169256 - need a way to add addresses to existing filters

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Filters, enhancement)

Description

[Sean Su]

Currently, there's a way to "Create Filter From Message..." via the popup menu
when click on each address in the message header.

What's missing is a feature that allows the user to add the address to an
existing filter.  This is good for when there are filters that already filter
the right thing, but that we just want to add more entries to the filters.

Comment 1

[laurel]

*** Bug 183492 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[Sander]

*** Bug 173117 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[Peter Lairo]

From duplicated bug 173117:

Clicking on an e-mail in msg header should also yield: "Add to Filter >"

It would be immensely useful to be able to add senders to an existing filter by
clicking on their e-mail address in the message header and selecting "Add to
Filter xyz".

The current "Create filter from Message..." is almost useless because users
usually don't want to create separate filters for each e-mail address (which
this feature implies).

Clicking on "Add to Filter >" would yield a list of all existing filters (and
perhaps also "Create new filter" (thus eliminating the need for the other menuitem.

Suggested UI (menu after clicking an e-mail address in message header):

[e-mail]
  +------------------------+
  | Add to Address Book... |
  | Compose Mail To        |
  | Copy E-Mail Address    |+----------------------+
  | Add Address to Filter >|| Create New Filter... |
  +------------------------+|----------------------|
                            | Family & Friends     | <-- list of existing
                            | Computers            |     filters
                            | Business             |
                            | SPAM                 |
                            +----------------------+

Yeah, I know "add to" and "create new" are not a perfect match, but it reduces
cutter and is really pretty clear. If it bother the powers that be to much, we
could have two menu entries:

  +-------------------------------+
  | Add to Address Book...        |
  | Compose Mail To               |
  | Copy E-Mail Address           |
  | Add Address to Filter        >|
  | Create Filter From Message... | <-- should be "Create Filter From ADDRESS"
  +-------------------------------+

Since we already have a very good built-in junk mail filter, this feature would
be incredibly useful for quickly adding a new business contact or new friend to
an existing filter. No more tedious opening an existing filter (many steps),
typing or copy&pasting of e-mail addresses (some more steps) into a filter.

PS. It may be more useful to make this bug more general: It should be possible
to add *any* of the seleted message's criteria (address, subject, etc.) to be
added to an existing filter. Perhaps where on (right?) clicks on the message
(header only?).

PPS. Keywords anyone? mozilla1.3, nsbeta1, nsbranch <+> Blocking 1.3 *?*

Comment 4

[Sander]

*** Bug 181796 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

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

mass re-assign.

Comment 6

[Bogdan Stroe]

*** Bug 284694 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[jan klopper]

Yesterday i was building new filters in my mailbox, and while i rembered having
seen a button "create filter from message" i could not find it, And you know
why? i wasn't placed where it should be! i was searching for it in the list
plane (since thats where all the messages are), and not in the message plane.
(since that holds sub parts of the message, and it is more difficult to see
where to click if you mean the entire message.

I suggest moving the option: "create filter from message" to the list plane, and
adding several new options to the message plane.
These new options should read "create filter from addres","create filter from
subject","create filter from body" (based on where you click in the message plane.
"Create filter from Address" should automatically select the correct option like
"to" or "sender" based on the clicked addres.

The "create filter from message" on the list plane could be changed to have one
of the following options.
* Use a whizzard to choose from the possible filters based on the selected
message to allow the user to select or deselect them.
* Use a submenu to add on of X filters just like the ones found in the discribed
message plane. (add filter based on: addres TO/address From/subject/body)

Comment 8

[Rob Stow]

Not sure if I should create a separate bug for this ...

I find that "Create filter from message" is useless for me because it does not
provide a way for the user to specify that the filter is to be either a global
filter or at least a filter for all of the newsgroups on the current nntp server.  

Almost every time I want to create an nntp filter it is because someone is
spamming *every* newsgroup, and hence "create filter from message" is useless
because it only lets you create a filter for the current newsgroup.

Just as dumb is that once a filter has been created you cannot go to it using
Tools|Message Filters and edit it so that it becomes either a global filter or
at least a filter for all groups on a particular nntp server.

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

*** Bug 356259 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[John David Galt]

I have about 800 filters.  I hope Thunderbird won't crash trying to generate the drop-down menu in reporter's example!