1770844 - Improve the UI of the display name field on contact edit form

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect, P1)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 1: TB 91: Autofill of display name as you type.

As we're already past the name fields, here's a reminder that we also need to re-implement a dedicated display name field.

• Allow the user to freely define a display name for sending messages to a contact. For new contacts, when user types first and last name, this should prefill the display name, too (works well in TB 91, see screenshot), which makes a good default. However, different users have different needs, and there's lots of reasons for changing the display name to something custom.
• We don't want to break users' existing display names (which would be dataloss). There's much more than just names which users de facto keep in the display name field. Which is their choice, for better or for worse, and we're not here to block them.

Comment 1

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

This is happening in bug 1769506. Perhaps not the most logical place for it, but it's what I was working on at the time. https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D146790

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 2: TB 91 Display name field with a freeform display name (this field is missing in TB 102).

I'm looking at 102.0a1 (2022-05-27) (64-bit) which includes bug 1769506, but I'm not seeing a freeform display name field on the Edit contact form as requested in this regression bug. I assume that this will cause dataloss for users migrating contacts with freeform display names to TB 102. Users may have put all sorts of data into display name field - ask Wayne! It's part of V-card specs (said Ryan).

While screenshot 1 shows the auto-generation of display name (as opposed to a freeform display name), it also shows the presence of the display field in the edit contact dialog, and comment 0 is quite clear about requesting to restore the freeform display name field which we have in TB 91.
Reopening.

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Reopening per my comment 2. This should be fixed asap as it requires strings for the display name field label in the edit contact form.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 3: No custom display name field in edit contact form of TB 102.0a1 (2022-05-27)

Here's where we're missing the display name field in 102.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I am also not seeing it.

https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D146790 has the code, and the patch landed as https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/e1898ce14bcb

Comment 6

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

This is not dataloss, the Display name is there and it's maintained.
The only issues is that that field is not visually highlighted.
We kinda did it on purpose since initially first and last name should have the focus, and the display name is built from those on the fly.

I have a patch that improves this and should avoid confusion for users.

Comment 7

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Bug 1770844 - Improve Display Name UI and UX. r=darktrojan

• Show a "Display Name" placeholder to improve field discoverability
• Disable and enable the prefer display name checkbox instead of hiding it
  to improve usability and aawaaareness of the feature

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/fb741eb0a848
Improve Display Name UI and UX. r=darktrojan