117036 - File->Work Offline changes to Work Online. Should check instead.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Backend, defect)

Description

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

File->Work Offline changes to Work Online. Should add a check instead.

It's quite hard to notice a differance between Work Offline and Work Online, a
check stands out much better.

Linux 0.9.7.

Comment 1

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

offline

Comment 2

[David :Bienvenu]

The current behaviour is what is in the spec. Cc'ing Jennifer to see if thinks
the spec should be changed. If not, I'll mark this invalid.

Comment 3

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

Actually, I filed this for Nav and MEANT it. Mailnews offline stuff is
differant, if it's broken too, it can have a seperate bug (though I thought my
original query already showed a Mailnews offline menu display issue).

Which spec are you refering to, mailnews'? Who owns the Nav spec? I thought it
was being reworked (it needs it, bad).

Comment 4

[David :Bienvenu]

I didn't mean to imply you didn't "MEAN" it. But we don't just change things
because someone has an opinion and files a bug, even though that might cut down
on a lot of yelling in bugzilla notifications. We go through the UI owners and
the specification process. In any case, Mail/News and Browser should have the
same behaviour.

Comment 5

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

To clarify, what I meant by the word "MEANT", was I filed this on Nav, yet
sairuh changed it to Mailnews. Mailnews has a whole menu system for Offline, and
is obviously quite differant. I filed it as the UI default assignee (mpt) agreed
it should check, not rename itself. No other menu item works this way.

Comment 6

[David :Bienvenu]

OK, I understand. However, the menus should still work the same in Mail/News as
Navigator, even though one menu item is at the top level and the other is a
sub-menu item. The product might have been changed to Mail/News because it has
an offline component, and Navigator might not. I would say this should just be
an FE bug and be done with it.

Comment 7

[jglick]

In the case of a Toolbar, or formatting function (Bold, Italics, etc.) where 
you really are turning something off/on, I complete agree a checkmark is 
more appropriate. But in this case, you really aren't turning the Offline 
feature on and off, which is what a checkmark implies, but initiating the action 
of "Work/Go Offline" or "Work/Go Online". I think toggling the text is more 
descriptive in this case. 

Hence, I would recommend marking this WONTFIX. 

Comment 8

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

> you really aren't turning the Offline feature on and off

Sure you are. Offline is a special state, where many functions aren't available.
I understand your argument of it being more like a toggle button, but this is a
menu, so you can't do that. I don't think most users look at the modes as equal,
but of offline being a special OPTION to turn on, to force use of cache. All
'offline' seems to do in Nav anyway is provide a quick way to set "Check is
cache is current: Never". In mailnews it might be more. I don't do mailnews.

In any case, if we can't check it and make it look like every other toggle in
every other menu I've ever seen, we NEED to reword it.

Work Offline
Work On line

Who the heck can notice the differance, especially in a menu font. Two
characters out of twelve change.

Comment 9

[David :Bienvenu]

if you're curious about the online/offline state, you have a visual indicator in
the lower right hand corner of the window that is perfectly clear. The menu item
is not meant primarily as a visual indicator, but as a command. Offline does a
lot more in mail/news, and as I've said before, they menu items should be
consistent across the products.

Comment 10

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

side note: i moved this over to mailnews/offline because, afaik, i don't believe
anyone in trudelle's group [xp apps] works on the offline feature. i had thought
that offline stuff belonged in either mailnews/offline [even though it appears
across applications], or perhaps networking... bienvenu/gchan, jglick and/or
trudelle would prolly know the best location[s] for offline bugs! :)

Comment 11

[Wesha]

Note: somehow, the checkmark _made_ it through; at least I see the
"\/ Work Offline" in 2002111108...

Comment 12

[Jeremy M. Dolan]

Oh, sure. When I suggest it, it's a bad idea and WONTFIX. Some NSCPite must have
suggested it, and suddenly it's a good idea.

Comment 13

[David :Bienvenu]

It looks to me like someone went and changed it without the mail ui person's
approval. I find the current UI very confusing - what the heck does the check
mark mean? I want a command that says "work online".

Comment 14

[grylchan]

Ok Let me set the record straight.
Currently in the trunk, you are correct as file|work offline
has checked/unchecked behavior. It is not this way in the branch.

This bug was marked as a won't fix because the module owners
didn't want the change.

Well it turns out a someone did fix and land the
'check mark' stuff for offline without permission from the
module owners. See bug 158976 for details. It will be probably backed
out in the future when the module owners get some free time.

I hope this clears the confusion.