287806 - Add TCP timeout pref

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[Ian Neal]

We should expose the global mailnews.tcptimeout setting somewhere in the
mailnews prefs (equivalent of tb bug 284654)

Comment 1

[Ian Neal]

The biggest question is where to put the new pref, in tb there is an advanced
prefs pane but the nearest equivalent on mailnews is Offline & Disk Space.
What I propose is that we rename Offline & Disk Space to Advanced and add the
new pref to there in a groupbox of either General/Other/Communication Settings.
Any thoughts?

Comment 2

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Proposed Pref Panel Update Screenshot

Comment 3

[Ian Neal]

Comment on attachment 178665 [details]
Proposed Pref Panel Update Screenshot

Oops

Comment 4

[[e-mail]]

Maybe we can find enough preferences to justify a new panel?

Comment 5

[Robert Kaiser]

Actually, I'd rather go with what Ian proposes. Offline and Auto-compacting
folders are two unrelated things already, it may not harm to make that
"advanced". Though from a user perspective, that title doesn't tell much and
users might really look for Offline, while the other two prefs are clearly what
I'd label as "advanced". Actually, I'm not sure how frequently Offline is used
nowadays. If it's rarely used, it's OK for me to stick it into "advanced" and go
with what Ian proposed.

As to creating a new panel: I'd rather look how we can reduce the number of
panel than for how to increase it. With our current prefwindow, users already
have a hard time figuring out where to find stuff...

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Or combine return receipts into notifications?

OTOH not adding Advanced may be avoiding the inevitable.

Comment 7

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Ian,
Are you still working on this ?

Comment 8

[Ian Neal]

This will probably get wrapped up in any post new pref window migration re-organisation.

Comment 9

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Expose mailnews.tcptimeout preference patch v0.1

This patch:
* Renames Offline & Disk Space pref pane to Advanced.
* Adds "Other Settings" groupbox and expose mailnews.tcptimeout pref there.
* Updates help to reflect above changes.

Comment 10

[[e-mail]]

Comment on attachment 397741 [details] [diff] [review]
Expose mailnews.tcptimeout preference patch v0.1

>+<!ENTITY mailnewsTimeout.label            "Connection timeout">
Needs a :

>+        <textbox id="mailnewsTimeoutSeconds"
>+                 type="number"
>+                 size="4"
>+                 preference="mailnews.tcptimeout"/>
Needs aria-labelledby (sp?)

Comment 11

[Karsten Düsterloh]

Comment on attachment 397741 [details] [diff] [review]
Expose mailnews.tcptimeout preference patch v0.1

>-<!ENTITY pref.offline.title               "Offline &amp; Disk Space">
>+<!ENTITY pref.mailnews_advanced.title     "Advanced">

I'm quite unhappy with "Advanced" here - the prefs on this panel aren't any more advanced than many others under Mail&News. How about "Miscellaneous" or just a plain "Other Settings" or "Other"?

Looks okay otherwise.

>+        <label value="&mailnewsTimeout.label;"
>+               accesskey="&mailnewsTimeout.accesskey;"
>+               control="mailnewsTimeoutSeconds"/>
>+        <textbox id="mailnewsTimeoutSeconds"
>+                 type="number"
>+                 size="4"
>+                 preference="mailnews.tcptimeout"/>
>+        <label value="&mailnewsTimeoutSeconds.label;"/>

The labels need ids for aria-labelledby on the textbox.

Comment 12

[Ian Neal]

(In reply to comment #11)
> (From update of attachment 397741 [details] [diff] [review])
> >-<!ENTITY pref.offline.title               "Offline &amp; Disk Space">
> >+<!ENTITY pref.mailnews_advanced.title     "Advanced">
> 
> I'm quite unhappy with "Advanced" here - the prefs on this panel aren't any
> more advanced than many others under Mail&News. How about "Miscellaneous" or
> just a plain "Other Settings" or "Other"?
> 
How about we relabel "HTTP Networking" to be "Networking" under "Advanced" and put this pref there?

Comment 13

[Karsten Düsterloh]

Looking at the code where this pref is used (IMAP and mailnews sockets in general), moving it outside the mailnews preferences scope would be a bit surprising.

Comment 14

[Robert Kaiser]

Throwing it together with unrelated other mailnews prefs in one panel just to have it in mailnews is just about as unsuitable.

Basically, any panel named "other", "miscellaneous", or "advanced" shows of bad UI design ("we, uh, don't know how to group things properly so we just throw together a random collection of things") and is completely unintuitive for a user - and after all, we have UI prefs for users.
The harder to logically find we make things in pref panels, the more normal users will use about:config for being able to find things more easily (!) there - and IMHO, we already have way too many about:config users.

Comment 15

[Karsten Düsterloh]

(In reply to comment #14)
> Basically, any panel named "other", "miscellaneous", or "advanced" shows of
> bad UI design ("we, uh, don't know how to group things properly so we just
> throw together a random collection of things") and is completely unintuitive
> for a user

That's the problem we are discussing right now, we just need a solution. :-þ

Comment 16

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Network and Storage pref pane patch v0.1a

Changes since v0.1:
* Added aria-labelledby to textbox element.
* Pref pane now called "Network & Storage".
* Made disk space textbox type="number".

Comment 17

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Screenshot-Network and Storage Preferences

Comment 18

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

Comment on attachment 400383 [details] [diff] [review]
Network and Storage pref pane patch v0.1a

Looks good to me (ui-wise). I have some comments regarding the help changes:


In "Working Offline and Reconnecting Later" (mail_help), there's a reference to a "Synchronization & Storage category" in Preferences.b This is obviously wrong and it should reference to the new panel.

+  <li><strong>Mail Connections</strong>: Select this to manage mail connection
+    settings.</li>

There's nothing to select - You should say something about the timeout pref :P

Comment 19

[[e-mail]]

Comment on attachment 400383 [details] [diff] [review]
Network and Storage pref pane patch v0.1a

>+            label="&pref.network_and_storage.title;"
We don't use _s in entity names. &pref.network.title; works best for me, as the alternative is the clumsy &pref.network.and.storage.title;

>+      <caption label="&mail_connections.caption;"/>
&mailConnections.caption;

Comment 20

[Ian Neal]

(In reply to comment #18)
> (From update of attachment 400383 [details] [diff] [review])
> Looks good to me (ui-wise). I have some comments regarding the help changes:
> 
> 
> In "Working Offline and Reconnecting Later" (mail_help), there's a reference to
> a "Synchronization & Storage category" in Preferences.b This is obviously wrong
> and it should reference to the new panel.
It probably means the section in Account settings.
> 
> +  <li><strong>Mail Connections</strong>: Select this to manage mail connection
> +    settings.</li>
> 
> There's nothing to select - You should say something about the timeout pref :P
Will generate a new patch with more information.

Comment 21

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Network and Storage pref pane with more help patch v0.1b

Changes since v0.1a:
* Revised some entity names.
* Added more detail to help.

Requesting r from stefanh for help changes as well as r for code from Mnyromyr.

Comment 22

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

(In reply to comment #20)

> > In "Working Offline and Reconnecting Later" (mail_help), there's a reference to
> > a "Synchronization & Storage category" in Preferences.b This is obviously wrong
> > and it should reference to the new panel.
> It probably means the section in Account settings.

Nope. The text says (and note it's not the edit menu on mac):
"To set SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups' download behavior when going offline, open the SeaMonkey Edit menu, choose Preferences, and then click the Synchronization & Storage category. You can choose to have SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups prompt you to download messages when going offline, to automatically download messages, or to not download any messages."

Comment 23

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Network and Storage pref pane with revised help patch v0.1c

Changes since v0.1b:
* Revised issue with help stefanh pointed out (thanks).

Comment 24

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

Comment on attachment 401629 [details] [diff] [review]
Network and Storage pref pane with revised help patch v0.1c

You know, you can ask multiple persons for review ;-)

r=me for the help changes .

Just one comment:
+  <li><strong>Mail Connections</strong>: Select how long you want Mail &amp;
+    Newsgroups to keep trying to contact the server before timing out.</li>

Is "select" really the right word here? Or should it rather be "choose" or "enter" (kind of tricky since you can do both)?

Comment 25

[Ian Neal]

Attachment: Network and Storage pref pane and help patch v0.1d [Checkin: Comment 26]

Changes since v0.1c:
* Changed Select to Choose in help.

Carrying forward r/sr and requesting a= for low risk patch.

Comment 26

[Ian Neal]

Comment on attachment 401739 [details] [diff] [review]
Network and Storage pref pane and help patch v0.1d [Checkin: Comment 26]

http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/0cb7f403694d