1805891 - GUI issues for mailling lists with the new Address Book - cannot drag a contact to a mailing list in another AB

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1782397

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

Description

[Fabrice.Neyret]

Steps to reproduce:

Trying to add an email to a list in the Address book, as it used to work easily up to recently.

Actual results:

It's just no longer possible to directly add emails.
Adding an email to a list is now pretty complicated since the recent changes in the Address Book, with hard to understand issues.
While before, we could directly enter the new email to add to the list.
Now,

• not only the email must already be in the address book: search for in the book then drag'n'drop to the list (so we now must first enter the email in the contacts),
• but also it won't work ( drop doing nothing without explicit complain ) if the email was in the Collected rather than Personal Address Book. Then we have to first edit the contact to move it to second, then search in the book, then do the drag & drop.

Expected results:

→ Please just get back to the possibility of directly adding emails to lists
→ Please allow drag & drop from any Address Book.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Hey Fabrice, sorry for the discovery problems which you've been facing with mailing lists. I've pushed for a number of discovery improvements, some of which will only be available in the next major release (mid 2023). But I have good news for you: Some of your scenarios are already supported!

(In reply to Fabrice.Neyret from comment #0)

Actual results:
It's just no longer possible to directly add emails.

There are several ways of directly adding email addresses.

• Select mailing list in the list of contacts (middle column, you can use search to find your list), then...
  • Press Enter on mailing list, then enter addresses
  • double-click on mailing list
  • use Edit button (far right on the card toolbar)
• Right-click on mailing list in directory pane > Properties (we'll change this back to Edit list)

Unfortunately, 102 does not yet have Edit list in the list context menu of a mailing list in contacts list (fixed for next release).

Adding an email to a list is now pretty complicated since the recent changes in the Address Book, with hard to understand issues.
While before, we could directly enter the new email to add to the list.
Now,

• not only the email must already be in the address book: search for in the book then drag'n'drop to the list (so we now must first enter the email in the contacts),

As in TB 91, the contact must reside in the parent AB of the mailing list (we'll remove that limitation one day). But you can still add email addresses directly to the list pretty much exactly as before.

• but also it won't work ( drop doing nothing without explicit complain ) if the email was in the Collected rather than Personal Address Book.

Then we have to first edit the contact to move it to second, then search in the book, then do the drag & drop.

No, that's way too complicated.
Just edit the mailing list (per above), type a search word and use autocomplete to add a contact from any address book. Duplicate contacts in the containing AB will be created as required.

Expected results:

→ Please just get back to the possibility of directly adding emails to lists

Works (see above).

→ Please allow drag & drop from any Address Book.

Sure, that's an existing regression from 91, on record as bug 1782397.
We also have related bug 1779825.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

You may want to try Thunderbird support before filing a bug.

Comment 3

[Fabrice.Neyret]

"There are several ways of directly adding email addresses":
over the 4 proposed solutions, only the last one work, but one is enough to solve the issue.
Thanks a lot !

( Thunderbird support: it requires yet another login account ( "firefox account" ). Here my github account is recognised. )

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot: Mailing list item selected in list of contacts

(In reply to Fabrice.Neyret from comment #3)

"There are several ways of directly adding email addresses":
over the 4 proposed solutions, only the last one work, but one is enough to solve the issue.

Actually, all 4 solutions work. Sorry, I have clarified my above comment 1 to emphasize the starting point for the other 3 solutions (which was clear only on #3). As seen in screenshot, there are two different UI representations of the same mailing list, one in the directory pane on the left, and the other one in the list of contacts in the middle. The two representations work a bit different, especially wrt editing.

Fabrice, can you kindly confirm that all 4 solutions from comment 1 work for you?

( Thunderbird support: it requires yet another login account ( "firefox account" ). Here my github account is recognised. )

True, but not a good excuse for skipping support ;-)

Comment 5

[Fabrice.Neyret]

Fabrice, can you kindly confirm that all 4 solutions from comment 1 work for you?

got it: searching the list name within my xillions contacts via the search engine, then it does yield your other solutions and they do work.
→ thanks ! ( sorry for the confusion ).
it's a more complicated workflow that it used to be, but it works. I still hope the "edit" button will back on the list content tab when just clicking on the list name that directly appears when opening the address book ! ( in addition to renaming "property" into "edit" in the context menu ).
https://i.imgur.com/nzfKdGd.png

about support:
well, not knowing how to do one thing triggers the idea to google the problem then possibly try support if nothing comes, but when something no longer works the first triggered idea is "bug" or "regression" ;-) .

Comment 6

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot from reporter's comment 5: Request to restore Edit button when mailing ist is selected in directory pane

Here's a screenshot of reporter's request to restore Edit button when mailing ist is selected in directory pane - this used to be available via the Edit button on the Address Book Toolbar on TB 91.
One might argue that in this mode, the more useful way of editing the mailing list is to just add or remove contained contacts directly in the contacts list (middle pane), but as things stand (due to a number of other UX shortcomings), the button is probably still needed for easy access to adding new members.

Comment 7

[Fabrice.Neyret]

One might argue that in this mode, the more useful way of editing the mailing list is to just add or remove contained contacts directly in the contacts list (middle pane)

Which is not possible if the email is not already in the address book (e.g. for a newsletter), or in the wrong address book ( since lists seem to be attached to just one ).
No regression "because-there-is-another-path" please.
Beside, most time there is a list, having an "edit" button there sounds like a natural workflow.
The "more useful way" depends of peoples and uses. It's not bad than more than 1 path exist.
Thanks !

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Fabrice.Neyret from comment #7)

One might argue that in this mode, the more useful way of editing the mailing list is to just add or remove contained contacts directly in the contacts list (middle pane)

Which is not possible if the email is not already in the address book (e.g. for a newsletter),

Good point!

or in the wrong address book ( since lists seem to be attached to just one ).

bug 1782397, see above

No regression "because-there-is-another-path" please.
Beside, most time there is a list, having an "edit" button there sounds like a natural workflow.
The "more useful way" depends of peoples and uses. It's not bad than more than 1 path exist.

+1. I agree from an UX POV, however of course, each supported path requires code with some degree of maintenance cost.