252800 - in message lists, show system icons for attachments' file type instead of paper clips icon

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[Ivan Ičin]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040626 Firefox/0.9.1
Build Identifier: Windows XP SP1 Thunderbird 0.7

Show system icons for attachments instead of clips; if there is more than one
attachment, icon should indicate that this and it could also indicate most
frequent file type of attachment in that message.

It would be much more efficient as user wouldn't have to click on each message
to see attachment type, which is important information.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

Nice idea, but is it even possible ? I mean, the clip-icon in the message-list
is provided by the theme, and is possibly in a different size than the system
supplied icon. Even if we scale, we might end up with a non-readable icon.

Comment 2

[Ivan Ičin]

I can hardly say that I am a programer (although I have a bit of that skill),
but as far as I know everything is possible. Think about this facts:

1. if it is possible to show system icon in the message pane window, although it
is influenced by the theme, it is probably possible to show it in a column

2. I can't see why scaling is necessary - you just fill empty space with system
icon. Horizontal space must be OK as column size is scalable, vertical size is
OK if it is not too small (white space is not bad thing), and I don't believe it
could be.

3. you can keep current column for attachments (for the sake of compatibility)
and add new column "attachment types" to show system icons in it

4. if 2 does not work somehow, you can still add new column with textual
abbreviations for filetypes (jpg, bmp, etc.) and now this must work!

And now something about this feature that I forgot - if attachment icon shows
system icons somehow, then it should be possible to quicksort messages by
fletype and not just the fact has attachment/doesn't have.

Comment 3

[Trejkaz]

Wouldn't this mean the client would need to download the entire message to
figure out the icon, instead of merely downloading the headers to see that there
is an attachment?  If a feature like this goes in, it had better be disabled by
default, as I don't want my bandwidth chewed through by mere eye candy.

Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
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Comment 5

[Ivan Ičin]

This is RFE that should be reviewed by developers.

Comment 6

[Ivan Ičin]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Wouldn't this mean the client would need to download the entire message to
> figure out the icon, instead of merely downloading the headers to see that there
> is an attachment?  
Maybe seomeone more competetive could answer, but from the logic point of view, if program doesn't have the information that there is attachment in the message, it won't show any attachment, and if it has information that message has attachment then information includes at least file name, and then it is not problem to show file type icon.


>If a feature like this goes in, it had better be disabled by
> default, as I don't want my bandwidth chewed through by mere eye candy.
This is not eye candy but productivity feature. It helps you find messages you want much easier.

Comment 7

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

I fully disagree (for me is Wontfix): I think that this could be only hamper IU and not get an "exact" method to find specific attachments type (as *.zip or *.pdf etc).

Anyway, your issue, for me it poses a significant problem: 

1. how I can figure out all messages with a specific attachment type?
2. how I can figure out all messages with a specific attachment name?

In the past I tried to resolve this using "Custumize headers" in saved searches but without succes.


cc: clarkbw for evaluetion.

Comment 8

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

with
>hamper IU
I mean
>hamper UI

Comment 9

[Ivan Ičin]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I fully disagree (for me is Wontfix): I think that this could be only hamper IU
> and not get an "exact" method to find specific attachments type (as *.zip or
> *.pdf etc).
> 
> Anyway, your issue, for me it poses a significant problem: 
> 
> 1. how I can figure out all messages with a specific attachment type?
> 2. how I can figure out all messages with a specific attachment name?
> 
> In the past I tried to resolve this using "Custumize headers" in saved searches
> but without succes.
> 
> 
> cc: clarkbw for evaluetion.

If I understand well, you point to the fact that several file types may share the same icon, which is truth, but it is up to application author (and eventually user) to decide on that, and if that happens, then there is probably good reason for that. If you want to know exact extension, it is a bit geeky. That's why Windows explorer hides extensions by default, anyway.

Comment 10

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I do see some benefits here, but it's not easy to realize and get the UI right.
E.g., for a mail with several attachments types, to show only one type icon is not very helpful. To show all icons is more difficult (if technically possible in the grid), and might be considered visual clutter if it's a default column (but we could make it a custom column).

I think this is the type of thing which should be realized and tried in an addon before going into core, so in that sense I'm inclined to mark this "wontfix".

I think we have other bugs that have more merit in this corner:
Bug 384331 - Implement All attachments view
Bug 421187 - Implement Quick Filter for attachment file name

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #10)

I do see some benefits here, but it's not easy to realize and get the UI right.

What do we think now?

Comment 12

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

I'm not sure about this.
I see some benefit but the limitations of the tree element will definitely make this a very hard thing to do right.
There are also so many scenarios in type and amount of files that this little UI element can turn into a very complex implementation.

It's also kind of an usual as I haven't seen any other email client doing anything like it.
I think sticking with the simple and universally recognizable paper clip is better.

I think this is the type of thing which should be realized and tried in an addon before going into core, so in that sense I'm inclined to mark this "wontfix".

I agree with Thomas' assessment.

Comment 13

[alta88]

There's nothing complex here at all, and the RFE has been exactly implemented in AttachmentCount. It isn't, and likely never will be, possible to do this in a web extension other than as an experiment.