146543 - Menu item for switching accounts/folders

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 21344

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[jglick]

If the Folder Pane is closed in Main Mail window, there is no way to switch 
accounts or folders. Using Mail with the Folder pane closed is a less common 
usage overall, but is still an issue for those users who prefer to work this 
way.

Bug 21344 [UI: Location toolbar (menu of mail folders and newsgroups)] is to 
implement a Location toolbar, UI that could be used to directly switch accounts 
or folders or newsgroups.

A temporary alternate (and eventual alternate) to the Location toolbar is a menu 
item that could be used to switch accounts/folders/newgroups.

3 Pane Mail: Go Menu --->
                         Account 
                         Account
                         Account --> Select This Account
                                     -------------------
                                     List of Folders or Newsgroups

When an Account is selected, Account Central gets focus in the right pane.

When a Folder/Newsgroup is selected, the Thread pane is populated with the msg 
headers for that folder/newgrp.

This menu item would need to be disabled in Standalone Message Window.

Comment 1

[jglick]

Attachment: Example

Comment 2

[jglick]

Robin, is the capitalization for the menu item "Select This Account" correct?

Comment 3

[robinf]

"Select this Account" would be correct. Thanks.

Comment 4

[Håkan Waara]

> A temporary alternate (and eventual alternate) to the Location toolbar is a menu 
> item that could be used to switch accounts/folders/newgroups.

Neil has posted a patch to the location bar bug, isn't it better to go forward
with that work instead of creating something new and 'temporary'?

Comment 5

[jglick]

Sorry, I didn't mean "temporary" as in the "Go: Account" menu item would be 
removed when 21344 was fixed. I meant to say, we should have both, a UI control 
for switching accounts (bug 21344) And a menu item (this bug) for switching 
accounts/folders/newsgroups. Since 21344 might be more difficult to get 
working/approved/checked in, etc., at least getting the menu part in (which 
might be easier to implement/get approved) would be a good idea until 21344 can 
be completed. Sorry for confusion.

Comment 6

[robinf]

Re: my comment 3 --

Our style guide for documentation recommends "This" but doesn't make any
recommendations for the UI. To be consistent within the Mail application, since
there's already a precedent (Find in This Message), let's go with "Select This
Account" for the menu item.

Comment 7

[Michael Buckland]

Discussed in mail news bug meeting.  Decided to minus this bug.  Is this a dupe
of bug 21344?

Comment 8

[jglick]

Its not a dup. Bug 21344 is for a toolbar to change accounts when the Folder 
pane is closed. This bug is for a menu item to change accounts. Currently, if 
the folder pane is closed, there is No way to switch accounts.

Comment 9

[[e-mail]]

Although not strictly a duplicate of bug 21344 that patch covers this bug.

Comment 10

[Samir Gehani]

Mail triage team: nsbeta1+/adt2

Comment 11

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

neil, any interest in taking this bug?

Comment 12

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

re-assign to neil

Comment 13

[[e-mail]]

Attachment: Extracted from patch in bug 21344

Comment 14

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

Comment on attachment 114663 [details] [diff] [review]
Extracted from patch in bug 21344

I think your rdf template  xul is incomplete.

for example, what about NoSelect imap folders?

Comment 15

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

> what about NoSelect imap folders?

nevermind that.  

Thinking about it, I was wrong.  The menu for switching folders / accounts 
should resemble the folder pane.  Whatever you see there, and can do there, you 
should be able to do with the menu.

(except the "Free Webmail" thing, but that's a Netscape 7.x only thing, so 
don't worry about it.)

some of the xul you added has stuff that we don't need, right?

like:

+              HasUnreadMessages="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-
rdf#HasUnreadMessages"
+              NewMessages="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#NewMessages"

I didn't think we were going to show a different icon (or different text style) 
for folders (or servers) with unread or new messages?

see 
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mailnews/base/resources/content/msgFolderP
ickerOverlay.xul (which might not be perfect, as I see BiffState might be used 
when we don't need it) for the minimal things we need.

I think it is just:

SpecialFolder="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#SpecialFolder"
IsServer="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#IsServer"
IsSecure="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#IsSecure"
ServerType="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#ServerType"

is this menu item completely hidden for the stand alone msg window?

setting to 1.4 alpha for neil, as that's when I think I can finish the review.

Comment 16

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

how are you doing "select this account" "select this folder" to allow the user 
to select accounts, or folders that have subfolders?

Comment 17

[[e-mail]]

> I didn't think we were going to show a different icon (or different text
> style) for folders (or servers) with unread or new messages?

How are keyboard users going to find folders with unread or new messages?

It occurs to me that it might be better to make the folder selector widget
focusable and drive that from the keyboard instead to resolve this.

> is this menu item completely hidden for the stand alone msg window?

I don't build the template, so no menu items are generated.

Comment 18

[[e-mail]]

> how are you doing "select this account" "select this folder" to allow the
> user to select accounts, or folders that have subfolders?

I just duplicated the parent menu as a menuitem on the submenu.
If you prefer, I could have actual wording "Select this account/folder" instead.

Comment 19

[jglick]

We should use "Select This Account" or "Select This Folder" to be consistent
with the other places in Mail where we have a similar situation. From comment #0:

>3 Pane Mail: Go Menu --->
>                         Account 
>                         Account
>                         Account --> Select This Account
>                                     -------------------
>                                     List of Folders or Newsgroups

Comment 20

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

just a data point, for new folder we do:  "choose this for the parent" for both
accounts and folders.

Comment 21

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I'll try to drive this in for 1.4 final.

Comment 22

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

on second thought, it might be too late for 1.4 final.

(we need two new strings, which affects l10n, and I think we could ship 1.4
final without this.)

Comment 23

[[e-mail]]

not sure why seth removed nsbeta1+

Comment 24

[Samir Gehani]

adt: nsbeta1-

Comment 25

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

Comment on attachment 114663 [details] [diff] [review]
Extracted from patch in bug 21344

I think this patch is missing the "Select this Folder" / "Select this Account"
piece.

let's wait until 1.5

Comment 26

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

thunderbird is interested in this, as they are with bug #21344

Comment 27

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

doesn't this exist on trunk ?
Go > (account name) 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060101 SeaMonkey/1.5a

Comment 28

[[e-mail]]

(In reply to comment #27)
>doesn't this exist on trunk ?
Yes, I originally thought this might get review before bug 21344 though.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 21344 ***