167564 - Unable to close Account Manager using OK button after opening advanced Smtp dialog

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 150471

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Account Configuration, defect)

Description

[Tobias]

Hello all,

I have some weird effects when I want to configure outgoing smtp server. I had 2
email accoutns in my Mail program, each of it has a different outgoing mail
server. This was created with an older version of Mozilla. Now I wanted to add
to more mail servers and assign them to two new profiles.

This somehow worked, but very tricky....

I have added the 3rd SMTP server with all the information required. Now, I can'
t to anything anymore in the Mail Account Settings windows but exit it with this
X-Button, no cancel or okay. Nothing. When I want back in to the settings, I
could see the server in the outgoing profile, but I couldn't assign it to my
mail profile. That only happened after I set this new SMTP server as the default
server and changed mail mail account settings to use the default SMTP server.
The very same happened when I added the 4th mail account with the 4th outgoing
SMTP server. Once I assigned this new SMTP server as the default server I now
could assign the 3rd SMTP server to the 3rd mail account.

Weird though, all list of SMTP servers looks different in each account now. Some
entries are just empty but behind there is somewhat a working SMTP server.

I didn't really found a bug in the database that compares to this one....

If there is anythingt that would help you getting an ideas whats happening just
let me know. BTW: no crash or so happens, it is just not working as it should be....

Thanks,

Tobias

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

To account manager; this is a duplicate, but I can't find the original. 
Confirming and nominating -- this is major loss of functionality (not being able
to close account manager??)

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Oh, and this makes is nearly impossible to actually have multiple mail accounts....

Comment 3

[scottputterman]

reassigning to varada.  Is this a dup of any of your bugs?

Comment 4

[varada]

I need some help here in figuring out the exact problem - I didnt quite
understand what you were unable to close and hence had to click on the X.
1-Can you open the MailNews Account Setting window and close it using Ok or Cancel?
2a-Are you able to Add new accounts?
2b-If so are you able to associate the new account to an existing smtp server
using the Advanced button in the Account Settings panel?
3- Are you able to add more SMTP servers?

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

When I could reproduce this bug (which I cannot in today's nightly, but could 2
weeks ago), opening the "advanced" SMTP dialog to add more SMTP servers would
work, but once I closed it I would be unable to close the account manager via
OK.  Cancel worked fine.

Comment 6

[varada]

Changing Summary from "multiple outgoing smtp server does not really work
anymore" to "Unable to close Account Manager using OK button after opening
advanced Smtp dialog". This seems to be more accurate in describing the problem.
Leaving this bug open to see if the reporter or anyone else can reproduce the
problem. 

Comment 7

[Tobias]

it is a little bit more but having a problem with closing the Account Manager
properly but using the X button. It seems that the smtp mail server are not
added properly. I'll attach a screenshot showing how it currently looks like to
assign a SMTP server to one account. The two blank lines are actually two SMTP
servers which  you can see if looking at the "outgoing smtp servers" in account
manager. But clicking on advanced in a pop or imap account just give back what
you see in the screen shot. Strangley enough, this screenshot looked differently
from one pop/imap account to another. Although currently this "advanced account
setting" screenshot looks the same for all accounts.
Also I have the feeling it that problem gets worse if you first create a new
pop/imap account, and then later on add a new SMTP server and try to assign it
to the newly created account. 
Just to mention: all my outgoing smtp servers require authentication, maybe that
has something to do with it also.

Tobias

Comment 8

[Tobias]

Attachment: screen shot advanced account manager settings

screen shot of "advanced account manager settings"

Comment 9

[Tobias]

oh, forget to mention that one smtp server is totally missing in the advanced
settings of a pop/imap account but is listed in the outgoing smtp servers
(terions.de, you won't see it in the screen shot). The only way I figured out to
use that server was to make it the default outgoing smtp server and assign the
appropriate POP account to use the default SMTP server. For all other POP/IMAP
accounts I had assign the correct server explicitly altough some of them
have(had) the same outgoing smtp server (until my provider forced user
authentication).

Comment 10

[R.K.Aa.]

related to bug 150471?

Comment 11

[James Scott]

I had this problem too; it occured when I added a second mail account and then
tried to get smtp to always go through a single server.  When I edited the
advanced options under the smtp option, I had a few problems:
- The main dialog box (not the advanced one)'s OK button failed (cancel and X
worked)
- The changes I made did not seem to be saved properly, i.e. I could edit, hit
X, and then look again, and it would differ
- The advanced options listed many blank SMTP servers, i.e. blank lines which I
could delete.  I wonder if they were created when I created mail accounts
without specifying an SMTP server.

There are really two problems here:
- Interface functionality as described above and in other posts
- Usability.  Its non-obvious how one goes about configuring SMTP in a sensible
way.  

There seen to be many ways of setting SMTP servers:
- Using the wizards initially when setting up mail accounts
- Using the Outgoing Server (SMTP)'s single box
- Using the Advanced options dialog under Outgoing Server (SMTP)
- Using the Advanced options dialog under each mail account's top-level option
(i.e. the one which uses the name of the mail account)

The latter in particular is impossible to find except by exhaustive search.  The
system as a whole is very ambiguous - which settings overrules which others, and
why?  

I suggest that the interface should be as follows:
- You should either have the option to configure a single SMTP policy for all
accounts, or have one policy per account
- Each policy (whether global type or single type) should allow multiple SMTP
servers to be specified in a preference order
- All the dialogs to implement the above should be in a single place, under
"Outgoing Servers (SMTP)", not scattered on a per-account basis
- The default should be a global policy if the user does not specify a different
SMTP server when creating a new account, and a per-account policy if the user
does specify a different SMTP server.

Comment 12

[R.K.Aa.]

Tobias: Do you still see this bug in recent builds? I believe it was a duplicate
of bug 150471 which is fixed.

Comment 13

[R.K.Aa.]

No reply for three weeks. Resolving as duplicate. Please add comment or reopen
if you still see the bug in recent builds. Thank you.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 150471 ***

Comment 14

[James Scott]

The bug is indeed fixed in 1.2.  I think there are still interface usability
issues, but at least the interface works :)

Comment 15

[Ninoschka Baca]

Verified Duplicate.