317915 - drop-down - edit/find/search messages.... stops working, the More button is active but adds nothing to the list of search criteria below.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 297006

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[John I Davies]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7

drop-down - edit/find/search messages.... Stops working. In the Search Messages window, the More button is active but adds nothing to the list of search criteria below. The Fewer button is intially inactive (dimmed out) but, if the More button is clicked then Fewer becomes active. When the Fewer button is clicked it again becomes inactive. If the the More button is clicked n times then the Fewer button must be clicked the same n times before it becomes inactive. In other words, the number of search criteria is being counted up by the More button and down by Fewer button but no search terms are appearing/disappearing
Reverting to the default Theme doesn't help
De-installing and re-installing Thunderbird doesn't help
Removing all extensions, de-installing and re-installing Thunderbird doesn't help

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Use Thunderbird for a while
2.Something (unknown) happens
3.Above symptoms occur whenever edit/find/search messages... is attempted
4.De-install/re-install does not help

Actual Results:  
edit/find/search messages.... Stops working. Specifically the More button is active but adds nothing to the list of search criteria below.

Expected Results:  
the More button should add to the list of search criteria below.

Comment 1

[John I Davies]

Attachment: Image of Search Messages window showing More and Fewer buttons active but no search terms below

Image of Search Messages window showing More and Fewer buttons active but no search terms below. This proves the existence of the bug since the Fewer button should be inactive (dimmed out) unless there are search terms below to be removed.

Comment 2

[zug_treno]

Related to bug 297006?

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

The Search Messages dialog has a draggable splitter between the More & Fewer buttons and the results pane.  Grab the splitter with the mouse and drag downwards to see the criteria pane.

Comment 4

[John I Davies]

The Comment #3 From Mike Cowperthwaite  2005-11-28 12:20 PST  -
"The Search Messages dialog has a draggable splitter between the More & Fewer buttons and the results pane.  Grab the splitter with the mouse and drag downwards to see the criteria pane." 
- precisely describes an immediate solution to the problem for the user. 

I believe this is a signifcant usability bug since it easy to lose the ability to use the Search Messages fucntion and perceive that it has "gone forever". My analysis follows -
The problem is the organisation of the window which is in two halves (which I have called header and footer below) -
<fixed height header> 
<fixed height footer>
with -
<fixed height header> containing "search for messages in:", "search subfolders", etc.
and
<fixed height footer>  containing search terms plus search results

<fixed height footer>  - is also in two halves 
<fixed height footer>::= <search criteria> <more/fewer buttons plus search results>
where -
<search criteria> containing one or more rows with containing three elements each - fields to be searched (e.g. Subject), search mode (e.g. "contains"), string to searched
and -
<more/fewer buttons plus search results> - is in three parts -
<more/fewer buttons plus search results> ::= <more/fewer><draggable splitter><results pane>
The problem is the layering of <search criteria> and <more/fewer buttons plus search results>. If the draggable splitter is moved up as far as possible, the layering ensures that <search criteria> disappears since it is treated as a lower visible layer than <more/fewer buttons plus search results>. This configuration of the "Search Messages" window is then maintained indefinitely, even through re-installs of Thunderbird and the user perceives <search criteria> to have disappeared forever. (A side irritation for us Brits is that we lose our UK spelling on a reinstall but maintain this window configuration!)
IMHO this is a usability bug, not a functional bug, but nevertheless a significant design problem.

I believe this bug is identical to bug 297006 as mentioned in Comment #2 From [e-mail]  2005-11-28 01:26 PST 

Comment 5

[John I Davies]

Attachment: Search Messages window shows all features

The first of three images iluustrating this bug. Here the Search Messages window shows all features

Comment 6

[John I Davies]

Attachment: The Search Messages window with search terms disappearing

The second of three imgages - Search Messages window with search terms disappearing

Comment 7

[John I Davies]

Attachment: The Search Messages window with search terms invisible

The third of three images showing the Search Messages window with search terms now invisible. This configuration of the Search Messages window is maintained even through a re-install and the user perceives that Search Messages is no longer functional in Thunderbird.

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Attachment: TB 1.0 Search Dialog under Win2K, default theme

While I agree the splitter's appearance is too minimal, perhaps your specific issue is whatever theme you're using; as seen in this attachment, the splitter is visible under my configuration, even when dragged as far upwards as possible.

Comment 9

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Attachment: TB 1.6a1 Search Messages dialog, Win2K, default theme

However, if you were running a more up-to-date version of TB -- which you are *supposed* to be doing before you open bugs -- you'd see, as in this attachment, that the criterion panel no longer collapses to zero height; there is a small amount of the field's background visible within the inset border.

Comment 10

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Bug 296935 may be how you got into this situation in the first place.  
If that is the problem you want to see addressed, please mark this bug as a 
dupe of that one.
If the appearance of the dialog under 1.6 solves your "significant" usability bug, please mark this bug as Resolved|WorksForMe (not Fixed).

If the problem you want addressed is the appearance of the splitter, then:
If you are using a non-default theme (which is responsible for the appearance 
of the splitter), please mark this bug as Invalid -- mozilla.org is not responsible for themes, and Bugzilla is not the place to file bugs about them; instead, contact the theme's author.
But if you are using the default theme, and the splitter appears invisible due to WinXP, please change the summary of this bug accordingly, or better, open a new bug devoted to that problem, filed under the Toolkit product, XUL Widgets component.

Comment 11

[John I Davies]

(In reply to comment #8)
> Created an attachment (id=204455) [edit]
> TB 1.0 Search Dialog under Win2K, default theme
> 
> While I agree the splitter's appearance is too minimal, perhaps your specific
> issue is whatever theme you're using; as seen in this attachment, the splitter
> is visible under my configuration, even when dragged as far upwards as
> possible.
> 
This is not theme dependent, see attached image with default theme

Comment 12

[John I Davies]

Attachment: Showing no search criteria visible despite reversion to default theme

Comment 13

[John I Davies]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Created an attachment (id=204456) [edit]
> TB 1.6a1 Search Messages dialog, Win2K, default theme
> 
> However, if you were running a more up-to-date version of TB -- which you are
> *supposed* to be doing before you open bugs -- you'd see, as in this
> attachment, that the criterion panel no longer collapses to zero height; there
> is a small amount of the field's background visible within the inset border.
> 
This new look appears may solve the problem but I can still see no search terms in the attached image.

Comment 14

[John I Davies]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Bug 296935 may be how you got into this situation in the first place.  
> If that is the problem you want to see addressed, please mark this bug as a 
> dupe of that one.
> If the appearance of the dialog under 1.6 solves your "significant" usability
> bug, please mark this bug as Resolved|WorksForMe (not Fixed).
> 
> If the problem you want addressed is the appearance of the splitter, then:
> If you are using a non-default theme (which is responsible for the appearance 
> of the splitter), please mark this bug as Invalid -- mozilla.org is not
> responsible for themes, and Bugzilla is not the place to file bugs about them;
> instead, contact the theme's author.
> But if you are using the default theme, and the splitter appears invisible due
> to WinXP, please change the summary of this bug accordingly, or better, open a
> new bug devoted to that problem, filed under the Toolkit product, XUL Widgets
> component.
> 

The problem is possibly related to Bug 296935 but I "got into this situation in the first place" without maximising the Search Messages window, so I guess its a separate bug until proven otherwise. However, I can confirm that Bug 296935 still exists in Tbird version 1.0.7 (20050923).

The problem is not "the appearance of the splitter" but the total disappearance of the pane. I have provided evidence of the bug under the default theme, see my comment #12

Comment 15

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Created an attachment (id=204514) [edit]
> Showing no search criteria visible despite reversion to default theme

At no point did I indicate that the criteria pane would not be shrunk if you changed themes; what I stated, and what *is* borne out in your (unnecessary) latest screenshot, is that the splitter's appearance is governed by the theme.


(In reply to comment #13)
> This new look appears may solve the problem but I can still see no search
> terms in the attached image.

In my opinion, the claim of a "significant usability bug" -- on which basis 
you reopened this bug -- is addressed by the fact that the criteria pane no longer reduces to zero height.

Comment 16

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 297006 ***