285845 - Default e-mail app in TB = unchecked and Default Browser app in FF = checked in prompt message boxes

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; fr-FR; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; fr-FR; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1

In TB the message is a negative one (do not ask me again)
In FF the message is a positive one (always check FF is the default browser)

Reproducible: Always



Expected Results:  
the 2 messages should be the same

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

This area has a lot of mismatch between the two apps, which I think all carries 
forward from the same issue in the suite.

In particular, TB has checkboxes for "make default mail" and "make default news" 
clients; checking those boxes and clicking OK is how you make it a default, and 
there is some checking of the default status before initializing those boxes.

Firefox has a "Check Now" button, not a checkbox.

One major difference here is that FF cannot "unset" itself as the default 
browser, while TB can "unset" itself as the default mail/news client.  While 
that appears to give TB an edge, in fact it causes confusion (at least, it does 
under Windows) because "unsetting" the default means some other client needs to 
be made the default.  TB tries to restore the previous client, but if that 
client was uninstalled, or if that client was an earlier version of TB, the 
default settings get all screwed up.  The Windows model of default clients 
always involves a client making itself the default, not unsetting it.

Comment 2

[Scott MacGregor]

are you proposing that we ditch the unset default mail app feature Mike? If so,
what would the UI look like in the prefs dialog for the 3 settings if we
couldn't use a checkbox for each one? three buttons might not look so hot in the
general panel. 

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> what would the UI look like in the prefs dialog for the 3 settings if we
> couldn't use a checkbox for each one? three buttons might not look so hot in
> the general panel. 

You're right about that.  I think I'd keep three checkboxes -- but with the same 
function as FF's "Check on startup" checkbox:

   Thunderbird should check on startup that it is the default client for:
      [] Mail   [] News   [] RSS

This would be accompanied with Check Now button.  Does that seem reasonable?

I don't know if the unset capability makes more sense on other platforms (or if 
it's even implemented on other platforms).

Comment 4

[Scott MacGregor]

I don't have a clear picture in my head of how the check now button would react
to the various checkboxes. Also, it really only makes sense to check for default
mail status on start up (we're not really going to prompt once for mail, once
for news, once for rss right?)

the fact that we act as 3 instead of just 1 like Firefox makes the Firefox model
a lot harder to use. But am still open to ideas.

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Functionally, the preference checkboxes would specify which of the client 
functions should be assumed by TB; but the actual inspect-and-set for default 
would happen at startup and when the Check Now button is pressed, rather than 
when the checkbox is selected.

If any of the selected functions is not assigned to TB, then a prompt dialog is 
shown with text something like "Make Thunderbird the default client? Yes/No". 
Either the text message could be generic, applying to any or all of the 
requested defaults, or it could be constructed according to the preferences.

On startup, if the Do Not Ask Again is checked (or, per the original report in 
this bug, the Always Check At Startup is unchecked), then the preferences for 
all client types would be set to False.  (This is perhaps a little overreaching, 
but the few people using multiple clients for these functions will have already 
figured out how to use the preferences to set things up the way they want them.) 
 
Re: this bug's original report:  In this context, "Always Check at Startup" is a 
more accurate phrase; "Do Not Ask Again" might be interpreted to mean TB will 
make itself the default without prompting, which is slightly dangerous.

If the prompt is displayed due to the Check Now button, I would show the Always 
Check at Startup button checked and disabled.

Comment 6

[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
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 7

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

I've a problem with my FF config, so I can't try it again.

The initial problem was in the pop up dialog and not in the option dialog
If someone can check this...

Comment 8

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

As any decision been made about how ti fix this bug yet ?
Do it need a new triage ?

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb) from comment #8)

As any decision been made about how ti fix this bug yet ?
Do it need a new triage ?

Hi Nicolas, thanks for following up, and sorry for the delay! Lots of reports and we're still working on our bilocation skills ;-)

Please provide the following to make your report actionable:

• detailed steps to reproduce (numbered list): what settings and what steps to get the dialog you're talking about?
• screenshots of the dialog in Firefox and Thunderbird (use Attach New File button above comment 0)
• more details about your expected result

Overall, I am not seeing any user interest in this issue, so this doesn't seem to be a problem for more users.

Comment 10

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

The UIs have completely changed since and the issue has been solved. :)