279153 - provide option to limit width of summary column without truncating the summary content

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 61447

(Bugzilla :: Query/Bug List, enhancement)

Description

[Felix Miata]

I think this would be a better alternative to bug 136225, a better way to
eliminate horizontal scroll. Obviously this is possible, as tinyurl.com does it
by inserting <br> chars in its output: http://tinyurl.com/647eq

The problem is that selecting the 60 char summary column limit is commonly too
limiting: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=171893

while the full summary can create a very awkward horizontal scroll:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=171894

The latter obviously happens every time some bug comes through with a long
string of characters without any whitespace. This happened three times on new
bugs just yesterday: bug 278980, bug 278984, & bug 278985, with some consequent
results at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_activity.cgi?id=278980. Apparently
these really long strings are expected to be somewhat common for
[e-mail] bugs, resulting from a bug report shortcut on the 404
pages mozilla.org serves up.

On my system trying to do QA, this is a constant annoyance, as I need 20px
default size text and my available viewport is generally only around 1150px
wide, and wouldn't hold a typical longword summary buglist without scrolling
even if it was 200px wider (which I can't do). Zooming down is not a
satisfactory workaround either.

The first workaround I tried resulted in my filing bug 279142. I looked for a
satisfactory way to solve this with CSS, but apparently until the CSS3 property
"wrap-option" is implemented, CSS can't do it.

So until then at least, it would be nice if on the change columns page there
were a an input box to choose how many characters wide would be the summary
column maximum.

Comment 1

[Shane H. W. Travis]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 61447 ***

Comment 2

[Felix Miata]

Shane, this isn't about column sizes. This is about one column's size. That
makes it distinguishable, and likely much simpler to fix, a good thing, since
bug 61447 is over 4 years old and apparently not easy to fix.

Comment 3

[Shane H. W. Travis]

Changing the width of a single column is just a targeted instance of the more 
general issue of changing the width of any column. They are not separate 
issues; what works for one will likely work for all, and vice-versa... hence 
the duplication.

Bug 61447 is 4 years old now because it has become mostly irrelevant due to 
templatization. It's now trivial to change column widths if you want them to be 
the same from that point forward; see 
http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/2.18/html/cust-templates.html#template-specific 
for instructions on how. That bug is now only relevant if someone wants to 
change columns to different widths 'on the fly' (that is, to different widths 
at different times). I doubt that's a very common desire for most setups.

If that is what you're trying to do, however, then your column-specific request 
definitely falls under the broader, general case.

Comment 4

[Felix Miata]

Maybe I filed this against the wrong component then. I want
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?product=Core&product=Firefox&product=Mozilla+Application+Suite&product=Thunderbird&product=Toolkit&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED,NEW,ASSIGNED,REOPENED,RESOLVED&chfield=%5BBug%20creation%5D&chfieldfrom=-0d
to be usable now. It isn't now. The attachments in bug 279142 show the current
problem that makes bugzilla.mozilla.org a pain to use.

Comment 5

[Felix Miata]

Attachment: screenshot demonstrating the problem 1024x500 @16px default

Comparable screenshots are in bug 279142

buglist URI for screenshot: http://tinyurl.com/5me2o

Note this is a nearly stock buglist. Only two changes made from stock:
1-staggered headings, which require less overall width than stock;
2-full summary instead of cut off at 60 characters