273951 - New mail alert window should be closable

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 329954

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[ari.paananen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

The new mail alert window is a nice feature to have especially when you have
the "auto hide taskbar" option selected in Windows and can not see the new
mail icon in the tray. However, the user should have more control on the 
new mail alert window so that it can be set to display until the user 
acknoledges the alert or optionally until there is no more unread mail in
the inbox.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make sure you have the "Show an alert when new mail arrives" option selected
2. Send a mail to yourself and minimize Thunderbird
3. Wait until the mail arrives and the alert window appears
4. Notice that it is not displayed for a long time and can be missed if you
   don't happen to be next to the screen at the time
5. You can edit the user_pref("alerts.totalOpenTime", 4000) -preference
   and set up a very long display time but...
6. ... now when you get a new mail and you finally notice it, you can not 
   acknoledge the alert and close the alert.



Actual Results:  
The new alert window stays open either not long enough or far too long
depending on the user_pref("alerts.totalOpenTime", 4000) setting.


Expected Results:  
There should be a close button on the alert window.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #0)
> However, the user should have more control on the 
> new mail alert window so that it can be set to display until the user 
> acknoledges the alert or optionally until there is no more unread mail in
> the inbox.

Mozilla is not the only program to make use of this style of alert, and for the 
most part these alerts behave the same: they rise up (or fade in) and then 
disappear after a short period of time.  Firefox and Opera both use these alerts 
to indicate the end of a download.

The idea generally is that this alert will catch your attention if you're at the 
computer -- like a beep except it doesn't distract the coworker in the next 
cubicle -- but if you're away, it's up to you to check for new mail (or 
completed download or whatever) after you return.

The one exception I'm aware of is the Outpost firewall.  It has two flavors of 
alert, both with a Close (X) button.  The first is used to notify of "detected 
attacks" and that will disappear unless the window body is clicked before it's 
disappeared, after which point it must be explicitly closed.  The second is used 
to notify of a new software version available, and that remains open until the 
close button is clicked -- and it's really annoying, I turned those alerts off.

Comment 2

[ari.paananen]

(In reply to comment #1)

The close button (or even an option in the preferences to make the alert
window close itself when clicked) would in no way annoy the user if 
the current automatic closing was kept as it is. Then it would simply
be up to the user to let the alert window close itself as before or
speed it up manually. 

Still, in this case the user could alter the user_pref("alerts.totalOpenTime", 
4000) setting to a very long value and thus achieve an alert window that
stays open long enough but can be closed manually.

The situation when this is very useful is when it is important to reply
to e-mails you receive quickly but when you are not constantly watching
the screen. A good example of a well working solution of this kind can 
be found at least in Pegasus Mail.

Comment 3

[flabbergasted]

I wanted to submit a new bug but I think I'll first try a comment on this one.
I'd also like to have more control over the new mail alert window. In my case I
don't want it to turn up at all but still want to have the new mail icon in the
task bar. Because if programs run in full screen (like games or DVDs) and the
task bar is hidden the window still comes up but is all messed up and this is
quite annoying. So maybe an option to disable it while still having the tray
icon or an option to not show it if the task bar is hidden would be very nice.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #3)
> So maybe an option to disable it while still having the tray
> icon or an option to not show it if the task bar is hidden would be very nice.

Um... there *is* such an option already.  Tools | Options | General,
bottom of the page:
 [] Show an alert

Comment 5

[flabbergasted]

Ok, now I feel really stupid. You are of course right. But I have tried this
before (I guess it was still in version 0.9) and when I disabled "Show an alert"
the new mail notification icon in the taskbar would not turn up anymore either
so I was convinced those two belong together. 

I still think, an option to only disable it when the task bar is hidden would be
nice but actually I'm quite content now.

Comment 6

[fruitbat]

I have the same problem as the original reporter.  It seems intuitive to me that
clicking on the popup and/or reading all the new messags should cause the popup
to disappear.  This is especially vexing because I don't ever get a taskbar mail
notification icon, and I can't seem to find any mention of it or how to control
it in the doc.

Comment 7

[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
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Comment 8

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.