295428 - Names and nicknames should still work in address book without autocomplete

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, enhancement)

Description

[Bryan K. Walton]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

If I turn off Address Autocompletion, I can no longer use nicknames from address
book to specify email addresses in the "To:" field.  In most other programs,
Eudora, Mutt, etc., I can specify nicknames for contacts in my address book. 
Then, I can simply type in the nickname in the "To:" box, and the mail program
will put in the corresponding email address when sending the message.  In
Thunderbird, with autocompletion turned on, typing the nickname causes TB to
find all corresponding addresses.  However, if I turn off autocompletion, TB
doesn't look for a match in my address book at all.  For example, if I have an
email address of [e-mail] and a corresponding nicknmae of "jd", and I
turn off autocompletion, when I type in the nickname "jd" in the "To:" box, TB
will try to send the message to an email address of "<jd>" rather than replacing
the nickname with the actual email address which is [e-mail].

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Turn off Address Autocompletion
2. Type a nickname instead of an email address in the "To:" field of a new message.
3. Hit send.

Actual Results:  
The message should be undeliverable, as it will try to send to the nickname,
rather than the corresponding email address for that nickname.


Expected Results:  
It should send to the corresponding email address for that nickname.

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

what version of thunderbird are you running?

Comment 2

[Bryan K. Walton]

1.0.2. But before creating this bug ticket, I downloaded the May 24, 2005 aviary
snapshot and it existed for me on that snapshot also.

Comment 3

[Bryan K. Walton]

I have verified that this bug is also present in version 1.0.2 of Thunderbird
for linux as well.

Comment 4

[philiptdotcom]

...in particular, when typing an address (e.g., to:, cc:, etc.), NICKNAMES that
match what's typed should be matched (e.g., typing "laurief" should pick up last
name "Furumoto", first name "Laurie", nickname "lauriefurumoto"--it doesn't now).

Possibly(?) also related to bug #s 295428, 224863, 298438

Comment 5

[philiptdotcom]

oops, forgot to add:

using Thunderbird version 1.0.6 (20050716) on WinXP Pro

Comment 6

[Josh Kelley]

I verify that this bug exists in Thunderbird 1.0.6 for Windows.

It also affects mailing lists - you can't email lists in your address book with
address autocompletion turned off.

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

The reported behavior is present in TB 1.5, TB 1.6a1-0127, Seamonkey 1.0.
It's not clear to me whether this is a bug or an RFE -- I'm guessing that 
the nickname was originally only intended for autocompletion, altho I agree
that's a pretty weak intention.
See also bug 118624.

Comment 8

[Steve Simms]

This seems to be as designed.  It doesn't match the display name either.

Switched to enhancement, and updated the summary.  It's still true in 2.0.0.16.

Comment 9

[Steve Simms]

Although, that said, when you're turning autocomplete off, you do so by unchecking the box that says "When addressing messages, look for matching entries in" (Local Address Books or Directory Server), so what exactly would the enhancement be?

Is this a request to still do an exact match on name/nickname/etc, but just turn off the dropdown in the compose window?

Comment 10

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Bryan, I'm not sure it makes sense to still look up nicknames in the address book without autocomplete. Can you take a look at this bug and see what you think?

Comment 11

[Bryan K. Walton]

Steve Simms is correct.  This IS a request to do an exact match on nickname when turning off the dropdown in the compose window.

Comment 12

[Bryan K. Walton]

Confirmed that this is still a problem on Thunderbird version 2.0.0.22 (for the Mac).

Comment 13

[Bryan K. Walton]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Bryan, I'm not sure it makes sense to still look up nicknames in the address
> book without autocomplete.

Why not? It makes perfect sense to anybody who has ever used Eudora, Pine, or Mutt.  Many people don't like autocompletion.

Comment 14

[Brian Hauer]

I believe that this is addressing a concern that I just wrote about in comment #21 to bug #325458.  That bug requests that nicknames be given the highest precedence in resolving user input to address book entries.  But, if I understand you correctly, your bug/enhancement requests that the resolution of nicknames be treated specially.

I think I agree.  Namely, nickname resolution to address book entries is not something that I feel needs to be "proposed" by artificial intelligence in the form of an "autocomplete" function.  Rather, nickname resolution is literally a one-to-one lookup that should be resolved when the the text input field loses focus, whether or not autocomplete is enabled.  I see a nickname as a unique identifier for an address book entry.  Perhaps that is the conceptual disconnect?

If anyone is working on this issue, please review my note concerning the parsing of a comma-delimited list of nicknames in the comment I mentioned earlier.

Comment 15

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Many complaints about various nickname failures also seen at getsatisfaction

Comment 16

[Mathias Körber]

Even with autocompletion on, I cannot get a nickname to select an email address.
IMHO, entering  nickname should fill in the to: field with the matching email. If there is a conflict, 
it should show that as a dropdown list or something for me to select

Comment 17

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Mathias Körber from comment #16)
> Even with autocompletion on, I cannot get a nickname to select an email
> address.
> IMHO, entering  nickname should fill in the to: field with the matching
> email.

Mathias, we have fixed your issue in bug 325458, which will be released with TB 38.

Comment 18

[Brian Hauer]

(In reply to Brian Hauer from comment #14)

I think I agree. Namely, nickname resolution to address book entries is not
something that I feel needs to be "proposed" by artificial intelligence in
the form of an "autocomplete" function. Rather, nickname resolution is
literally a one-to-one lookup that should be resolved when the the text
input field loses focus, whether or not autocomplete is enabled. I see a
nickname as a unique identifier for an address book entry. Perhaps that is
the conceptual disconnect?

The new addressing in is Thunderbird 78 quite nice!

I've noticed that it still does not resolve nicknames on tab, though. I'd request that the addressing team please consider the following scenario, which is common for those of us who make extensive use of the "nickname" feature of the address book:

1. Set up a few contacts with very short nicknames. For example, maybe "bh" for myself, "js" for John Smith, etc.
2. Compose a new message.
3. Specify a few of the contacts by typing the nicknames very quickly: type the nicknames and press tab quickly between each. E.g., "bh<tab>js<tab>" etc.

You'll notice that Thunderbird does not resolve the nicknames because you didn't wait long enough for the proposed resolution before pressing tab. The user is required to wait for the resolution despite using their nicknames for contacts, which should be considered definitive if the user presses tab before a proposed resolution.

I think nicknames are a "power user" feature, but putting them to use for your most frequent contacts really helps minimize addressing mistakes. And the user experience could be spectacularly smooth if Thunderbird resolved verbatim nicknames on tab. Don't make the user wait for a resolution proposal.