1611612 - Tooltip missing on icons for column header options, aka column picker/selector

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Anje]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:72.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/72.0

Steps to reproduce:

Tooltip missing on icons for column header options.
This applies to the 'Folder Pane Columns' and the 'Thread Pane' column headers.
It also applies to the 'Address Book' column headers.
In each case, there is a small icon located immediately to the right of the column headers sited above the vertical scrollbar, if it is shown.
Hover over these icons.

Actual results:

Hovering over these icons does not offer a tooltip.

When people have an issue with a column header, there is no tooltip saying what it is. So you cannot offer instructions like when you hover over it, the tooltip will say etc... People do struggle to locate it, especially if unfamiliar with email client or eyesight is poor.
As the icon is small and difficult to put in words, whilst assisting in the Support forum, I have discovered people struggle to locate it without a fully diagramatic image.

Expected results:

All the actual column headers do have tooltips.
There should be a relevant tooltip over the icon(s) which facilitates selection or restoring column order etc.

Comment 1

[Anje]

There is also the same icon used in the 'Calendar' and 'Today Pane'.
There are no tooltips here either.
Request all of these icons need tooltips to improve users ability to locate and use the icon.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Hard to imagine this wasn't reported before. Also hard to imagine this is not a regression

Comment 4

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

FWIW except for Name in the Folder Pane columns, I see tooltips for Total, Unread and Size there, all the Thread Pane columns I have enabled, the Today Pane and Calendar.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.4.2, Build ID 20200123140255.

Do the Folder Pane columns really need tooltips that display the same thing as the column names?

I'll add checking these to my release candidate testing procedure.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

To clarify, the terms I've seen used for this are column picker and column selector. Anje is correct, a tooltip is missing for (almost) all the places where the widget is used - folders and addressbook. HOWEVER, the tooltip is not missing in the "search messages" results list.

Comment 6

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Attachment: column-picker.png

This one?
I don't ever recall seeing a tooltip for those little icons.

Comment 7

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: 1611612-column-picker-tooltip.patch

With the tree converted to CE we need the special CE for the column picker no more -> removed it. I also added the column picker tooltip to the folder pane and to the address book which never had a tooltip..

If we want this patch for ESR, I can remove the AB part.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

So "search messages" window widget already has this change? Or, did is that not yet changed to CE?

Comment 9

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Indirectly yes, automatically fixed through this ifdef: https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/92a0cfea9653b13ea7a214f1ecdb3d988aac4f1a/mail/base/content/threadTree.inc.xhtml#20-24. I'm removing this ifdef in the patch.

Comment 10

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9123070 [details] [diff] [review]
1611612-column-picker-tooltip.patch

Review of attachment 9123070 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

::: mail/base/content/mailWidgets.js
@@ -504,5 @@
> -      }
> -      if (!this.querySelector("treecolpicker[is=thread-pane-treecolpicker]")) {
> -        this.appendChild(
> -          MozXULElement.parseXULToFragment(`
> -            <treecolpicker is="thread-pane-treecolpicker"

The point of this widget is to add this: thread-pane-treecolpicker 
It's needed, otherwise you do not have the "Apply columns to..." menu option

Comment 11

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: 1611612-column-picker-tooltip.patch

Okay, now added the tooltiptext to CE. I formatted the MozXULElement.parseXULToFragment() like the one in line 543 to be consistent.

Do we apply patches to beta with new strings?

Comment 12

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9123192 [details] [diff] [review]
1611612-column-picker-tooltip.patch

Review of attachment 9123192 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

LGTM, r=mkmelin
I think we do accept strings for the current betas.

Comment 13

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: 1611612-column-picker-tooltip-ESR.patch

Only the thread pane part without the strings.

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/eda327731ed2
Fix the thread pane column picker tooltip and add the column picker tooltip to the folder pane and address book. r=mkmelin

Comment 15

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9123192 [details] [diff] [review]
1611612-column-picker-tooltip.patch

Won't do more betas this cycle

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9123846 [details] [diff] [review]
1611612-column-picker-tooltip-ESR.patch

Approved for ESR

Comment 17

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Thunderbird 68.7: https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr68/rev/42c63a68d55c0c6cefc449548c2b70fe3c52d986