13818 - UI to change the "quoteline" by setting mailnews.reply_header_* preferences

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Henrik Lynggaard Hansen]

when replying Messenger normally adds a " <name> wrote on the <date>"

I would like this line to be customizable, preferably on a indiviul account
basis

Comment 1

[Phil Peterson]

Actually, we normally add "<name> wrote:", but I can see some utility in having
this be customizable. Adding to the help wanted list, and cc'ing alecf on the
multiple account angle.

Comment 2

[Henrik Lynggaard Hansen]

This should preferably work with parameters, like the old Fido readers.

$1 = name
$2 = date
$3 = newsgroups
$4 = origanization
$5 = subject

so the user can define something like

$1 on stardate $2 sendt $5 via subspace channel $3

Comment 3

[pmock]

changing QA assigned to [e-mail]

Comment 4

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

*** Bug 30484 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

The dup bug has some comments about configuring this in the prefs. Note, that
both suggestions and not exclusive.

If somebody wants to implement it: The current code is at
mozilla/mailnews/compose/nsMsgCompose.cpp, line 1139 - 1176.

Comment 6

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

s/and/are

Comment 7

[Adam Masri]

*** Bug 91579 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 141583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 78101, make the reply line customizable with preset options.

Comment 10

[alge]

If anyone want to do this, it's at:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/mailnews/compose/src/nsMsgCompose.cpp#1710
        case 4: // XXX implement user specified header

Comment 11

[alge]

*** Bug 158709 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Igor Velkov]

Attachment: screenshot of mailer with different style for text of different authors

This is FidoNet mail reader GoldEd. It can automaticaly quote with prefix like
first letter of name and second name, and separate quote from different authors
with dofferent colors

Comment 13

[Igor Velkov]

I think not only header, but every quote line can be customizable, like in fido
readers. Then message with nimber of squtial quotes can look like this 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 OC>>> Subj. Atceros, ka k╞dreiz bija kaut-k╞da adrese... Vai vel ir?
 OC>>> WWW nepiedav╞t.
 AK>> #######@sms.tele2.lv
 AK>> #######@sms.baltcom.lv
 AR> Man liekas, ka ¤╪s adreses derёs tikai gad╪jum╞, ja cilvёkam ir Zelt╞
 AR> Zivti╖a. Man ir Tele2 pieslёgums un SMS netiek s▌t╪t╞s caur e-pastu.
 AR> Vёl diviem cilvёkiem ar╪. Kur ir problёma?

Nezinu k╞ ir ar tele2, bet lmt lai varёtu sa╖emt sms no e-maila, vispirms ir
j╞atїauj to dar╪t. To izdara aizs▌tot sms "mail on" uz numuru 9915 (ja atmi╖a
neviї)

 AR> Vёl viens jaut╞jums: k╞ one.lv s▌ta SMS t╞, lai taj╞s attёlotos
 AR> telefona numurs, nevis IP? Vai ar saviem spёkim neizdosies to
 AR> izdar╪t?
 AR> - tobi¤, man ir interesanti caur ko one.lv s▌ta zi╖ojumus.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
There AR, AK, OC - first letters from Name and second name of authors, ">", ">>"
and ">>>" - level of quoting.
Will be better, if possibly to set different font style for dofferent quote
levels.  

also, look to attachement - golded screenshot. it was very comfortable

Comment 14

[Stephan Slabihoud (:slabbi)]

Comment for #12 and #13:

I agree that would be a nice feature. But afaik all other mail clients would
have problems to quote such lines. It was a standard feature in the Fidonet.

Comment 15

[Eugene Savitsky]

This way uses the "The Bat!" mailing programm - the most powerfull mailer at
this time (mine and thousands other people's opinion). No problems at all...

http://www.ritlabs.com/the_bat/index.html - you can download a trial copy to
look how it works.

Comment 16

[Igor Velkov]

yes, many of my correspondents using "The Bat!" mailer woth this feature without
any problem...
OK! 

a) this feature (quoting with first letters) may be optional
b) template fot header, footer, and style separation for different quote level
not depend on a)

Comment 17

[James Nord]

Taking.

Comment 18

[James Nord]

No *really* taking this time

Comment 19

[Stephan Slabihoud (:slabbi)]

When you are implementing a configurable quoteline it would be nice to have
placeholders for common fields like "From:", "To:", "Subject:" and so on, e.g.
(examples with header, placeholder and value):

From: Stephan Slabihoud  (%f %F = %o)
 %f = Stephan
 %F = Slabihoud
 %o = Stephan Slabihoud
To: John Archer  (%t %T = %o)
 %t = John
 %T = Archer
 %O = John Archer

 %d = Date
 %D = Time
 %n = Newsgroup
 %s = Subject
 %% = %

A quoteline could be "In a mail from %d, you my friend %f has written to %t in
Newsgroup %n:"

Some of the placeholders are available in News only of course.

Thanx, for taking the bug 

Comment 20

[James Nord]

I will first aim to get in 
%d -> date
%t -> time
%a -> author  (full name if present otherwise email)
%o -> organisation
%% -> %

I will later look at splitting author into firstname/lastname.

To and newsgroups (one and the same?) will possibly be added last
(imagine replying to a message posted 5 newsgroups/emails!)

Comment 21

[Stephan Slabihoud (:slabbi)]

> To and newsgroups (one and the same?) will possibly be added last
> (imagine replying to a message posted 5 newsgroups/emails!)

I see no problem here. Just use the name of the group that is active when the
user quotes the message.

It would be fine to have a placeholder for the recipient as well, for example to
create quotelines like: "In a message <from> wrote to <recipient>:"

Comment 22

[Paolo Panizza]

#20: great, adding %d -> date and %t -> time is just the right way to start
dealing with this bug; indeed, besides <name> those field are simply the minimum
necessary to keep track of (of the steps in) a discussion all within the <body>
of msgs.

Comment 23

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 212189 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 24

[Felipe]

I believe that either KMail or Sylpheed has this functionality already, in case
that helps development at all...

Comment 25

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 91584 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 26

[Vidar Haarr (not reading bugmail)]

This is already possible:

// Change the reply header
// 0 - No Reply-Text
// 1 - <Author> wrote:   - Netscape 3.xx/4.xx style
// 2 - On <date> <author> wrote:
// 3 - user-defined string. Use the prefs below in conjuction with this.
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_type", 3);
// If you set 3 for the pref above then you may set the following prefs.
// The end result will be <authorwrote><separator><ondate><colon>
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_authorwrote", "%s said the following");
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_ondate", "on %s");
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_separator", " ");
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_colon", ":"); 

Taken from <http://www.geocities.com/pratiksolanki/#mailnews>.

Suggest WONTFIX.

Comment 27

[Steve Wardell]

If Moz Mail has the ability to do it then I think this bug should be adding UI
for it to configure it unless the default is changed to be something that
contains the date of the previous mail. Thoughts?

Comment 28

[Igor Velkov]

Vidar Braut Haarr:

Please, see to http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=93939&action=view ,
posts 13, 19 - and see the differences.

Comment 29

[James Nord]

changed job shortly after taking this bug and haven't done any work on it since so reassigning default owner.

Comment 30

[Raul Aguero]

So nobody is working on this? Pity! 

Comment 31

[Ronald Killmer]

A UI workaround is the Newsworthy extension that adds a tab to the Options/ Preferences dialog. This is a transient fix as the Dev can loose interest.

Nit with present prefs is a single "%s" placeholder is used for three distinct variables. Are there any other variables that do not seem to be documented?

I strongly believe an ability to cite the message ID of news post being replied to should be insertable into the reply header.  This is a feature of many newsreaders. Given that some MessageID patches have landed in core, can they be tapped for this and have the ID be a clickable link to the posting.

Comment 32

[rsx11m]

Shouldn't this be MailNews: Composition rather than Message Display?

There is also MailNews Core bug 171822 with its various dependencies, not considering comment #12 though on annotating the quote bars with names.

(In reply to comment #31)
> Nit with present prefs is a single "%s" placeholder is used for three distinct
> variables. Are there any other variables that do not seem to be documented?

No, not that I know of. Those prefs are fed into nsTextFormatter::smprintf() which is essentially applying the C-style printf() syntax ("%s" = string).

Comment 33

[[:Aleksej]]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Created an attachment (id=93939) [details]
> screenshot of mailer with different style for text of different authors

bug 330566

Comment 34

[Ronald Killmer]

(In reply to comment #32)
> Shouldn't this be MailNews: Composition rather than Message Display?
> 

Display seems most correct. However the summary would be more accurate if it read:
"Provide UI to customize attribution line of quoted content in message pane."

The Extension named in Comment #31 has not been maintained and is no longer a workaround for missing UI tab in Options/Preferences dialog.

Further more, inclusion of more text fields is desirable. Particularly the Msg ID field for News attribution.

Comment 35

[rsx11m]

Attachment: Composition preferences in SM 2.10

(In reply to Vidar Haarr (not reading bugmail) from comment #26)
> user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_type", 3);

As an update here, note that this preference setting is now available in the "Composition" settings after bug 694514, so that's a partial solution to the initial problem for which this bug was opened.

Comment 36

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

(In reply to rsx11m from comment #35)
> Created attachment 611785 [details]
> Composition preferences in SM 2.10
> 
> (In reply to Vidar Haarr (not reading bugmail) from comment #26)
> > user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_type", 3);
> 
> As an update here, note that this preference setting is now available in the
> "Composition" settings after bug 694514, so that's a partial solution to the
> initial problem for which this bug was opened.

Yes, but the other ones are still only available from about:config

Since comment #26, one more type has been added (new type 3, _authorwrote _separator _ondate _colon). See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reply_header_settings#Preferences for details
In addition, Type 4 is supposedly "User defined" according to the C++ code but currently not foreseen by the SeaMonkey Preferences UI and, if used, gives the same result as type 1.

Comment 37

[:aceman]

Looks like the backend for this is created in bug 107884.
This bug can be used for the UI part.