218935 - Scroll (move) display in thread pane to new messages after Get New Messages

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Aleš Èerne]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Build Identifier: 

If I receive a new email, the list of email doesn't scroll up automaticly.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.send an email to yourself
2.open thunderbird 
3.

Actual Results:  
You cant see the new email in the list. You have to scroll down to see it.

Expected Results:  
the list of email must scroll down so the email if visible in the list.

Comment 1

[Jamie Macey]

More details (yay no dupe post from me):

This occurs when the mailbox is sorted descending (down arrow) by date. 
Expected behaviour (Outlook gets it right) is that if the message list is not
scrolled all the way to the bottom, no scrolling occurs when new mail arrives. 
If list _is_ scrolled to the bottom, when new mail arrives reset the scroll bar
to the bottom.  This keeps new mail visible as it arrives.

When date is sorted the other way, it behaves as it should bumping the message
list down as the new mail arrives to take over the initial spots, but leaves the
message list in the correct place if not scrolled to the top.

Tested under Thunderbird 0.3

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Seamonkey bug 93856.

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 273833 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[jean_marie_pfaff1]

Probably obvious, but the autoscrolling would be a nice addition on all other
supported platforms as well (I'm using OS X and would also like to have the
message list scroll automatically if it's at the bottom or top, depending on how
the messages are sorted).

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 300429 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[SyS]

I agree that autoscroll function would be nice but only when the list is actually at the end. 
If I have scrolled into the list, then this automaticism should be off.

Comment 7

[Wayne Woods]

Requesting block to get this back on the radar, though I suspect the devs will run out of time and decline it.

From an average-user perspective, drawing new mail messages beneath the scroll of the mail list (while the list is scrolled to its maximum) is a perpetual minor annoyance. It's the only bug with the client that affects me on a multiple-times-a-day basis. It's not like it's impeding the usage of the client, but it's still one of those UI bugs gives the feeling that the product "isn't quite there" yet.

Thunderbird works very nicely, and it'd be great if a few of these UI issues were cleaned up before 2.0 so the average user (who isn't looking for new, advanced features) feels that it's a great improvement over 1.5.

Cheers

Comment 8

[David :Bienvenu]

Wayne, we do scroll to the new messages when you open a folder. What view are you using, and how are you sorted? What we don't do is scroll if a new message arrives while you already have the folder. Is that what you're asking for?

Comment 9

[Wayne Woods]

(In reply to comment #8)
> What we don't do is scroll if a new message arrives while you already have
> the folder. Is that what you're asking for?

Yep, that's what I meant. I assumed that's what this bug is about. The summary and description for this bug certainly suggest that to me.
Cheers.

Comment 10

[David :Bienvenu]

the first comment implies that the new mail was sent before you opened thunderbird - that's why I asked. I've changed the summary to be more explicit...

Comment 11

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 341658 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

seamonkey Bug 122030

Comment 13

[Wayne Woods]

I'd have a stab at this, but I can't even find where the code is kept that adds new messages to the 3 pane window. I've added trigger messages to a heap of potential functions so far and have yet to find one that's triggered when that event happens. So not a great start :P

Comment 14

[Wayne Woods]

Actually, the easiest way to test this bug is simply to delete the last sorted message and then hit ctrl/cmd-z to restore it. Much easier than having to receive messages. If the list sort is ascending, the restored message will be added below the window view, but if it's descending, the window will scroll it into view.

I now notice that I can reproduce this in other kinds of Mozilla lists. For example, in the organize (manage) bookmarks list of Firefox... sort the list in either direction and then delete the last bookmark (top or bottom, depending on sort order). When you undo the delete, the same (lack of) autoscroll behaviour is exhibited when the item is added back to the list, depending on the sort direction.

So I wonder if this is an inconsistency in Mozilla's core code and not a Thunderbird problem. I can't seem to find a general bug for that, though.

Comment 15

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #14)
> If the list sort is ascending, the restored message will be added below the
> window view, but if it's descending, the window will scroll it into view.

This dichotomy of ascending/descending behavior is also described at 
bug 250870, which may or may not be a dupe of bug 93856.

I have to say, I would not expect an Undelete action to perform an autoscroll. Ideally, if I'm undeleting something, I want it stuffed back in its original position; but if I'm reviewing a long list of items, delete one, and then undelete, I don't want to lose my place in the existing list.

I would like to see some intelligent scrolling on receipt of new mail.  For instance, if I have a thread pane that's twelve items high, and I get 15 new messages (by date, ascending), I want the scrolling to stop when the oldest new message gets to the top of the list.  To my way of thinking, the oldest unseen message is more important than the newest one, because it's been ignored for the longest period of time.  Since this behavior is strictly linked to date-based priority, it doesn't apply to global thread behaviors.

Comment 16

[Wayne Woods]

(In reply to comment #15)
> I have to say, I would not expect an Undelete action to perform an autoscroll.
> Ideally, if I'm undeleting something, I want it stuffed back in its original
> position; but if I'm reviewing a long list of items, delete one, and then
> undelete, I don't want to lose my place in the existing list.

It only "autoscrolls" when the scrollbar is already at the extreme top at the time of the restore. If it's already scrolled even a little bit, then the autoscroll doesn't happen. And the focus remains on whatever item was focused after the deletion, so it wouldn't make you lose your place. If that code was modified to work for both sort directions, I think we'd be 99% of the way to what we need.

> I would like to see some intelligent scrolling on receipt of new mail.  For
> instance, if I have a thread pane that's twelve items high, and I get 15 new
> messages (by date, ascending), I want the scrolling to stop when the oldest new
> message gets to the top of the list.

Agreed. Although leaving the last read message on the list would be good, too, so the user knows for certain that there aren't new messages further up the list. Or, maybe it's just best to ensure that the currently focused message is never autoscrolled off the list during list updates... something like that makes sense and would be something that could be implemented in core code as it would apply to generic list windows.

Comment 17

[Scott MacGregor]

not a stop ship bug, but we'd consider a patch. I agree with Mike's comments about auto scroll after undo.

Comment 18

[Wayne Woods]

(In reply to comment #17)
> not a stop ship bug, but we'd consider a patch. I agree with Mike's comments
> about auto scroll after undo.

Scott: Fair enough :) I've been looking at a Tbird-only solution for this, but I'm not sure which call to link to it from (i.e. something that's called when new mail is added to the currently-viewed folder). Do you have any suggestions of the best function to start from? Thanks.

Comment 19

[Scott MacGregor]

(In reply to comment #18)
> (In reply to comment #17)
> > not a stop ship bug, but we'd consider a patch. I agree with Mike's comments
> > about auto scroll after undo.
> 
> Scott: Fair enough :) I've been looking at a Tbird-only solution for this, but
> I'm not sure which call to link to it from (i.e. something that's called when
> new mail is added to the currently-viewed folder). Do you have any suggestions
> of the best function to start from? Thanks.
> 

This might end up not being the right spot, but start looking here:

http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mail/base/content/msgMail3PaneWindow.js#167

Comment 20

[Wayne Woods]

(In reply to comment #19)
> This might end up not being the right spot, but start looking here:
> http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mail/base/content/msgMail3PaneWindow.js#167

Thanks Scott. As far as I can tell the OnItemAdded() function is never called. OnItemEvent("DeleteOrMoveMsgCompleted") is the closest I can get, which gets messy. I might have to work out how to enable the right listener settings to ensure OnItemAdded() is called (if that's possible). But I really would have expected something like that to exist already, so maybe I just missed it.

Comment 21

[alta88]

(In reply to comment #15)
> > I would like to see some intelligent scrolling on receipt of new mail.  For
> instance, if I have a thread pane that's twelve items high, and I get 15 new
> messages (by date, ascending), I want the scrolling to stop when the oldest new
> message gets to the top of the list.  To my way of thinking, the oldest unseen
> message is more important than the newest one, because it's been ignored for
> the longest period of time.  Since this behavior is strictly linked to
> date-based priority, it doesn't apply to global thread behaviors.
> 

exactly correct.  folder selection with new messages, threadpane positioning is very awkward - creating a lot of unnecessary repetitive motion.
 
to add: if screen height is 12 items, oldest is shown in line 1 if new messages >= 12, and newest is shown in line 12 if new messages < 12. ascending date view obviously.  currently, selecting a folder with say 4 new messages shows oldest in line 12 - argh.

Comment 22

[Glen A.]

This surely has to block Thunderbird 3. It can't be that hard to implement (?).

A very annoying lack of basic functionality. 4.5+ years since this was added, and counting. :-)

Comment 23

[David Ascher (:davida)]

I don't think this could block.  I'm happy to consider it for tb3 -- note that marking it as wanted-tb3+ doesn't mean the RFE will make it -- that's up to others to figure out.

Comment 24

[David :Bienvenu]

leaving as wanted, p2

Comment 25

[David :Bienvenu]

putting in b2, to try to get to it...

Comment 26

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

this sounds very similar to bug 497348

Comment 27

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I wouldn't like this.

Comment 30

[Glen A.]

Please implement this simple enhancement, it's nearly 7 years old!

Comment 34

[Bruce Chastain]

Can someone PLEASE fix this!!  It's a major irritant multiple times a day.  This bug report is now 8 years old and it still fails on TB 8.0.

Comment 35

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Bruce,

I understand your frustration, but comments like the one above won't help the bug get fixed.  No-one from the community has stepped up to work on it yet, and angry rants are more likely to drive people away than attract them to help.

To attempt to turn this into a more positive direction, if you'ld like to take a stab at fixing it, please email me, and I'll be happy to help you work through the process.

Thanks,
Blake.

Comment 36

[:aceman]

The blocked bugs I added may even be dupes, please check them out.

I vote for this bug and Outlook does it too. The autoscrolling should happen only when you already are scrolled to the end of the list (showing the newest message).
Can't yet tackle this myself.

Comment 37

[Sum Yung Guy]

:aceman, those two bugs should be duplicates, though see my comment in bug 539468.

Note that not only Outlook, but Thunderbird itself does this as you describe. The problem is it's broken when the messages are sorted with new messages at the bottom. With new messages at the top, Thunderbird correctly autoscrolls, but only when you are already at the end (top) of the list. The behavior ought to be consistent with either sort order.

I've overlooked many an e-mail because of this. Unfortunately having the list in date descending order is not an option for me, because the threads internally are still in ascending order, which is more than my small brain can handle.

Comment 38

[yannik]

It is very important to get this fixed as it is VERY annoying to anyone having mails sorted in descending date order (newest on bottom). There even is a configuration value called 'mailnews.scroll_to_new_message' but this doesn't fix this faulty behaviour. Only when sorting ascendently it works. 

This is a very severe bug which should be solved ASAP. It also is default behaviour for all major mail clients like Outlook, Apple Mail and others.

Comment 39

[Peter Langston]

This bug is about 10 years old, isn't it?
Perhaps I'm just a wild-eyed dreamer, but it would make sense to fix this relatively simple bug before adding bell and whistle number 4859607.
Just sayin'...
-=P=-