1771795 - `Edit Contact` (and Alt+Enter keyboard shortcut on Windows) missing from context menu of a contact in Contacts Sidebar

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect, P3)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1771761 +++

Edit Contact went missing from context menu of a contact in Contacts Sidebar (and with it the universal Windows shortcut for editing item properties: Alt+Enter).

... which is a pretty bad usability regression. Essentially, it means you can no longer edit a contact (or list) on the fly whilst in composition, but you'll be forced to fire up your entire Address Book and search for the contact again for viewing/editing. Which is very inconvenient and defeats the purpose, because otherwise Contacts Side Bar makes for a perfect miniature version of the AB. Also, it is now much harder to copy stuff like phone numbers, websites, chat names, notes etc. from a contact into your composition.

E.g., editing a contact from composition is useful for:

• Double-checking/adjusting/correcting/adding contact details like display name, email, real name, phone number while I'm currently concerned with this contact for composition (especially for contacts which have been quick-saved from message reader).
• Checking other contact details which aren't shown in contacts sidebar before choosing appropriate recipient(s) for your message
• Using a non-default email address of the contact for composition
• Copying phone numbers, websites, chat names, notes etc. from any other contact into the body of your composition (e.g. to forward such information to others)
• Avoiding the inconvenience of having to navigate to the main Address Book and search again for a contact which is already right in front of the user's eyes in Contacts Sidebar (which feels really dull).

Implementation caveat

Essentially, the same as bug 1771761 (very possible to fix them with the same patch).
Fixing this regression ideally requires showing the new Edit contact form somehow in the composition window. Imo, just having a big popup which would be populated with the edit form would make for a good UX, similar to the TB 91 UX. The advantage is that we won't completely hide the composition context in the background, which would be a bit confusing.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 1: `Edit Contact` menu missing in context menu of contacts in Contacts Sidebar in TB 102

Comparative screenshot - the very powerful Edit contact menu is missing in TB 102.

Apart from Alt+Enter on Windows, we also had Cmd+I on Mac, which reflects as Ctrl+I on Windows and Linux (see screenshot, TB 91). But we might want to reflect that a bit more as there's a conflict with Ctrl/Cmd+I to create a new contact. That conflict is new because the AB is now living as a tab in same main window like 3-pane and calendar.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 1: `Edit Contact` menu missing in context menu of contacts in Contacts Sidebar in TB 102

Comparative screenshot - the very powerful Edit contact menu is missing in TB 102.

We've also lost the convenient keyboard shortcuts to edit a selected contact in the sidebar:

• Alt+Enter on Windows (universal shortcut for editing item properties)
• Cmd+I on Mac, which reflects as Ctrl+I on Windows and Linux (see screenshot, TB 91).

Comment 3

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

This basically a duplicate of bug 1771761 since if we do it or not will come to the same basic decision.

Comment 4

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Or could we use something like the editVCardDialog dialog in Account Manager?

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

While possible, I'm not sure the complications of adding and maintaining such an extra entry point are justifiable. The UX of doing it in the dialog isn't great especially if there is a lot of data, and I can't imaging it's a very common use case.
If we want it, it might be better to have the menu item send the user to the address book for editing.

Comment 6

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

I agree with the WONTFIX.
The UX of Thunderbird has been pretty terrible so far behind the justification of "look at how many entry points you have, you can do the same thing from 100 different places".
That's very detrimental for us, and it doesn't give the user a solid and reliable workflow.

• Contacts from the Compose Sidebar should only be there to quickly add them to the compose field.
• Editing contacts should happen exclusively from the Address Book.
• Since the compose window opens in a separate window, offering an entry point to edit the contact will mean moving the focus to the main window, and opening the AB tab if not already opened, therefore completely hiding the compose window.
• I really doubt users will find themselves always needing to change a contact during composition, so this is definitely an edge case we shouldn't support.

I would actually argue that we should remove the Delete action from that Contacts Sidebar.

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I've linked up some anecdotal evidence from a user complaint in support in the user story of this bug, and added some more detail to comment 0 why this can be useful.

I've talked about this with Alex today and he explained some of the implementation-level background. He also hinted that we might try restoring the menu entries (here: Edit), but preferably as a simple direct link to the contact in the main address book as Magnus said. Imho, at least having that direct Edit link would add significant convenience because firing up the main AB and searching again for a contact which is already right in front of the user's eyes in the sidebar feels really clumsy. (As a sidenote, your Android phone dialer will also allow you to view/edit a contact directly even though it's primarily for dialing...). Having two or three intelligent entry points (not 100) can make for awesome ux-efficiency, which is a great reason for choosing Thunderbird...

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #5)

If we want it, it might be better to have the menu item send the user to the address book for editing.

Comment 8

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Taking this to quickly implement those menu items access points redirecting to the Address Book tab.

Comment 9

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Bug 1771795 - Reimplement Edit Contact in the compose contacts sidebar. r=darktrojan

• Simply reimplement the Edit Contact menuitem only for single editable contacts.
• Don't show it for Mailing Lists, read only contacts, or anything else.
• This acts as a simple entry point to quickly jump to the Address Book tab to handle the contact data in case the user notices a mistake during composition.

We don't want to allow editing a contact inside the compose window as dealing with multiple data editing entry points is a nightmare.
We don't want to encourage or offer the ability to edit a mailing list since that doesn't affect the composition experience.
We don't want to encourage or offer the ability to create a new Contact from the compose window. New addresses are saved (and contacts created) automatically upon sending.

Comment 10

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Also, we shouldn't re-implement the keyboard shortcut.
Re-adding that XUL command key with all its enabled/disabled conditions is very cumbersome and not worth it for an operation that is mostly an edge case.

Comment 11

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Try-run: https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try-comm-central&revision=0e51a071076083a2e8eae3d1aa0f40bcc11eec61

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/c8570b44a214
Reimplement Edit Contact in the compose contacts sidebar. r=darktrojan

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9294540 [details]
Bug 1771795 - Reimplement Edit Contact in the compose contacts sidebar. r=darktrojan

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9294540 [details]
Bug 1771795 - Reimplement Edit Contact in the compose contacts sidebar. r=darktrojan

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

Comment 15

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Tested and VERIFIED fixed on Daily 107.0a1 (2022-09-25) (64-bit), and 106.0b1 (64-bit).
Thanks for restoring some of the previous UX-efficiency!
I'm using this frequently, also for testing purposes.

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #14)

Comment on attachment 9294540 [details]
Bug 1771795 - Reimplement Edit Contact in the compose contacts sidebar. r=darktrojan

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

... following my uplift request on Matrix, thanks!

Can we uplift Bug 1771795? Low-risk, existing string, less complaints from users...

Comment 16

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.3.1:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/4b41c61f5086