Closed Bug 272776 Opened 20 years ago Closed 18 years ago

Virtual Folders (Saved Search) don't check subfolders, add ability to easily select/deselect subfolders

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

enhancement
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 271249

People

(Reporter: jon.baumgartner, Assigned: mscott)

References

Details

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041115 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: version 1.0RC1 (20041201)

Virtual Folders (Saved Search) don't check subfolders. I create a new Virtual
Folder to show all messages whose status isn't read. I selected all my top level
folders. Some of those folders contain subfolders.

When new mail arrives in a subfolder, the message does not appear in the Virtual
Folder. If I specifically select every single subfolder in the Choose dialog,
the new messages do show up.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a new Virtual Folder.
2. Click "Choose ..." and select a folder that contains subfolders.
3. Do not select the subfolders.
4. Either filter new mail to the subfolder or change one of the messages in the
subfolder to be unread.
5. Select the Virtual Folder.
Actual Results:  
The message in the subfolder does not appear in the Virtual Folder.

Expected Results:  
The message should have appeared in the Virtual Folder.
POP3? or IMAP?
If POP3(including Local Folders), "un-choosed subfolder is not searched" is
natural behaviour for me.
If IMAP, I do not know what should be.
POP3. 

I don't think that's natural behavior. To me, if I check a folder, I expect its
subfolders to inherit the parent folder's setting.

If not, there should be a "Check All" button, because individually checking
every folder is tedious when you have a large number of folders, as I do.
(In reply to comment #2)
> I don't think that's natural behavior. To me, if I check a folder, I expect its
> subfolders to inherit the parent folder's setting.
> 
> If not, there should be a "Check All" button, because individually checking
> every folder is tedious when you have a large number of folders, as I do.

I agree with Jon on both counts.  Checking a folder should check all of its
subfolders, unless I specifically uncheck them.  I'd go further and say that the
'Select/Check all' button is needed even in addition to this, not just as an
alternative.
Note that issue also affects the "Items for Offline Use" dialog when using IMAP.
(In reply to comment #3)
If you have a folder structure
A
- B
- C
i.e. B and V are subfolders of A, then checking A in the saved search folder
selection should search A only; checking B and C should search these. Indeed, on
several IMAP servers and most local accounts A couldn't even messages because
folders cannot be directories at the same time, so checking A wouldn't make sense.

When you create a saved search through the search dialogue ("save as saved
search") you can easily specify that all subdirectories should be included in
the search, and they will be included in the saved search as well.

What you are describing is an RFE, not a bug.

Michael
(In reply to comment #5)
> If you have a folder structure
> A
> - B
> - C
> i.e. B and V are subfolders of A, then checking A in the saved search folder
> selection should search A only; checking B and C should search these. Indeed, on
> several IMAP servers and most local accounts A couldn't even messages because
> folders cannot be directories at the same time, so checking A wouldn't make sense.

On my WinXP machine (TB 1.0.6), folders in "Local Folders" can certainly be
folders (hold messages) and directories (hold other folders) at the same time,
so I'm not sure I understand you here.  I can understand that TB can't do things
that the mail server/storage system (ie. IMAP) won't allow, but those
limitations shouldn't be imposed on other storage systems (ie. Local Folders)
that can handle the feature without a darn good reason.

> When you create a saved search through the search dialogue ("save as saved
> search") you can easily specify that all subdirectories should be included in
> the search, and they will be included in the saved search as well.

Right, but I'm talking about File > New > Saved Search... (a bit more intuitive
to find than Edit > Find > Search Messages..., IMHO), which presents a dialog
with a much different method of choosing folders to search tha anywhere else in
TB.  There is no way to specify "search subfolders", nor is there a way to
select every folder short of manually selecting every one, which is made even
more tedious by the fact that top level folders are not consistently
expanded/compressed.  If a folder isn't expanded, the interface doesn't give any
indication that selecting it won't select the subfolders.  Again, a "Select all"
option would help here, as would a "Search subfolders" option, making the
selection of a compressed folder automatically select its subfolders, or some
combination of the three.
 
> What you are describing is an RFE, not a bug.

I accept your point, but would argue that it's closer to a "request for
consistency" between File > New > Saved Search and Edit > Find > Search
Messages, with a dash of "request for sanity" in selecting folders.  Thunderbird
does such a great job of taking care of this sort of thing elsewhere that
instances of 'tail wags dog' like this one are even more jarring.

-Zach
Seamonkey bug 271249.
Severity: normal → enhancement
Version: unspecified → Trunk
*** Bug 323614 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
just what I need per summary of bug 323614

add means to easily select/deselect a folder and all of its subfolders in the Saved Search
Summary: Virtual Folders (Saved Search) don't check subfolders → Virtual Folders (Saved Search) don't check subfolders, add ability to easily select/deselect subfolders
(In reply to comment #7)
> Seamonkey bug 271249.

That's now Core, duping.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 271249 ***
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 18 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
In Local Folders, I've created Virtual Folders to search for messages over all real folders. Nice...
Unfortunately, when I create a new real folder/subfolder in my Local folders tree, I must edit each virtual folder to add the new real folder/subfolder.
It would be nice if I could create a virtual folder which is searching over ALL folders including those added after the creation of the virtual folder.
So, in addition to the easy selection/deselection of a folder and all of its subfolders, It would be nice to have a criteria "All Folders".
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