285406 - Header pane: Add title text (tooltip) for (abbreviated) Date header display with full date of message in recipient's time zone

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, enhancement)

Description

[Henrik Gemal]

It could be nice if we added a title text for the date header.

Currently if we have a date header like this:
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2005 07:54:28 +0100
it gets shown like this:
Date: 07:54
I'd like the title text to show the full date.
Should be very easy to do.

Comment 1

[jwq]

This behaviour should be controllable by changing the
"mail.ui.display.dateformat.*" preferences
<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Change_the_Date_Format>. You probably want to change
the "mail.ui.display.dateformat.default" setting.

Comment 2

[jwq]

Update: Neither the "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" or 
"mail.ui.display.dateformat.default" prefs change the format of the Date header
shown in the header section of a message window. They affect the Date column of
the summary view, but not an individual message window or in the message pane. I
believed (wrongly) that they also affected date display in the message window.

 Are these prefs intended to affect date display in an individual message
window? If so then they're not right now, if not then they ought to (consistent
with reporter's original request).

Comment 3

[Henrik Gemal]

I'm not talking about changing the date format. I'm just talking about adding a
title tooltip that shows the entire date string so that I dont have to view
source to see the full date string.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

One possible point of confusion could arise (which also arises when using View 
Source, but would be more visible with this feature): The Date header shows the 
time in the sender's timezone, along with the TZ indicator, but the displayed 
time is converted to the user's timezone.

Comment 5

[Seungbeom Kim]

In fact, it may be more desirable to show the sender's local time with the
timezone in the (individual) message window - what's already in the raw Date:
header, while the summary view still needs the times translated into the user's
timezone because of sorting issues.

If my memory serves me correctly, Mozilla worked this way - you could see the
original Date: header in the message window without having to view the source. I
like it better, because I can recognize what time of day (in the sender's clock)
the message was sent. However, Thunderbird seems to work in a different way, and
I have to view the source to figure that out. :(

Comment 6

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #5)
> In fact, it may be more desirable to show the sender's local time with the
> timezone in the (individual) message window - what's already in the raw Date:
> header, while the summary view still needs the times translated into the
> user's timezone because of sorting issues.

There is an option for this:  mailnews.display.original_date

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Henrik, is this more than personal preference?  In other words would this is some way be in improvement for INTL users?

Comment 8

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

With the work done my dmose on the header pane  I think this could *now* be easily written as an extension. Proposing to resolve this as WONTFIX and leave it for extension authors - as we are trying to simplify the Header pane.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> With the work done my dmose on the header pane  I think this could *now* be
> easily written as an extension. Proposing to resolve this as WONTFIX and leave
> it for extension authors - as we are trying to simplify the Header pane.

dmose, who can make the decision?  Is there sufficient rationale for wanting this in core?

Comment 10

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

This is a user-experience changes, so it's Bryan's decision.  If has a strong opinion about it already, he's certainly welcome to chime in here and say that he wants it now or is unlikely to want it ever.  

However, we're in general trying to move towards a model where we use add-ons to get more end-user feedback about UX changes before we take them into core, as per <https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Dmose/Tb_Participation#Design>.  So it would also be ok to leave this bug open in case someone wants to put together an add-on to provide more data here...

Comment 11

[Seungbeom Kim]

1. This feature should be simple for users: it's only when the user points the mouse pointer over the date field that the tooltip is displayed, and otherwise the header pane doesn't get any new visual elements. So there's no extra clutter or distraction.

And it's a very natural way to present extended information: an uneducated user is more likely to let the mouse pointer hover over the date field than to view the source, to get the full date information.

2. This feature should be simple to implement: I haven't looked into the source code, but I don't think it will require substantially more than a few dozen lines of code. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

I would be willing to make a patch or an add-on if I were able to, but the initial slope for me to overcome is way steeper than the increment needed just for this feature. (In other words, for those already familiar with the Thunderbird source code organization or the add-on development, things should be a lot easier.)

Comment 12

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I think a tooltip showing the full message date in recipient's time zone where we currently only show "12:30" for today's messages is the *minimum* expectation (compared to providing UI to switch abbreviation of recent dates off). Having the tooltip is really not too much to ask for, and should be simple to implement.

Btw, do we still have those bugs where after midnight, date display of currently viewed message does not get updated?