1824536 - add-on icons in unified toolbar take too much space

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Toolbars and Tabs, defect)

Description

[Christian Riechers]

Attachment: tb113.0a1_unified_toolbar_add-ons.png

Thunderbird 113.0a1 (2023-03-24) on Linux
STR:
Customize the unified toolbar and add add-on icons (Cookie AutoDelete, uBlock Origin) - see screenshot. In the Customization window 'Button style' is set to 'Icons beside Text'.

Actual result:
With the 'Button style' set to 'Icons beside Text' that's fine for toolbar buttons. However, it is now also applied to add-on icons. This way just two add-on icons already take the entire space at the right-hand side of the toolbar. There's no space left to click the toolbar and move the window.
This is new in 113.0a1, it did not happen in 112.0b3.

Expected result:
With the 'Button style' set to 'Icons beside Text' this should not be applied for add-on icons.

Comment 1

[Christian Riechers]

Attachment: tb112.0b3_unified_toolbar_add-ons.png

Comment 2

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

When I revert this change the button text is hidden again.

Comment 3

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

The label not displayed in 112 was a bug. The add-ons in question show the label in 102 as well.

When the browser_action API was first added to Thunderbird, it was decided to have action buttons display their labels to match Thunderbirds general toolbar button behaviour. I introduced the optional default_label manifest key to allow add-on developers to enforce icon-only mode.

I am open to drop that and follow Firefox and not display labels at all.

Comment 4

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Toolbar buttons need to respect the toolbar styling.
I understand that extensions might have very long names and having those buttons in the toolbar doesn't look good, but adding UI exception for some specific buttons creates inconsistency and adds complexity.
As John said, we're also leaving the choice to the add-on developers to enforce icon-only mode.

We're planning to add an overflow button like in Firefox for users that want easy access to buttons but don't want them front and center on the toolbar.
This is a WONTFIX for me, since it works exactly like this in 102, so it's not a defect or regression.

We might potentially convert this into an enhancement if we want to explore some potential approach, but I'm not sure.