227202 - Please add newsgroup aliases to the newsgroups functionality.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 132247

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[Robert Gelb]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: irrelevant

Example (taken from comment #2 in bug 207861) :
For newsgroup named "novell.support.os.server.netware6x.install-upgrade"
I am getting "n.s.o.s.n.install-upgrade", which is unfortunatelly identical to
the   abbreviation for the "novell.support.os.server.netware5x.install-upgrade"
newsgroup.

If I change my prefs.js to show newsgroup names unabbreviated, I get similar 
problems except that the newsgroups name are even more unreadable (unless I 
drag the divider to past the middle of the screen).  For instance with 
msnews.microsoft.com groups, I've subscribed to 
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, 
microsoft.public.mappoint,
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet,
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet

What I get is 
microsoft.pu...ral
microsoft.pu...point
microsoft.pu...adonet
microsoft.pu...aspnet


Not exactly easy to figure out which group is which.  
That's why I am asking to add Alias for a newsgroup functionality.  The alias 
would be editable by the 'Rename Folder' context menu, which does nothing 
right now.  So for instance, I'd rename microsoft.public.windowsxp.general to 
Xp General and then I'd rename microsoft.public.mappoint to simply MapPoint.
This would make Thunderbird a much more readable newsgroup reader.

Bug #207861 is somewhat related to this one.

One more detail.  This problem is especially bad in Windows XP with large 
fonts enabled because it makes the font in the Folders part of Thunderbird 
appear much larger (as it should be).


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Subscribe to bunch of newsgroups
2.  Look at the NG names
3.

Actual Results:  
The problem described in 'Details' section

Expected Results:  
It should allow aliasing newsgroups for better readability.

Comment 1

[Larry Jackson]

(In reply to comment #0)
> User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 
1.1.4322)
> Build Identifier: irrelevant
> 
> Example (taken from comment #2 in bug 207861) :
> For newsgroup named "novell.support.os.server.netware6x.install-upgrade"
> I am getting "n.s.o.s.n.install-upgrade", which is unfortunatelly identical to
> the   abbreviation for the "novell.support.os.server.netware5x.install-
upgrade"
> newsgroup.
> 
> If I change my prefs.js to show newsgroup names unabbreviated, I get similar 
> problems except that the newsgroups name are even more unreadable (unless I 
> drag the divider to past the middle of the screen).  For instance with 
> msnews.microsoft.com groups, I've subscribed to 
> microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, 
> microsoft.public.mappoint,
> microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet,
> microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
> 
> What I get is 
> microsoft.pu...ral
> microsoft.pu...point
> microsoft.pu...adonet
> microsoft.pu...aspnet
> 
> 
> Not exactly easy to figure out which group is which.  
> That's why I am asking to add Alias for a newsgroup functionality.  The alias 
> would be editable by the 'Rename Folder' context menu, which does nothing 
> right now.  So for instance, I'd rename microsoft.public.windowsxp.general to 
> Xp General and then I'd rename microsoft.public.mappoint to simply MapPoint.
> This would make Thunderbird a much more readable newsgroup reader.
> 
> Bug #207861 is somewhat related to this one.
> 
> One more detail.  This problem is especially bad in Windows XP with large 
> fonts enabled because it makes the font in the Folders part of Thunderbird 
> appear much larger (as it should be).
> 
> 
> Reproducible: Always
> 
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1.  Subscribe to bunch of newsgroups
> 2.  Look at the NG names
> 3.
> 
> Actual Results:  
> The problem described in 'Details' section
> 
> Expected Results:  
> It should allow aliasing newsgroups for better readability.

(In reply to comment #0)
> User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 
1.1.4322)
> Build Identifier: irrelevant
> 
> Example (taken from comment #2 in bug 207861) :
> For newsgroup named "novell.support.os.server.netware6x.install-upgrade"
> I am getting "n.s.o.s.n.install-upgrade", which is unfortunatelly identical to
> the   abbreviation for the "novell.support.os.server.netware5x.install-
upgrade"
> newsgroup.
> 
> If I change my prefs.js to show newsgroup names unabbreviated, I get similar 
> problems except that the newsgroups name are even more unreadable (unless I 
> drag the divider to past the middle of the screen).  For instance with 
> msnews.microsoft.com groups, I've subscribed to 
> microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, 
> microsoft.public.mappoint,
> microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet,
> microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
> 
> What I get is 
> microsoft.pu...ral
> microsoft.pu...point
> microsoft.pu...adonet
> microsoft.pu...aspnet
> 
> 
> Not exactly easy to figure out which group is which.  
> That's why I am asking to add Alias for a newsgroup functionality.  The alias 
> would be editable by the 'Rename Folder' context menu, which does nothing 
> right now.  So for instance, I'd rename microsoft.public.windowsxp.general to 
> Xp General and then I'd rename microsoft.public.mappoint to simply MapPoint.
> This would make Thunderbird a much more readable newsgroup reader.
> 
> Bug #207861 is somewhat related to this one.
> 
> One more detail.  This problem is especially bad in Windows XP with large 
> fonts enabled because it makes the font in the Folders part of Thunderbird 
> appear much larger (as it should be).
> 
> 
> Reproducible: Always
> 
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1.  Subscribe to bunch of newsgroups
> 2.  Look at the NG names
> 3.
> 
> Actual Results:  
> The problem described in 'Details' section
> 
> Expected Results:  
> It should allow aliasing newsgroups for better readability.

Comment 2

[Ronald Killmer]

Needs QA support to update Assigned To: nobody@helpwanted also cleanop of duplcate content in comment #1

From some CSS mods of the Folder Pane display I can guess that portion has some simple CSS Display rule solutions if a needed selector is added and related JS  IF Else code written.  The bugger to me is how to add GUI and where a user will find it.  The Account Manager did not look right. A question is, Can we add a column to the subscription picker for a user text input field inserting or editing an Alias. 

Next point is where do we store the alias. Can we add a field to the news *.msf files named alias.  That if it is null a script would return false or true if text is present. That would provide the value a CSS property rule could work off of.

The design idea creates good User visibility of the feature and prevents clutter of existing menu structures. An plus is narrowing the width of the Folder Pane display. This could become important when the left side shares space with extensions in a stacked view.

Comment 3

[Ronald Killmer]

This bug is a dupe of https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=132247

Comment 5

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

I can type... I swear