - I didn't know until reading this that new folders were not included when "local folders" was selected and "include subfolders" ticked - is this really correct???  If so it is a MAJOR bug.

Comment 33

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

Attachment: Bug 378833 - Add new folders to virtual folders automagically. r=BenC

When a folder is added, checks to see if the parent folder is searched by a virtual folder, and if it is the new folder is added to the virtual folder.

Depends on D176602

Comment 34

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

Attachment: Bug 378833 - Refactor nsMsgAccountManager to get the message database service only once. r=BenC

Depends on D176603

Comment 35

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/dbede8013eb0
Add new folders to virtual folders automagically. r=BenC
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/64d1cf125382
Refactor nsMsgAccountManager to get the message database service only once. r=BenC