398129 - Need easier access to Show Time As option in Event dialog

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 362933

(Calendar :: Dialogs, defect)

Description

[Max Spicer]

Show Time As Busy/Free is currently buried at the bottom of the Options menu on the Event dialog.  For people that rely on accurate free/busy information being published, I believe this option should be made much more prominent and much easier to quickly set.

Comment 1

[Max Spicer]

One option would be to have an tick box right next to the All Day Event tick box:

[X] All day Event  [X] Show Time as Busy

There's plenty of space in the New Event dialog for this.

I often get reports from confused users who have set up all day events in their calendar but still found themselves being invited to meetings on those days.  When asked, they turned out not to even be aware of the show time as free/busy setting.

Comment 2

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Attachment: UI Mockup

Quick mockup

Comment 3

[Michiel van Leeuwen (email: mvl+moz@)]

I have two problems with this suggestions.
First, in general, I don't like the idea of adding back options that we just moved out of the main view. Why is this one more important than the others? I fear a slippery slope, and going back to complex UI. Just because there is some space doesn't mean you can add UI. Empty space is a good thing!

Second, more about this proposal, the location of the checkbox isn't that good. Which checkbox do i click to set the 'allday' option? Which label does the middle checkbox belong to? 

Comment 4

[Max Spicer]

The reason for adding this option into the main view is to make more obvious how it works in conjunction all day events.  When people create normal events, their time is automatically shown as busy.  However, when they tick All day event, their time is shown as free.  This behaviour can be counter-intuitive and often leads to people thinking that a whole day is marked as busy in their diary when in fact people booking meetings will see them as available.  These two options work together closely, so it makes sense to put them together.

There is a common standard that the label for a checkbox or radio button goes to the right of the checkbox/radio button.  I don't think it's unclear in the mock up.  See the "open new messages in" settings in Preferences -> Advanced -> General for another example of this.

Comment 5

[Michiel van Leeuwen (email: mvl+moz@)]

I still think the UI isn't really clear, but I can't come up with rational arguments (which you didn't provide either) So this is mostly a matter of taste. All i can do is quote the gnome HIG: "Try to align groups of check boxes vertically rather than horizontally, as this makes them easier to scan visually. Use horizontal or rectangular alignments only if they greatly improve the layout of the window." (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/controls-check-boxes.html)

Now we just wait for UI review :)

Comment 6

[Pete Riley]

Alternatively there could be a toolbar button to toggle the free/busy state.

Comment 7

[Christian Jansen]

I don't like the idea of adding the option next to the "All day Event" option.
The main reason is that the "Show Time as Free/Busy" option is more or less an option which conjuncts to "All day Event" and standard events. Thus is should be placed below the "End" Drop Down List Box, but this would clutter the interface unnecessarily.

I like the idea of adding the "Show Time as Free/Busy" to the toolbar.
 * It should be called "Show as Free"
 * It should be hidden by default
   -> users need to add this option via "Customize Toolbar"

Just for reference, have created a mockup which shows both solutions.

Comment 8

[Christian Jansen]

Attachment: Show Time As Free in Toolbar & Dialog

Comment 9

[Max Spicer]

My main concern here is that any solution makes it obvious whether an all day event is counted in your availability.  This isn't solved by adding a hidden by default toolbar button.  I would imagine that a tiny proportion of users customise their toolbars, so the vast majority would never even know that this button existed.  The problems of time booking would therefore continue as before.

Comment 10

[Christian Jansen]

I agree, but it makes no sense to display options which are not used by a majority, by default.

An other solution could be to show the "Show Time as Free" option only if the "All day Event" check box is marked. But this have the drawback that users would think believe that the "Show Time as Free" option is tight to all day events, only.

Comment 11

[Max Spicer]

Are they not used by the majority because the majority aren't using WCAP?  If that's the case, couldn't we have it shown if WCAP is enabled?

Comment 12

[Christian Jansen]

Comment on attachment 288326 [details]
UI Mockup


I like the idea of having the "Show time as" option a little bit more prominent, but we should not place it at the proposed position.

Offering this option in the toolbar is ok, but only optional.

Comment 13

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

I think a toolbar button would be a [good first bug]. Max, maybe you are interested in taking over this issue?

Comment 14

[madeyemoofy]

I mark the majority of my calendar invitations as busy. I would appreciate a possibility to set this flag as a default. then it would minimize my time required to click additional fields. Is there any chance to have this as an item which can be configured as a default?

The rest of my calendar bookings are out-of-office. Today this option is not available at all (I can see only free/busy thick boxes). So it should be added.
Because I do not use this option so often, I would be ok to have it "somewhat burried" where it is today.

Comment 15

[Pete Riley]

> I mark the majority of my calendar invitations as busy. I would appreciate a
> possibility to set this flag as a default.

I believe you can add a pref: calendar.allday.defaultTransparency
and set its value to OPAQUE.

(according to bug 430805)

I don't know if it works with emailed invitations.

Comment 16

[Sven Giermann]

Still no one working on this?

Maybe this is good start-over for me :)

@Philipp:
Toolbar buttons are not my playground, as they need icons... (Christian?)
- So where's a good space to place this one?
- Should it go as Checkbox or better dropdown?
- Should we create new localizations or re-use the option menu's?
- Wouldn't it be best to include "Status" as well together with this?

Waiting for reply before taking it...

Comment 17

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Sven, glad to have you back! 

Andreas takes care of creating icons for us now, I've put him on CC. Andreas: please read the end of this comment for a short version of what we need.

Sven, I think you have two options here, a normal dropdown button or a menu-button. If you use a dropdown button its quite obvious, a dropdown is always displayed on click.

If you use a menu-button, then you get the normal dropdown and in addition you have an action for clicking on the button. I think the only two options at the moment are free and busy, so clicking on the button could toggle between the two. If some unknown state is set, I'd pick busy as the click-action.

I'm fine with using existing strings, that should be ok until someone complains. I'm all for the status, but I think we shouldn't always show it since newbie users will likely not need this feature too often.

-----------

Here's the short version of what UI stuff we need:
* An icon for a toolbar button:
  - The option name is "show time as " with values "busy" and "free".
  - The button may be a toggle button

* An icon or other UI idea for the status bar
  - When the toolbarbutton is used as a toggle button, its not clear what state
    we are in, therefore we need some form of visual feedback
  - This option is not needed for the newbie user, so maybe it can be invisble
    sometimes
  - The default for normal events is BUSY, while the default for allday events
    is FREE.

Comment 18

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Andreas, also Note that Christian already mocked up an icon in attachment 288459 [details].

Comment 19

[Sven Giermann]

(In reply to comment #17)
> I think the only two options at the moment are free and busy, ...

This is true for the current available options, but FreeBusy knows about 4 states, as does Outlook. I would suggest to file a spin-off bug to enable support for the other modes, but pay attention to the possibility of more than 2 states now.

While thinking about it, I would prefer some equality to the "Privacy" button - pressing it toggles through all values with feedback in status bar (or maybe next to the time would match better here) and still the ability to drop down the list of all values to choose one specific.

I will probably find some time to fetch the current sources and to create a UI propasal in the next weeks...

Comment 20

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

(In reply to comment #19)
> (In reply to comment #17)
> > I think the only two options at the moment are free and busy, ...
> 
> This is true for the current available options, but FreeBusy knows about 4
> states, as does Outlook. I would suggest to file a spin-off bug to enable
> support for the other modes, but pay attention to the possibility of more
> than 2 states now.
Agreed

> 
> While thinking about it, I would prefer some equality to the "Privacy"
> button - pressing it toggles through all values with feedback in status bar
> (or maybe next to the time would match better here) and still the ability to
> drop down the list of all values to choose one specific.
Thats fine with me too, go for it!


> I will probably find some time to fetch the current sources and to create a
> UI propasal in the next weeks...
Sounds great. If you need a refresh on build instructions, see <https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Simple_Thunderbird_build>. We are using comm-central for main development.

Comment 21

[Sven Giermann]

Attachment: First screenshot of current implementation

Maybe we can already use the glasses icon?
Otherwise I expect new suggestions...

AND: Sorry, no feedback yet - one would have to expand the toolbar button or the options menu to see the current state.
(Code follows after UI review)

Comment 22

[Sven Giermann]

Attachment: Code for proposal in attachment 550681

Comment 23

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Comment on attachment 550692 [details] [diff] [review]
Code for proposal in attachment 550681 [details]

From simple inspection the code looks fine. Andreas, could you look into the UI review here?

Comment 24

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Comment on attachment 550692 [details] [diff] [review]
Code for proposal in attachment 550681 [details]

Review of attachment 550692 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Code looks fine, r=philipp

Comment 25

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Attachment: Fix - v2

Debitrotted patch. CSS rules obviously not correct yet since the icon question is still open.

Comment 26

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Andreas, here is your TODO:

* Check the screenshot: Is the icon we already have OK or do we need a new one?
* Make sure icons are aligned for windows (aero) and friends.

Comment 27

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Attachment: Fix - v2

This time with qrefresh

Comment 28

[Martin Schröder [:mschroeder]]

Bringing this bug back on the radar. :)

Comment 29

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

Comment on attachment 550681 [details]
First screenshot of current implementation

Paenglab, do you think you could look into the ui-review part here? See comment 26.

Comment 30

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Comment on attachment 635670 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix - v2

Review of attachment 635670 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not a graphic artist but I think the glasses should work for freebusy. As a metaphor we can say we have to put the glasses on to read things during our work. Searching for busy icons I found the wrong way signal together with a person like we have in calendar-invitations-dialog-list-images.png.

I ui-r minused because the patch doesn't apply (old theme names and wrong image-regions) and the styles for linux are missing.

And I think the split button should be a normal menu button. Now when you press the left button part it changes from free to busy and back to free, but you have no visual feedback about the actual state. Then you have to press the right button part to check the state. With the normal menu button you see directly the actual state and can choose the state you want.

::: calendar/base/themes/pinstripe/dialogs/calendar-event-dialog.css
@@ +59,5 @@
> + *   freebusy button
> + *-------------------------------------------------------------------*/
> +
> +#button-freebusy {
> +  -moz-image-region: rect(0px 768px 32px 736px);

This needs to be -moz-image-region: rect(0 414px 18px 396px);

@@ +62,5 @@
> +#button-freebusy {
> +  -moz-image-region: rect(0px 768px 32px 736px);
> +}
> +#button-freebusy:not([disabled]:active {
> +  -moz-image-region: rect(32px 768px 64px 736px);

And this -moz-image-region: rect(18px 414px 36px 396px);

::: calendar/base/themes/winstripe/win-aero/calendar-event-dialog.css
@@ +51,5 @@
>    -moz-image-region: rect(1px 89px 17px 73px);
>  }
>  
> +#button-freebusy {
> +  -moz-image-region: rect(0px 576px 24px 552px);

This should be -moz-image-region: rect(1px 413px 17px 397px);

Comment 31

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Comment on attachment 550681 [details]
First screenshot of current implementation

Oops, forgot to give ui-r here. Sorry.

ui-r+ if the button isn't a split button like in attachment #635670 [details] [diff] [review] but a normal menu button.

Comment 32

[Decathlon]

I think this bug has been fixed by Bug 362933. The button for the option "Show Time As" can now be added in the toolbar of the dialog if the user thinks that it's an important option. The status free/busy is permanently displayed in the status bar without need to click on the button.
The only issue could be the icon that at the moment is a clock with a background color half clear and half dark (free/busy), quite different than the icon proposed in this bug.

Comment 33

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

I think the new icon fits quite well, therefore let's close this bug. Let me know if you disagree.