Closed Bug 44863 Opened 24 years ago Closed 20 years ago

UI for multiple identities per account

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Account Configuration, enhancement, P3)

Product:
SeaMonkey
Component:
MailNews: Account Configuration
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED FIXED
Milestone:
mozilla1.8alpha1

People

(Reporter: andre, Assigned: mscott)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug,
URL
)

Details

(Whiteboard: verified-aviary1.0)

Attachments

(3 files, 11 obsolete files)

screen shot of multiple identities UI for thunderbird
37.79 KB, image/png
Details
Mock up of tree based approach
59.36 KB, image/jpeg
Details
updated path
39.06 KB, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review 
I´m not sure if this is the right component...

It should be possible to attach a signature composing a message and not only in
account settings. A simple signature manager would do this job....

The other solution (that has been discussed months ago) would be to change
signature dynamically on selecting one of the different identies.
It´s currently *not* possible to use different identies with
a) different reply-to addresses
b) different organization entries
c) different attached signatures
d) ... [other customized settings]...

using the same mail account [same server and username]
it´s currently only possible to use
different email adresses, what´s not enough...
moving to future and reassigning to alecf.
Assignee: putterman → alecf
Target Milestone: --- → Future
there is a seperate bug for multiple signatures per identity... it just got 
pushed way out because of low priority... there is also a seperate bug for the 
signature dynamicall changing when you change identities.

As for the rest of the bug: We have support for multiple identities per account 
in the backend, but no support in the frontend.

Updating summary to reflect what's left of this bug.
Component: Mail Window Front End → Account Manager
Summary: no *true* multiple identies support, no *true* multiple signatures → [Feature] UI for multiple identities per account
Depends on: 27286
Multiple signature support: bug 2350
*** Bug 48823 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
massive reassign of account manager bugs -> sspitzer
please feel free to put me back on the CC if you have any questions/comments
Assignee: alecf → sspitzer
*** Bug 48823 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
mass re-assign of account manager bugs to racham.
Assignee: sspitzer → racham
in addition, host/username etc. is not editable in the account manager, this
should be fixed!!!

adding keywords
Keywords: mail3, mozilla1.0, ui
Target Milestone: Future → ---
marking nsbeta1- and moving back to future milestone.
Keywords: nsbeta1-
Target Milestone: --- → Future
*** Bug 90399 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 93389 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 104821 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
QA Contact: lchiang → nbaca
*** Bug 48757 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I think there's a simpler thing that can be done earlier than a full blown
multi-signature support:

In "Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings" add a new text field "Additional e-mail
addresses (separated by commas)".

So, when you hit "reply-all" the addresses mentioned here are not taken to the
newly composed message. And when/if mozilla has a mutt-like UI showing of
"addressed to me" messages that information could also be used.

I dont't know, perhaps this should go to a different bug...
The summary doesn't match the original description and discussion. Since my bug
got dupped against the current summary line, here a new synopsis of this bug:

Subject:
1. Create a way in the UI to enter several identities per account
2. Fix the bugs (in the Composition etc.) so that this actually works (see my
dup bug 48757; there are others as well).

Importance:
I firmly believe that this is a feature that end-users want. Judging from my
friends, there is a considerable amount even of not-so-computer-savvy people,
who use more than one email address, but route them all to one POP/IMAP box.

Workaround:
Create several accounts with fake POP server names (like "abcd123").
Possible to figure this out, but not at all obvious and not too nice, because
you end up with spurious entires in the folder pane.
A couple of comments. With the current situation it is possible to use multiple
addresses by editing prefs.js, as Ben says. If you point all the identities at
"Local Folders" you will not get spurious entires in the folder pane. However,
this is obviously not usable by end users.

If/when this gets done, apart from the requirements mentioned elsewhere in this
bug I would like to propose that we have a "automatic reply with the address
this message was sent to" feature, a.k.a. mutt. In other words, if a message
gets sent to foo@bar.com and this is one of my identities, then if I reply the
From: address should be set to foo@bar.com by default.
Re: Comment #14

> In "Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings" add a new text field "Additional e-mail
> addresses (separated by commas)".

> So, when you hit "reply-all" the addresses mentioned here are not taken to the
> newly composed message. And when/if mozilla has a mutt-like UI showing of
> "addressed to me" messages that information could also be used.

I do not know about "additional addresses", reply-to should at least skip all
addresses listed in all my identities. Is there already a bug on that?

---------------------

Does this bug also cover using a single identities per multiple accounts? How
about a UI to reuse an existing identity when creating a new account (probably
esp. useful for NNTP accounts)? If not, why does it depend on bug 27286?
*** Bug 123921 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 128241 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Re: Comment #15

>1. Create a way in the UI to enter several identities per account

I would rather like separate identities from accounts.  My suggestion is to have
an option creating as many identities as one wishes, then when creating an
account, one can choose to associate the identity he likes.  This could also
solve the problem of replying because identities are grouped together instead of
being a property of account.
*** Bug 119432 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
There have been several messages presenting the need for multiple identities
based on having several accounts being accumulated into one e-mail account.  I,
like many others, have a yahoo mail account from which I pull my email and
deposit it into another account using fetchmail.  At this time, I have created
an account in mozilla for the yahoo account that I never need just so I can have
my yahoo email address show up in the drop down "From" box.  This works for a
few accounts, but I also have the situation where I create accounts "on the fly"
as different e-tailers request valid email addresses.  Whenever I receive an
email addressed to one of these "accounts" and it requires a reply, I have to
create a new account to get the  from address correct.  That clutters up the
accounts list.  Making changes to prefs files is okay for me, but unacceptable
for my less technical wife.  just my 2 cents.
> I also have the situation where I create accounts "on the fly"
> as different e-tailers request valid email addresses.

Filed bug 131897 about that. Let's focus this bug on account management.
*** Bug 128194 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It seems to me more useful to have several accounts with one identity.
Then you would have the "automatic reply with the address this message was sent
to" feature (additional comment #16 from Martin Lucina).
Probably the proposal to separate identities from accounts (additional Comment
#20 from Seak, Teng-Fong) would be the best solution.
This is one thing that Outlook Express does well (multiple identities, and
multiple accounts per identity).
It would be good if it was developed along the lines of Pegasus. Allowing
multiple identies for an account. Plus each having a different signature.
Raving about Mozilla today to a couple of friends, I was reminded just how many
of us nowadays use multiple identities with the same account. I manually edit my
name, sig and email address in account settings each time I switch identities
(several times a day depending on just how much email I want to reply to), most
of my friends use Outlook (Express?).
Obviously neither solution is very satisfactory. Getting something for this
checked in (preferably a solution as suggested by comment 20 ) would be a great
goodness.

Also, in comment 2 I noticed "We have support for multiple identities per account 
in the backend" - is there currently any way one can make use of this? Any prefs
to be set or anything?
Sander, here's a trick to have multiple identities.  Though not very elegant,
but it works:

Create a new account and put the email address and name as you like.  For POP3
and SMTP, just type some faked address and uncheck the automatic "check for new
messages" and it should be OK.  While composing a message, you could then choose
the identity you would like. As to signature, I don't use any, so I don't know
if it would work for you.

Hope this help.
*** Bug 148844 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 156862 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The "add an account for each alias" workaround is very annoyng and clutters the
accounts/folders pane. 

Mozilla should accept a list of email addresses (aliases) for each mail account.
The point is to be able choose a different email address in the FROM field of an
outgoing message. The simplest way to do this is to let the user provide the
adresses separated by a semicollon in the EMAIL field, 
e.g. "gradic@server.com; gr@server.com; gr@xxx.server.com"

I use a different email address (alias) for different types of mail, e.g. one
for personal usage, one for web forms, one for mailing lists, etc. [I recommend
this to everyone who's on more than a mailing list.]

*** Bug 157696 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 157781 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Regarding comment #16 and setting From: address to "To: address of original mail".

Ok, this could work for mail sent just for you. But it won't work for mail sent
to mailing list, because your mail address usually is not present in mailing
list message. Instead there usually is mailing list posting address in the To:
field.
kaspar, he said "and this is one of my identities", which is crucial to prevent
exactly the problem you mentioned. But it's offtopic anyways.
I definately agree that multiple FROM-identities is very much needed. Preferably
not connected to a single account but rather global for all accounts. I am using
one POP/IMAP provider and then using/handing out spammotel (www.spammotel.com)
addresses to friends, mailing lists, mailing boards, etc. and when I get replies
from these it's not possible (today) to reply to these in Mozilla with the
adequate spammotel-address. This is a very much needed feature in our spam
infested world.
-I tested adding the identities in prefs.js as written in the spec:
user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id2,id3");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.fullName", "Identity1");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.useremail", "id1@mymail.xy");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.fullName", "Identity2");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.useremail", "id2@mymail.xy");
-after starting mozilla and opening a new message, the from-dropdown was empty.
-after opening and closing the mail-preferences-window without changing anything, but just pressing the ok-button (the fields for name and email were empty), it added the following entries in the prefs.js:
user_pref("mail.identity.id2, id3.fullName", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2, id3.useremail", ""); 
-> it does not seem to work at all, nor in the backend (APP) nor the frontend (UI) - the prefs.js is not interpreted correctly concerning multiple identities.

the feature though, would be very welcomed by the users for the reasons already mentioned in this thread.
The workaround with manually editing prefs.js for using multiple Names/Emails (allowed and supported by the Mailserver) for one Account (SMTP/POP) works as follows (account1 & account3, // comments only for explanation here):

// standard account
user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1");
// points to standard server
user_pref("mail.account.account1.server", "server1");

// create additional account per additional identity
user_pref("mail.account.account3.identities", "id3"); 
// and point to standard server without separate folders
user_pref("mail.account.account3.server", "server1"); 

// list of local and remote accounts
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account1,account2,account3"); 

// preferences & settings for identity of standard account
user_pref("mail.identity.id1....
...

// preferences & settings per additional identity
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.fullName", "Cyberboarder");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.useremail", "cyberboarder@gmx.net");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.bcc_other_list", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.organization", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.reply_to", "");
// use this server to send mail with this identity
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.smtpServer", "smtp1"); user_pref("mail.identity.id3.valid", true);

this works on mozilla 1.0 on WinNT. 
not very familiar for a common user, but at least a way his computerfreak can help him...
Marking nsbeta1 because this is a popular requested feature.
Keywords: nsbeta1
*** Bug 166183 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
See also bug 166293 "RFE: Could identities be tied to namespaces instead of
servers?"
*** Bug 167114 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: 166293
Hmm.. I tried to add an identity both using #37 and #38, with no luck.. I am
running 1.1. on RH Linux 7.3

Any help would be apreciated.
*** Bug 154408 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
BTW the "automatic reply with the address this message was sent to" could in
large part be solved by being able to give each folder a default identity.
*** Bug 180186 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 65403 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Another workaround: Create add'l news accounts - there isn't quite as much junk 
to enter.
(Also, Re. the original workaround: WinXP users: Re. the editing of prefs.js, in
Additional Comment #38 From Mänu Jeremy Schaffner 2002-08-05 15:18 :
prefs.js is typically at
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application 
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\randnum.slt\prefs.js
 It's hard to find, as Search won't normally find it - it's in an un-indexed 
folder.)

Mail triage team: nsbeta1-
Keywords: nsbeta1-
Keywords: nsbeta1
*** Bug 190547 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 190738 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 184131 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: majorbugs
Keywords: mozilla1.0
*** Bug 196419 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 198696 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I think that this is related to bug 87987 regarding making the From field
editable.  What many of us want is a way to reply to and compose messages with
the ability to either add a new from email address for spam protection, or the
ability to control multiple email addresses without typing in the correct
reply-to address each time.

When someone responds to me, I want the composition window to determine if it
can automatically determine where I would like this message coming from.  If I
get an email to service@domain.com, when I respond the from field should
automatically have service@domain.com, and not the default from field that is
used for new messages.  If perhaps they field should be changed, the from of
course would contain a list of the set from identities and the default
from-identity.

I see this working on a per-account basis.  If you have one account it works so
that you can specify your default from address.  You will then have the ability
to add to a list of alternate from addresses.  These will be auto-selected where
possible for auto-replies and forwards but will be set to the default for new
message composition.  I don't think I see any reason to have shared identities
between accounts as I see consolidation of accounts instead if the accounts are
currently used for the same purpose.

Let me know if I'm wrong or if this would work better somewhere else.  I am VERY
interested in getting this functionality added and will contribute my time to do
it as I don't really want to rewrite an email client to just get this feature.
It would be even better if one would be able to set the to/from for folders (as
an add-on to what you just said). Then new email to mailinglists that are
filtered to a specific directory would automatically get the right information.

The same could apply to the multiple service@domain addresses, which would have
to be filtered into seperate folder to work, but that would not be a big hassle
I believe.
> It would be even better if one would be able to set the to/from for folders
> (as an add-on to what you just said). Then new email to mailinglists that
> are filtered to a specific directory would automatically get the right
> information.

This is exactly what bug 166293 is about. I strongly believe that there should
be a concept incorporating this bug here as well as bug 166293 - both are not
strictly dependent, but closely tied together, IMO.

> The same could apply to the multiple service@domain addresses, which would
> have to be filtered into seperate folder to work, but that would not be a big
> hassle I believe.

If we restrit ourself to this (instead of what Steve suggested in comment 56),
means if we do _not_ allow for multiple from-addresses per folder, then it would
even be that a fix for bug 166293 automatically fixes this one here.
Per-folder "from" auto-selection, with manual change possibility, will be
better, imho.
Summary: [Feature] UI for multiple identities per account → UI for multiple identities per account
*** Bug 199844 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 199948 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 200793 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
mass re-assign.
Assignee: racham → sspitzer
*** Bug 208609 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 208819 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is in response to Comment 38. I have the following in my user.js: 

// this is is only a snippet; first four lines set my email addresses, last line
sets my full name (for all identities)
// I figured the format of the last line after seeing what Thudnerbird does to
my user.js when I have multiple identities
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.useremail", "first address");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.useremail", "second address");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.useremail", "third address");
user_pref("mail.identity.id4.useremail", "fourth address");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1,id2,id3,id4.fullName", "Rakhesh Sasidharan");

// linking accounts to identities
user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1");
user_pref("mail.account.account3.identities", "id2");
user_pref("mail.account.account4.identities", "id3");
user_pref("mail.account.account5.identities", "id4");

// linking all accounts to one server (as per Comment 38)
user_pref("mail.account.account1.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account3.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account4.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account5.server", "server1");

I am using the 11JUN windows build of Thunderbird. When I open the compose
window, I am shown the four email addresses fine, but not my username. Is this a
bug with the parsing of "id1,id2,id3,id4"? Is there an alternate way I can
specify preferences common to all identities in one shot? 
user_pref("mail.identity.default.fullName", "Rakhesh Sasidharan");

should do what you want
Thanks Frank. So is the "id1,id2,id3,id4" thingy not supposed to work? Or is it
a known bug? 
ENHANCEMENT REQUEST:

I want to add a hearty *"YES"* to this one.  We use one POP account but take
care of several business and personal entities from it.  Having the ability to
click on the "From" bar list and select from a selection of user-defined
addresses would be GREAT.

Please consider this a very worthwhile enhancement.

Sincerely,

George  Beker
Vice President /
   Director of Communications (pro bono)
The Soho Center
   http://www.child2000.org
   540-923-5012
Blocks: eudora
*** Bug 217990 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
In addition to per-account id lists, the global id list would be nice, too
(although the effect would be almost identical) If there's a separate bug for
that, I'm sorry.
Depends on: 226580
Depends on: 226585
Possible UI:
In Account Manager, in the main pane where the identity is shown editable, just
add a button "Add identity...". If clicked, you get the same fields that are now
inside the "Identity" groupbox, but in a new dialog. At the same time, the
"Identity" groupbox in the main account pane switches to a listbox, listing all
the identities (as "My Name - <me@example.com>") together with "Add...",
"Edit...", "Delete" and "Set as Default" buttons on the left. The SMTP pane
should use the same logic, BTW, i.e. listing the SMTP servers right in the main
pane, not under "Advanced...".
I forgot to mention that I filed
bug 226594 about selecting From address based on To address during reply.
Ben, for SMTP you think of something like my example in bug 202468?
*** Bug 199845 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 194903 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Is bug 215126 effectively a duplicate of this bug?

*** Bug 215126 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Someone please reply: I want to be able to access one nntp server with two
separate identities (meaning to me that I can access either as steve@work.com or
steve@home.com and set up separate accounts for each of these identities, each
with seprate lists of subscribed newsgroups. Is this the proper bug?
No.
*** Bug 233444 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm new to TB development so I was going to look at the UI for this as a starter.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Done any partial work?
(I saw the UI outline from Ben
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44863#c72)
Hardware: PC → All
Sorry for smap, but will it be available in Mozilla 1.7, since the backend
already exists?
No, there isn't even a proposed layout and least of all a patch.
I'm not too optimistic to see a UI even in 1.8.
Attached file draft one (obsolete) — 
Ok, the simple version.
A drop down to choose the identity you want to view and/or edit. Click add to
get an empty mask. To save the new identity, leave the account manager or
switch to another panel (like now when you changed something). Optionally we
could also add an "Apply" button.
Attached image draft two (obsolete) — 
Another version would be something like I proposed for the SMTP panel.
Since we've more data on the main panel, the listing would be much smaller.
Additionally to the current data on the panel we'll need to move the SMTP
option from the server panel because the SMTP server is part of the identity.
Attached file draft three (obsolete) — 
Uh, I didn't take in account that account to identity is a n:n relationship.

The UI has not only to show or enable to select the current choosen identity,
but all assigned to the account.

So a simple drop-down or even listbox aren't the right elements.
If a drop-down of all available identities, it's needed to have marker for
those identities currently attached to the account. Like this:
 * identity1
 * identity2
>  identity3
   identity4
 * identity5

* shows currently attached and > shows the one currently selected and shown
above.


The other way would be a multi column listbox, see draft three.
But as I wrote before, I'm afraid a listbox isn't useable with this little
space.

The checkboxes in the list can not only be used to display the attached status
but also to change the state.
In case of a drop-down we'd need another button "remove".
Christian, Shouldn't the identities have names instead of just listing them by
their associated email addresses?  Half of the account settings are associated
with the identity, not just the email address.  So if you have multiple
identities with the same email address, it would be difficult to tell the
difference between the them.  Also, how do you edit the identities?  I guess you
could just edit the identity information in the account and have it aply to all
uses of that identity, but that is going to be really confusing to the user b/c
the identity information is spread out in the account information and there is
nothing that tells which options are part of the identity and which are part of
the server options.  One could, for instance, change where the draft folder is
one account and not realize that option is part of the identity which happens to
be used in another account.  So then you end up changing them in both accounts
and you are really confused.
Pherhaps in the left tree of the Pref-Dlg:

mail-accoun
 |--Server Settings
 |--Disk Space
 \--Identities
     |--Identity A
     |   |--Copies & Folders
     |   |--Composation & Addressing
     |   |--Return Reciepts
     |   \--Securety
     \--Identity B
         |--Copies & Folders
         |--Composation & Addressing
         |--Return Reciepts
         \--Securety

Gerhard
(In reply to comment #89)

Gerhard, does it follow that there will be more than one place to edit the same
one identity? That sounds a bit confusing as well...
Attached image new am-main screenshot (obsolete) — 
A minimal adjustment to main account panel adding a button called "Other
Identities..." which then generates a new identities window.
Attached image new possible am-identities window (obsolete) — 
One possible solution, alternatively could try and reuse mail/news accounts
settings panel but without the server settings part.
Identities have no names in the backend, IIRC. I'm not sure it makes sense to
add one.

For simplicity, I think it's OK for now to keep identities restricted to one
account in the UI.
Re comment #88.
Giving them names is nice while not as important as for SMTP. I think having the
same mail-address with different other data occurs not so often.

But you're right, I completely forgot that also Copies & Folders a.s.o. is part
of the identity (actually everything except the server settings and disk space).
Ian, doing what you proposed results in the same behaviour/layout I'm currently
trying to remove for SMTP.
I don't think opening a cascade of new windows just for managing identities is
the way to go.

Ben, I agree that it's not that necessary to share identities with different
accounts in the UI. But do multiple for one account now and add sharable
identities later we'd have to redo the UI twice and the users are confused twice.
I'd suggest to completely detach identities and server settings. What I mean is
that in the left tree view you would have settings for servers (server settings,
offline & disk space) and identities (copies & folders, composition and
addressing, return receipts, security). One of the server settings would be the
default identity for this server. There wouldn't be any other limitation as for
which identity you could use for which server.

You would have another button Add Identity... and the button Remove account
would be renamed to 'Remove account or identity' or simply 'Remove'

That was the thing, I wanted to show with my tree, which is located in the "Mail
& Newsgroups Account Settings"-Dialog, not in the Preferences...

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44863#c89
I seem to be missing something: if you want to create an account with brand new
setting (Folders, Server, whatever), that is already possible -- "Create
Account". What is missing is to have, from a single account, multiple "From"
addresses (and name/signature). 

Creating a new identity should be made simple (as opposed to creating a new
account which involves configuring several things). That's the whole point,
isn't it?
> Creating a new identity should be made simple (as opposed to creating a new
> account which involves configuring several things). That's the whole point,
> isn't it?

Yeah, simple is nice, but unfortunately the backend for identities makes it
complicated.  If you want to keep the same backend, most of the account options
are stored in the identities, thus you have to practically configure an entire
account for each identity.

However, it may be worth considering changing the backend.  Most people probably
only want the email address changed per identity, and that would make the gui a
lot simpler.
I honestly think that if creating a new identity is made as complex as creating
a new account, we gain nothing at all. If the backend needs to be changed for
that, so be it...
How about if the compose window simply has these two features:

- You can type in a from address

- It remembers a history of addresses typed in (per account) and presents a
dropdown list of remembered addresses.

Then nothing needs to be configured in preference, settings or anywhere else.

Autocomplete out of the history and perhaps a way to delete oopses from the
history would also be good. 

I don't know what it would take to do that but it sure sounds simpler than all
this identity stuff and would solve my core problems relating to this...

what are the advantages of having this full blow identity thing beyound multiple
from addresses?
(In reply to comment #99)
> However, it may be worth considering changing the backend.  Most people probably
> only want the email address changed per identity, and that would make the gui a
> lot simpler.

Personally, I would want a different signature as well, as although all my mail
is downloaded from one account, I send emails with different addresses and
representing organisations etc.
I like the idea of having a history of typed in FROM email addresses.

Maybe that's a simple solution to a complex problem.

Personally it makes the most sense to me to have all email addresses tied to 
one identity because I literally have one pop3 account and 20-30 virtuser 
entries tied to that pop3 account.

So when I pop my mail it's grabbing mail to multiple email addresses, it only 
makes sense to be able to send mail from multiple email addresses. I want all 
my mail in one place when it's sent so I don't have to search 5 different 
identities.
I think we should focus on the original suggestions set at the top of this bug.
 An identity to most people is a name, an e-mail address (both from and
reply-to), an organization and a signature.  I would also suggest that separate
Sent folders may be desired.  Outside of that, we're simply going to make this
too complex.

It would be easy to get into situations where we say that each identity gets its
own filters and its own view of the Inbox .. and this is going to make it too
complex.  If you stick to the original suggestions, you'll have parity match
with Outlook Express and Eudora, which is all that most people are looking for.
Ok signatures and other stuff are nice too. Been too long since I read this :)

I think maybe another way to avoid a lot of configuration work for the users is
to have the base identity that is set up with the account, and any alternate
identities take on the default values unless otherwised configured.

Thus, my "type it into the from line" suggestion could simply create an identity
on the spot that only overides the name, but could later have a signature or
name or whatnot added.
Re: comment #101
The problem with entering the email address directly in the From field is that
mozilla doesn't know which account you are using.  ie.  what is the outgoing
smtp server?  Where do I put fcc's and drafts? etc..

I would love to see that implemented (in addition to multiple identities), but
you would have to also be able to select the account.  So that would have to be
an additional part of the gui.

If there was a way to select the account seperate from the identity in the
compose window, that would make things easier for the account settings dialog
b/c you wouldn't have to bind multiple identities to each account.  You would
just have to pick the default one per account.

Re: comment #102
Yeah, I agree with you on that.  It should be
email/signature/vcard/name/replyto/organization per identity.  Something like that.
For what it is worth -- this is opinion ONLY -- I have never seen an environment
where an account-spanning identity makes sense.  Every way that I've ever used
it, and every way that I've ever seen it used, identities are tied to accounts.
 In my OPINION separating them is only going to make the work harder and confuse
more people.  I see zero gain.

Naturally someone with different experience than mine could and should lay out
reasons why it would be a good idea.
While we're talking about the sense of multiple identities: Bug 166293 requests
the ability to associate an identity with an folder below an account - for
instance for having different identities for different mailing lists under the
same account.
So i'd definately vote for a full-blown identity administration (we may need to
make it less obvious to not confuse unexperienced users), since it would ease
166293 later on.
> Identities have no names in the backend, IIRC. I'm not sure it makes sense to
> add one.

They do:
  user_pref("mail.identity.<identity>.identityName", "<name>");
is respected at least in the "From:" dropdown in the compose window - which is
quite useful when you really have multiple identities base on the same email
address.
Actually after reading some of these recent posts...

Now that I think about it, the way outlook express does it (not that we should 
be following the lead necessarily) makes an identity a completely different 
user. New inboxes, new email addresses, new filters, new everything.

In my opinion that's a logical way to do it.

So only one identity is available at any given time.
> Now that I think about it, the way outlook express does it (not that we should 
> be following the lead necessarily) makes an identity a completely different 
> user. New inboxes, new email addresses, new filters, new everything.

No, please let's not do this. The strength of Mozilla's identity concept is that
you can freely organize your mails - including having only one Inbox, if you're
not really interested in the fact that mails reach or leave you via different
providers -, but still have a lot of flexibility with the other settings.

(btw: bcc is also extremly useful as per-identity setting)
re #107
-------
I use multiple identies over multiple accounts.
I have 3 generic email addresses, which I use for personal, mailing list, and 
role-based address for software I maintian.

I also have a couple of news servers and a imap server where mail comes in from.
Now each server has a primary identity that I use mainly.

why not do what evolution does? just have a method of adding identities which
aren't tied to a mailbox at all (ie.. just add a email address)
How do Eudora and Kmail handle this?
re #107
-------
I use multiple identies over multiple accounts.
I have 3 generic email addresses, which I use for personal, mailing list, and 
role-based address for software I maintian.

I also have a couple of news servers and a imap server where mail comes in from.
Now each server has a primary identity that I use mainly.

why not do what evolution does? just have a method of adding identities which
aren't tied to a mailbox at all (ie.. just add a email address)
As far as UI examples go, I'm not sure if Evolution still does it this way, but they used to let you specify 
an e-mail account and then pick either POP, IMAP, or None as the incoming mail source.  That would let 
you use the current account setup.  Each identity is a separate account but some of them just don't 
have incoming mail sources.
Yeah, I think Tanner is right.  If people really need the identities to span
most of the account options, it would make sense to just have to make seperate
accounts instead that don't have incomming servers and thus don't show up in the
left plane of the messenger window.

Perhaps it would even make sense to have the choice of either making a "fake"
account to work like an identity with lots of options, or create an identity
that could be attached to any account and that only specifies the
email/name/signature ect...
I say definatelly allow you to type in a from address no matter what identity
backend you have... 
There is already bug #87987 about editable Form header. 
(In reply to comment #116)
> Yeah, I think Tanner is right.  If people really need the identities to span
> most of the account options, it would make sense to just have to make seperate
> accounts instead that don't have incomming servers and thus don't show up in the
> left plane of the messenger window.

Right. The current work-around by creating "fake" accounts which have all
folders defined to be on the main account and so one, but all server settings
disabled creates a "nasty" entry in the left panel.

> Perhaps it would even make sense to have the choice of either making a "fake"
> account to work like an identity with lots of options, or create an identity
> that could be attached to any account and that only specifies the
> email/name/signature ect...

To fit all needs you'd propably need all the options for each identity but as
someone already suggested taking defaults from the main identity where possible.

Another UI example. I use Quickbooks Pro for some of my accounting (Trying to 
switch to GNUCash but not quite there yet.) and when you type in something it 
doesn't recognize in certain fields (such as client or vendor) and try to save 
the record, it will pop up a wizard asking you what you want to do setup, 
quickadd or cancel.

So maybe quickadd could add it to the current identity immediately and setup 
would give you a wizard or more options.
Attached file possible composer layout (obsolete) — 
Here is an example of what it would look like to be able to select the identity
and account seperately in the composer (as well as being able to edit the
identity address directly).

I think this would be the ideal way to do this.  This is assuming that the
identity only includes the name/email/sig etc, and that the rest of the options
are associated with the account, and that you will be able to create accounts
that don't show up in the messenger plane.
I think the idea of the current design is that the identity carries everything
that the composer needs. An account is merely keeping references to one incoming
server plus one or more identities, accounts don't have properties on their own.
Additionally, there are smtp servers, which are referenced by identities (or the
identity uses the default smtp server).

<http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/arch/accountmanager.html>

Before you overthrow the whole idea that the app has about accounts, servers and
identities, I'd suggest to just build a sensible UI for the current backend for
now. I happen to think that it's a decent design, but we'll see.

BTW: Re copying properties: What if I want to change it later?
(In reply to comment #122)
> I think the idea of the current design is that the identity carries everything
> that the composer needs.

No.  That's not true.  Many of the settings are not part of the identity, such
as the outgoing server that will be used.


> An account is merely keeping references to one incoming
> server plus one or more identities, accounts don't have properties on their own.

All server and identity properties are properties for the account.  Notice that
the even the name of an account is technically listed as a server property, yet
it's obviously meant to be considered an account property.


> Additionally, there are smtp servers, which are referenced by identities (or the
> identity uses the default smtp server).

No, the smtp server is a server property, not an identity property.


> Before you overthrow the whole idea that the app has about accounts, servers and
> identities, I'd suggest to just build a sensible UI for the current backend for
> now.

You make it sound like that's the easier solution.  But in reality I don't think
there is an easy way to build a sensible UI for the current backend.  You would
have to drastically change the gui to make it work and even then it's probably
not going to make a lot of sense to people.  If you change the backend slightly,
it will require very minimal gui changes and it will be a lot easier to implement.


Opps!  The smtp server is linked to the identity.  It's not part of the server
prefs.  My bad.
I agree to Ben - we should focus on the original idea of this bug, creating an
UI for the current backend. Everything else should be a separate bug, though to
keep in mind when designing the UI for this one.

Personally, I like the idea of attachment 144700 [details] best. Though, we should try to
prevent the dialog box cascades, which implies redesigning the am-identities
window (as suggested in attachment 144701 [details]) so that it's self-contained enough
for complete identity management.

I think this would be a good compromise between easy access to the identity
management, and not confusing the users who don't (want to) know about
identities. (As much as I like the layout suggested in comment #89, I suppose
it's too confusing for too many people.)
Whatever is decided upon, I strongly urge everyone to consider comment #46.

>>
BTW the "automatic reply with the address this message was sent to" could in
large part be solved by being able to give each folder a default identity.
<<

To me this would be a huge improvement over any other email client that I'm 
aware of. Especially with the invention of services and configurations like 
http://www.spamgourmet.com/.

For me personally I've accidently replied to mailing lists from time to time 
with the wrong email address and I'm sure that's where some of my spam 
originates from.

Ultimately regardless of how identities are handled. I just have three goals...
1. All of my mail regardless of email address or pop3 account shares the same 
folders.
2. I want to be able to compose quickly and easily from any of my email 
addresses.
3. When I hit reply I want it to automatically use the email address that the 
email was sent to.
Attachment #144403 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #144349 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #144348 - Attachment is obsolete: true
(In reply to comment #126)
> Whatever is decided upon, I strongly urge everyone to consider comment #46.

That is a seperate bug: bug #166293
(In reply to comment #125)
> I agree to Ben - we should focus on the original idea of this bug, creating an
> UI for the current backend.

The orginal idea of this bug says nothing about creating a ui for the backend.


> Personally, I like the idea of attachment 144700 [details] best. Though, we should try to
> prevent the dialog box cascades, which implies redesigning the am-identities
> window (as suggested in attachment 144701 [details]) so that it's self-contained enough
> for complete identity management.

I would like to see your self-contained complete identity management window. 
Could you please design one and put it as an attachment so that I can see what
you are talking about?  I just don't see how it can reasonably be done.


Do you agree with what I sugested in attachment 144786 [details]?  That is important to
keep in mind b/c it changes whether or not you design your gui to actually
attach multiple identities to an account or if it only sets a default identity.
 It's also the only way (I think) to fix bug #87987 b/c you need to specify the
account seperately to do that.
> The orginal idea of this bug says nothing about creating a ui for the backend.

Hmm? subject = "UI for multiple identities per account", also see comment 15

> I would like to see your self-contained complete identity management window. 
> Could you please design one and put it as an attachment so that I can see what
> you are talking about?  I just don't see how it can reasonably be done.

quick shot:

Use the following identities with this account

+-----------------------------+-+    +---------+
| [X] Identity 1              |^|    |   Add   |
| [ ] Identity 2              | |    +---------+
| [X] Identity 3              | |    +---------+
| [ ] Identity 4              | |    | Remove  |
| [ ] Identity 5              |v|    +---------+
+-----------------------------+-+

+- Properties of the selected identity --------+
|                                              |
| (like today in the server settings )         |
.                                              .
.                                              .
|                                              |
+----------------------------------------------+

                           +--------+ +--------+
                           |   OK   | | Cancel |
                           +--------+ +--------+

> Do you agree with what I sugested in attachment 144786 [details]?  That is important to
> keep in mind b/c it changes whether or not you design your gui to actually
> attach multiple identities to an account or if it only sets a default
> identity.

I think that what you suggested there really is a different bug, so no matter
whether I like it or not, I don't think it belongs into this bug here.

> It's also the only way (I think) to fix bug #87987 b/c you need to specify
> the account seperately to do that.

Again, this is a separate bug, IMO.

I don't see that we need to fix these alltogether, I think we should do one step
at a time - keeping the next steps in mind, of course, so we don't have to redo
things later on.
(In reply to comment #129)
> > The orginal idea of this bug says nothing about creating a ui for the backend.
> 
> Hmm? subject = "UI for multiple identities per account", also see comment 15

Notice that neither the subject nor comment #15 say anything about creating a ui
for the *backend*

The picture that you drew (in comment #129) has it so that the "Properties of
the selected identity" has server settings in them.  The server settings are
supposed to be separate from the identity.  If it was the server settings, then
*maybe* you could cram them in the little box you have, but probably not.  The
actual identity settings are basically all of the other options which span
multiple option windows.  There is no way you could fit them in that box.


> > Do you agree with what I sugested in attachment 144786 [details]?  That is important to
> > keep in mind b/c it changes whether or not you design your gui to actually
> > attach multiple identities to an account or if it only sets a default
> > identity.
> 
> I think that what you suggested there really is a different bug, so no matter
> whether I like it or not, I don't think it belongs into this bug here.

I know it's a different bug, I'm just saying that it needs to be taken into
consideration when designing the gui for this bug.


I think you're right, btw, about not changing the backend.  At least not in the
way that I suggested in comment #99.  Ben's comment #122 made things a little
bit clearer to me (despite the fact that I was disagreeing with him).  I wasn't
realizing that the identities contained only the information needed to send an
email.  When you select the From email address in the messengercompose window,
you are actually selecting from the list of identities.  It's not a list of
accounts, or accounts + identities or anything like that.  It's just the
identities, which is a little confusing b/c it has the account name on there
even though the identity can be attached to more than one account.  It will only
list each identity once and if the identity is attached to multiple accounts
then I guess it just picks the first account name.

I propose that identities should be given their own names separate from the
accounts.  This should be pretty easy to do.  Servers have their own names. 
Identities should have prefs entry just like servers:
user_pref("mail.identity.identity.name", "MyIdentity");

Also there is the issue of multiple identities being attached to a single
account.  I'm starting to realize that this is actually kind of pointless from
the user's perspective.  The only reason why you would attach an identity to an
account is so that when you are replying to an email from a particular account,
messengercompose knows to default to that identity.  Adding an extra identity to
that account doesn't do *anything*.  It just confuses the user.  I think
(although I could be wrong about this) that the only reason why the backend
supports attaching multiple identities to the same account is that identities
have to be attached to *something* or they won't get listed in the
messengercompose window.  If their are more identities than accounts you have to
have some accounts with multiple identities.  So it really doesn't matter what
account they are attached to.  As long as they are attached to *something* they
will show up.  I think that either the code should be changed so that the
identities show up whether or not they are attached to accounts, or the extra
identities should be randomly attached to an account under the covers without
causing confusion to the user.
> Also there is the issue of multiple identities being attached to a single
> account. I'm starting to realize that this is actually kind of pointless from
> the user's perspective.

I don't think so. If you send an email with a certain from/replyto address,
you'll get replies to that address, and they will end up at a certain account.

It is only pointless from a *technical* perspective, and that only because of
the current internet email infrastructure, which separates servers for incoming
and outgoing mail. But that shouldn't be all that much of a concern for users
(advanced users, however, know that and take advantage of it).
(In reply to comment #131)
> > Also there is the issue of multiple identities being attached to a single
> > account. I'm starting to realize that this is actually kind of pointless from
> > the user's perspective.
> 
> I don't think so. If you send an email with a certain from/replyto address,
> you'll get replies to that address, and they will end up at a certain account.

Right, and that happens whether or not the identity is attached to that account.
 So why do you need to attach it?


> It is only pointless from a *technical* perspective, and that only because of
> the current internet email infrastructure, which separates servers for incoming
> and outgoing mail. But that shouldn't be all that much of a concern for users
> (advanced users, however, know that and take advantage of it).

Hmm... You have lost me.  How exactly do we (as advanced users) take advantage
the fact that the extra identities are attached to the account instead of being
separate.
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm getting a bit confused.

Maybe it's time to define in layman terms exactly what each piece is and come 
to consensus on it? (Or maybe I'm the only one confused)

Here's what I understand each piece to be, someone fill in the gaps or correct 
me as I'll probably be way off.

Identity: One or more accounts that share the same folders, filtering rules, 
address book. A second identity could be setup for users that want to keep 
their email accounts seperate. So if I had a work email address and a home 
email address and I never wanted the two to mix, I could setup seperate 
identities, folders and accounts for each.

Account: An email address, a signature, POP3/IMAP server settings for that 
email address. If you have multiple email addresses that tie to the same 
POP3/IMAP account, you add one account per email address and disable checking 
mail on that account. It would then solely be used to bring up a list of 
addresses in the FROM drop down.

Am I way off? Is there more to it?
> Am I way off?

Yeah, pretty much.

An account has a server and one or more identities.  The only thing that differs
between accounts is which servers and identities it is attached to.

server - includes all of the options for the incoming server
identity - includes all options not related to the incoming server.
So Account is a group of servers. Are mail folders, filters, and address book 
shared on the Account level also? What other settings are set on the Account 
level?

A Server is a group of Identities. I setup one or more Servers and attach it 
to an Account. (Server name, server type (pop3/imap) Server IP/domain name, 
username, password, anything else?)

Then I create an Identity for each email address I have tied to a Server 
(pop3/imap account). Email address, signature, what else?
See <http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/arch/accountmanager.html>, which I've also
added to the URL field of this bug for documentation about identities, accounts,
servers, etc.
URL: http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/arch/...
(In reply to comment #135)
> So Account is a group of servers.

No. An account has only one server and one or more identities.


> Are mail folders, filters, and address book 
> shared on the Account level also? What other settings are set on the Account 
> level?

There are no settings associated with the account.


> A Server is a group of Identities.

No.  A server has incoming server settings.  An identity has all the other
settings.  They are not linked directly to eachother, but they might be both
linked to the same account.  You can see exactly which settings are associated
with which by looking at Appendix A in the account manager API page that Dan
mentioned.

Here's where I'm confused...

>> So Account is a group of servers.
> No. An account has only one server and one or more identities.

If an Account only has one and only one server attached to it, why are the
server settings seperate at all?
> The server settings are supposed to be separate from the identity.  If it was
> the server settings, then *maybe* you could cram them in the little box you
> have, but probably not.

You're right. I wasn't really aware of the fact how much of the settings really
belong to the identity - no chance to put them into one window.

> [From: in composer]
> It's just the
> identities, which is a little confusing b/c it has the account name on there
> even though the identity can be attached to more than one account.

Perhaps it's Yet Another Other Bug, but IMO this confusion should be fixed while
passing.

> Identities should have prefs entry just like servers:
> user_pref("mail.identity.identity.name", "MyIdentity");

see comment 109. This preference is in the backend longer than the account names
appear in the From: dropdown (long time ago, it were only the email addresses),
it's just nowhere available in the UI. At the time I discovered it, the From:
dropdown was the only place respecting it, not sure if this changed in the meantime.

> I'm starting to realize that this is actually kind of pointless from the
> user's perspective. ...

I tend to agree: Attaching identities to an account sounds like a "make them
available *somewhere*" workaround to me. Though, I doubt that somebody
volunteers to rewrite the backend to change this :). Even more since I don't
think changing the backend is necessary, it gives use the flexibility we need,
if we want, we could probably chose a completely different paradigm to present
to the user.
> If an Account only has one and only one server attached to it, why are the
> server settings seperate at all?

Servers and Accounts are 1-to-n: you could use the same server for different
accounts, at least in the backend. (and yes, you could continue asking "why" here :)
>> If you send an email with a certain from/replyto address,
>> you'll get replies to that address, and they will end up at a
>> certain account.
>
> that happens whether or not the identity is attached to that account.
> So why do you need to attach it?

Because it means they are *logically* related, so it makes sense to couple them
in the UI, too, not to make them completely independent. Mom doesn't even
differentiate between the Verizon mailbox she has (incoming server) and its
corresponding email address (identity) and the Verizon SMTP server, so don't
confuse her.
Plus, this information might be useful for some advanced features (picking right
From automatically etc.).

> You have lost me.

You misunderstood me, I meant we take advantage of the mailboxes/incoming
servers being technically *separate* from the From address and the outgoing
server, that's where this bug originates from, while most people aren't even
aware of it.
Re: comment #139
> see comment 109. This preference is in the backend longer than the account names
> appear in the From: dropdown (long time ago, it were only the email addresses),
> it's just nowhere available in the UI. At the time I discovered it, the From:
> dropdown was the only place respecting it, not sure if this changed in the
meantime.

Where did you see that pref?  I don't have
mail.idenitity.<identity>.identityName in my pref.js file.  I tried adding it
and it doesn't seem to do anything.  The name that shows up in my From: dropdown
is the email address and the account name which is stored in
mail.server.<server>.name.


Re: comment #141
> Mom doesn't even
> differentiate between the Verizon mailbox she has (incoming server) and its
> corresponding email address (identity) and the Verizon SMTP server, so don't
> confuse her.

Well if that's all she has then there is no confusion either way.  I'm not
complaining about having an identity attached to an account, I'm complaining
about having *multiple* identities attached to an account.  If mom happens to
have more identities than she has accounts for some reason, then she's *really*
going to get confused when she doesn't attach one of them to an account, and
then it doesn't show up on her From: dropdown.  Where'd it go?...  It's quite silly.
(In reply to comment #141)
> Plus, this information might be useful for some advanced features (picking right
> From automatically etc.).

Oh yeah, I forgot to respond to this.  Picking the right From automatically
happens because you have a default identity attached to the account.  Attaching
extra identities does not change which identity gets automatically selected in
the From field.  It's always going to be the default one.
> Where did you see that pref?  I don't have
> mail.idenitity.<identity>.identityName in my pref.js file.  I tried adding it
> and it doesn't seem to do anything.

http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mailnews/base/util/nsMsgIdentity.cpp#349

I have for instance a 
  user_pref("mail.identity.id1.identityName", "foo");
in my prefs.js, and it works perfectly ...
I hadn't thought about the "confusing Mom" arguement. I think it's a really 
good one though. Even though we can do all this setup for more advanced 
situations, there should be some sort of simple wizard that creates 
account/server/identity in one run.
(In reply to comment #144)
> http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mailnews/base/util/nsMsgIdentity.cpp#349

Hmm... that's odd.  I see that a GetIdentityName function is defined, but I
don't see it used anywhere. (see freetext search:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/search?string=GetIdentityName)

I don't understand why it is working for you.  Where is that function actually
used?  I'm running with the current nigthly build.

> I have for instance a 
>   user_pref("mail.identity.id1.identityName", "foo");
> in my prefs.js, and it works perfectly ...

I have user_pref("mail.identity.id1.identityName", "ID1"); and it does nothing.
> I have user_pref("mail.identity.id1.identityName", "ID1"); and it does nothing.

ug!  I'm so stupid.  On further inspection I actually had indentityName instead
of identityName in my prefs file.  It works now.. somehow.
@all: Sorry for spamming this bug even further.

Guys, please look at the long list of cc'ed people and think twice before you
post a message to this bug. Bugzilla is no forum, there are newsgroups/mailing
lists, private mails, and IRC for these discussions. Feel free to post a summary
of your discussions here. Otherwise this bug will be lost as just another one of
these monster bugs which nobody bothers to read completely.
I think it would be useful to have also multiple pop3 accounts with only one inbox, which is currently also impossible.

I think the model should look like the "accounts" would be a set of folders (like it is now), each account can have 0 to N POP3 (or 1 IMAP) servers that will fetch mails to that account's inbox or any other account's folder (pop3 mserver would be identities for RECEIVING mail). And, independently of the servers there should be also 0 to M identities for SENDING email - which would consist of name, email, signature, smtp server, and other sending related settings .... and they should be independent from pop3 servers (receiving)

This scheme would allow quite a good flexibility and solve many people's complaints on the identity system in thunderbird/mozillamail ...

And you won't need to make account with fake pop3 servers just to use it's From: address or similar ugly tricks

So you have (1 to K) accounts, each of them (0 to M) sending and (0 to N) receiving profiles.

Would it be acceptable solution to this bug?
(In reply to comment #149)
> I think it would be useful to have also multiple pop3 accounts
> with only one inbox, which is currently also impossible.
Filters can be used with current version to acheive this, but an
option to set the receive mailbox, like there is for the sent
mailbox would be nicer.
Maybe should look for/create a bug for this ehancement ?

(In reply to comment #149)
That is a separate bug.  See bug 30057.  There is really no dependency between
that bug and this bug.


As a side note, I'm currently working on code for the multiple identities gui. 
I hope to have some patch available next week sometime for you guys to check out.
Here is an update on my status.  I'm running into a problem where I can't change
the default identity for an account.  I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that
the defaultIdentity attribute in nsIMsgAccount can only be used to set the
default identity to an identity that is already attached to the account.  This
is fine, but in order to attach an identity, I'd have to use addIdentity() which
seems to be broken when used on accounts that already have an identity.  (would
somebody care to double-check that for me?)  If it actually is broken, a
seperate bug would need to be opened for that.  Also, removeIdentity() is not
implemented.
Attachment #144786 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attached patch proposed solution (obsolete) — — Splinter Review 
I've decided to put this bug on hold at the moment.  I've attached a patch
which includes my current progress.  There are some problems with the account
manager API that need to be resolved, and this patch is by no means complete. 
Some of the buttons don't work, but it should give you guys an idea of what I
am trying to do.  It is an attempt at a simple, elegant solution to the problem
without replicating a whole bunch of preference windows.  Does this type of
solution seem reasonable to you guys?

BTW, I'm working on Bug #87987 right now which is (somewhat) related to this
bug.  I just created a preliminary patch for it.
Nathan, addIdentity is broken in that it is not adding the new identitykey if
there is already one associated with the account. I presume what the code is
trying to do is check to see if the new identitykey matches any of the
identitykeys already in the mail.account.m_accountKey.identities pref. For some
reason foundIdentity always becomes true with a none empty identity list so
appending the key never happens.

The relevant code is at
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgAccount.cpp#337
Sorry for spam, but any news? This is most wamted feature...
this is a thunderbird 0.7 feature requirement
Assignee: sspitzer → mscott
these dialogs are modal. I just spread them out for the screen shot. verbage
text subject to change
Attachment #144700 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #144701 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #145828 - Attachment is obsolete: true
the spec can be found at:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/identities.html
URL: http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/arch/... → http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thund...
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Target Milestone: Future → mozilla1.8alpha
Still to do:

1) Add support for deleting identities (will probably implement before landing
2) Add support for making an identity a default identity for the account (will
probably punt and future this feature)
Scott,
  Would there be a way of managing the extra identities other attributes such
as folder and smtp settings with your proposal?

Also line 376 of nsMsgAccount.cpp in AddIdentity needs to be changed from
	if (testKey.Equals(token))
to
	if (testKey.Equals(key))

so it fixes it to add identities to an existing account properly.

I was thinking of using the existing tree to have the non-default identities
appear after the outgoing server branch. Use the add/remove buttons on the main
pane for identities as well as accounts and then just have the other/manage
identities button for adding/removing associations with accounts.

I've done most of the work connected with the add account/identity button, but
not had time to get my head round the rdf/nsAccountManagerDS stuff which I was
planning to tackle before completing the rest of the xul/js work.
If possible, plase also take the bug 166293 (ability to tie identities to folder
name space hierarchies) into account when figuring out the best UI approach.
Thank you!
Attached patch updated patch (obsolete) — — Splinter Review 
this patch has some more polish.

It also includes support for deleting identities which the previous patch did
not.

Still needs some polish including:
1) Don't allow the user to dismiss the new identity dialog if he/she did not
enter  at least an email address for the identity
Attachment #147931 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attached patch updated patch (obsolete) — — Splinter Review 
This new version of the patch adds an alert if the user attempts to create a
new identity without specifying an email address.
Attachment #147950 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Comment on attachment 148272 [details] [diff] [review]
updated patch

This patch is ready for review. There is one last outstanding issue that we
aren't addressing. Currently when you create a new identity, it inherits the
properties of the default identity (including the default folders for sent,
drafts, etc). 

If you then change those values for the default identity, the new identity does
not track those changes and still points to the old one. 

I'd rather not have individual identity UI for changing folders. It'd be best
if the identities could easily track changes to the default for these
particular settings so they are always in synch.

In short, the remaining work:

1) Consider adding support for changing the default identity on an account

2) Figure out a solution for drafts/templates, etc. for the non default
identities.

3) Adding polish to the UI. 

These issues will be tracked in separate bugs.
Attachment #148272 - Flags: superreview?(bienvenu)
a few nits: (sr=bienvenu modulo the nits)

+	var identities = gAccount.identities;
+  var identitiesCount = identities.Count();
 
looks like a tab in there and below:

+  var identityKey = gIdentityListBox.selectedItems[0].getAttribute("key");
+	var identities = gAccount.identities;

+  if (gIdentityListBox.selectedItems.length <= 0) 
+    return;
+  openIdentityEditor(getSelectedIdentity());

could just be 
+  if (gIdentityListBox.selectedItems.length > 0) 
+    openIdentityEditor(getSelectedIdentity());

double ;; here:
+    identity.fullName = document.getElementById('identity.fullName').value;;

here, you can move the decl of rv to where it's first assigned...
+  nsresult rv;
+  NS_ENSURE_TRUE(m_identities, NS_ERROR_FAILURE);
+  NS_ENSURE_ARG_POINTER(aIdentity);
+
+  PRUint32 count =0;
+  m_identities->Count(&count);
+
+  NS_ENSURE_TRUE(count > 1, NS_ERROR_FAILURE); // you must have at least one
identity
+
+  nsXPIDLCString key;
+  rv = aIdentity->GetKey(getter_Copies(key));
Attachment #148272 - Flags: superreview?(bienvenu) → superreview+

        Attachment #148272 -
        Attachment is obsolete: true

    
    

    
  
Comment on attachment 148338 [details] [diff] [review]
updated patch with review comments

carrying forward the sr

        Attachment #148338 -
        Flags: superreview+

    
    

    
  

      
      
      
      

        Attached patch
          
          
        updated path
        — 
          — Splinter Review
      

    


  
I forgot to include the jar.mn changes in the previous diff.

        Attachment #148338 -
        Attachment is obsolete: true

    
    

    
  
fixed

We'll spin up and track follow up issues for setting a default identity,
changing drafts/templates, etc. and any general polish issues in separate bugs.
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 20 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED

    
    

    
  
Thank you very much for this UI, nice work!
Blocks: 243767

    
  
No longer blocks: 243767

    
    

    
  
Adding bug 235762 which handles sending of mails from an identity. Actually we
don't use the account specific SMTP server and mail folders.
Depends on: 235762

    
    

    
  
Identities, which have an email-address with an "_" (e.g.
Alexander_Ihrig@no.spam), do NOT show the email-address in the multiple
identities support dialog.

In normal case you should see this:
Alexander Ihrig <Alexander_Ihrig@no.spam>

But only this will be shown:
Alexander Ihrig

Thunderbird build 0.6+ 20040520

    
    

    
  
(In reply to comment #172)
> Identities, which have an email-address with an "_" (e.g.
> Alexander_Ihrig@no.spam), do NOT show the email-address in the multiple
> identities support dialog.

WFM version 0.6+ (20040520) by using bugzilla_test@hskupin .info

Alex have you tried a fresh profile to verify this behavior?

    
    

    
  
Sorry, I've been using my existing profile.

Only OLD identities don't show the email-address with "_". New created
identities show the address as expected.

But I can't see an important differece in prefs.js?! 

No JS-errors.

    
  
Whiteboard: fixed-aviary1.0

    
    

    
  
*** Bug 245004 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

    
    

    
  
*** Bug 245262 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

    
    

    
  
I can't seem to find documentation for this UI. Shouldn't it be included in the
Help file?

Prog.

    
    

    
  
documentation bug: bug 246070

    
    

    
  
*** Bug 254422 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Product: Browser → Seamonkey

    
    

    
  
*** Bug 272835 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

    
    

    
  
*** Bug 228039 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

    
  
No longer blocks: majorbugs
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Whiteboard: fixed-aviary1.0 → verified-aviary1.0

          You need to log in
          before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
        






  

    
  







  

    

      
Attachment

      

      
      
      
      
    

    

      

        

          

            
General

            

              Creator: 



            

            
Created: 

            
Updated: 

            
Size: