513515 - [Tabmail] Need configurable default mode for startup

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[Karsten Düsterloh]

*spinoff from bug 460960 comment 112*

We have a structural problem: 
- we already *do* store the last pane config, but 
- showing account central means message pane is hidden, thus
=> on next startup, message pane is hidden.
We don't remember the last URI/message URI, but open the default Inbox, but
with the last (wrong?) layout...

This might or might not hurt user expectations:
(1) "I want SM to remember my last folder/message/layout"
(2) "I want SM to always start with default Inbox and full pane layout"

Comment 1

[Philip Chee]

How about "I want SM to remember my last folder/message/layout, UNLESS it is the account central view". Or when storing the pane config, look for the most recent 3pane tab that isn't showing account central.

Comment 2

[Karsten Düsterloh]

(In reply to comment #1)
> How about "I want SM to remember my last folder/message/layout, UNLESS it is
> the account central view".

Sounds a bit too complex, imo - why should we exempt just this?
Furthermore, there is no "the" account central, it's account-dependent.

> Or when storing the pane config, look for the most
> recent 3pane tab that isn't showing account central.

There isn't always a last recent open 3pane. Or do you really mean to remember some tab's layout you may have closed a while ago just because it had ... well, what? What *is* a 3pane, actually?
Remember the last layout of a tab with a folder pane?
Or does a thread pane suffice? Or do we need both?

SMTabMail doesn't really differ between "folder" or "message" tabs, it's all just some start configuration - hit F9 and Shift-F8 in a "message" tab and it's a "folder" tab...

Comment 3

[rsx11m]

One also has to distinguish between *re*-opening the mail/news window and the first-time startup configuration. A user may expect the same tabs and layout being displayed when closing the mail window but revisiting it later during the same session (e.g., doing some quick browsing inbetween), but would expect to see the default layout when shutting down the application and starting it new.

Currently, in both scenarios, a single tab is shown, which appears to be the first one of the set viewed when mail/news was last closed.

Comment 4

[Rob S]

I would like to have an option where I can set up a permanent tab for each of my 5 accounts, each displaying all of the mailboxes within that account only, and possibly tabs for mailboxes within accounts.

I can put tabs for my accounts now, but the folder pane display is the same in each window, so If I hit my account1 tab, and display the account1 mailboxes in there, and then tab back to account2, it also now displays the open folders for account1

So to be clear one account per tab, and no other accounts accessible from that tab.  You would see the other accounts in the folder pane, but you would need to open a tab for them to see the contents.

The present sidebar in the 3-pane view does most of that already, except if you have many mailboxes in each account, or many newsgroups within each, then the sidebar view becomes very long, and you need to scroll up and down. Tabs for each account could eliminate that.