Open Bug 40694 Opened 24 years ago Updated 2 months ago

Allow edit of unsent message (Outbox folder messages should open to a compose window when double click)

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Composition, defect, P3)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Composition
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Milestone:
Future

People

(Reporter: esther, Unassigned)

References

Details

Attachments

(1 file, 1 obsolete file)

Patch V1
855 bytes, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review 
Using build 2000-05-25, if user double clicks on a message in unsent folder it 
should open up to a compose window (similiar to draft) like in 4.7x.
QA Contact: lchiang → esther
re-assign to putterman, cc ducarroz, rhp.

one of them got this to work for drafts / templates.

not a nsbeta2 bug.
really re-assign to putterman this time.
Assignee: sspitzer → putterman
marking M18.
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Target Milestone: --- → M18
I'm going to suggest we can live without this and move to future milestone.
Target Milestone: M18 → Future
Add mail3 keyword. If we are going to work on offline, this is important.
Keywords: mail3
*** Bug 60033 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
change qa contact to myself, cc- eshter.
QA Contact: esther → sheelar
marking nsbeta1-
Keywords: nsbeta1-
*** Bug 82997 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 88717 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
1. The behavior is incosistent compared with 4.x Messenger
2. The behavior is also inconsistent compared with MS products such as Outlook.
Not sure why we decided to change this behavior. The inconsistency, from a user
perspective, looked like a bug which is why I reported it.

BTW, the 'Edit as New Msg' on unsent mail is also inconsistent with 4.x. I also
reported this one too as a bug.

So, if this is not considered a bug, that would be acceptable. But I think it
would be important to be consistent with 2 most widely used mail products, 4.x
Messenger and MS Outlook.
I had been looking this bug, but for some reason I didn't find it. I had almost
decided to report it, but now I see more persons think like me.

For me, this is an annoying bug and I think there is no need to worry about
consistency with other mail clients.

I think double click should always allow to edit an unsent message, because many
times happens that we read our message before delivery and often we want to
change something.

"Edit As New" feature is not very useful also because if we edit the message and
we send it immediately, a copy of the sent message is saved, and a copy of the
old message remains also on "Unsent Messages".

I really can't figure out why this behavior has not been changed already! I will
vote for the bug.
I agree 100% with comment #12 from knocte. We need to be able to edit the
original message.

The main reason I want to see this feature is that I make extensive use of
address lists and if I Forward a message using a list and the original sender is
also in the list then they get a copy as well. Some people get rather stressed
about this, especially if the mail has a large attachment and they have a slow
connection, so I have to Send Later, Edit As New to remove the sender.

when will the mail app can have this enhanced function.
It is an important part.
Hope to modify it soon.
reassigning to varada.
Assignee: putterman → varada
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
adding self to cc list
Blocks: 154188
Attached patch Patch V1 — — Splinter Review 
Double Clicking on Messages in UnsentMessagess folder will open compose window
with that message.
This Patch seems to be not complete. It works like "Edit As New".
When I click "send later" again it should overwrite the old message and not 
as a new message. I think the Bug description not complete.
You are right and I have asked varada to resolve that already.
Shouldn't a doubleclick consistently do the same thing in *all* folders - namely
just preview the mail in a new window?

I think it would be more consistent and correct to add an *EDIT MSG* button in
the header bar of messages in the "Unsent Messages" folder, similar to how
messages are treated in the "Drafts" folder. (BTW. I wished there were an *EDIT*
button in the "Templates" folder's messages too.)

This would, in addition to being consistent, have the added benefit of providing
the user a *visual clue* that he _can_ edit the unsent message.

If the user edits such a message and presses either "Save", or "Send Later",
then the previous copy should be overwritten (OK, save normally creates a copy
in the "Drafts" folder - what to do?). Perhaps "Save" could do both - copy in
Drafts- and Unsent folders. Then when sent, delete from both Drafts and Unsent
folders.

If the user presses "Send" then the original copy of the msg should be deleted
from the Unsent folder.

I know my suggestions would technically make this bug a WONTFIX, but perhaps we
could just agree to rename the summary and move forward.
*** Bug 158268 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Why would you ever want to look at a message in a new window? I can't think of a
reason that reading your message in a new window would offer anything that you
didn't get reading it in the original window.

It has already been noted that NN users and OE users are already trained to use
this functionality. Why break it unless there is something to be gained in doing so?
*** Bug 165764 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
QA Contact: sheelar → esther
taking all of varada's bugs.
Assignee: varada → sspitzer
Product: MailNews → Core
Summary: Unsent folder messages should open to a compose window when double click → Allow edit of unsent message (Unsent folder messages should open to a compose window when double click)
*** Bug 254738 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 362059 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
If you want to compare with other mail clients, Eudora opens unsent message as editable. Thunderbirds behavior is quite annoying if you are used to Eudora.
sorry for the spam.  making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs.  filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.
Assignee: sspitzer → nobody
Possible idea for an solution, allow edit message for unsent message and make that move the message to the drafts folder before opening it.

With that we would prevent sending an old version of a mail, while it's edited.
Severity: major → enhancement
This bug (it's such a basic feature it should hardly be considered an enhancement) almost completely defeats the purpose of having an unsent folder (with the only exception being offline message composition).  For years, I've had my email client queue messages to be sent a bit later so that if I noticed an error upon or shortly after hitting "send," I could correct it.  Having to "edit as new" and then fix all of the line wrapping that Thunderbird induces upon re-edit, and then having to delete the pseudo-duplicate message is simply ridiculous.

Also, shouldn't this bug be under "Thunderbird" and not "Core"?
(In reply to comment #31)
> This bug (it's such a basic feature it should hardly be considered an
> enhancement) almost completely defeats the purpose of having an unsent folder
> (with the only exception being offline message composition).  For years, I've
> had my email client queue messages to be sent a bit later so that if I noticed
> an error upon or shortly after hitting "send," I could correct it.  Having to
> "edit as new" and then fix all of the line wrapping that Thunderbird induces
> upon re-edit, and then having to delete the pseudo-duplicate message is simply
> ridiculous.

I agree completely with this feeling, and BTW I think it's a reason to change it again from enhancement to major, because I also think it's a regression (some time in the past, I could edit an unsent message with Mozilla Application Suite).


> Also, shouldn't this bug be under "Thunderbird" and not "Core"?

I guess it's in Core because we are heading a common component between Seamonkey and Thunderbird, but I'm not sure.
Severity: enhancement → major
(In reply to comment #32)
> I agree completely with this feeling, and BTW I think it's a reason to change
> it again from enhancement to major, because I also think it's a regression
> (some time in the past, I could edit an unsent message with Mozilla Application Suite).

my apologies, double click opens to edit in netscape 4.x (tested 4.79), so this is 4xp. Thanks for pointing that out.  see bug 254738 for netscape behavior and other good info which parallels some of the discussion here.

however, not major (even if regression) as this has an easy workaround in "edit as new". see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html#bug_severity
 "minor=minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present"

If you can cite a suite version where this worked feel free to mark regression, but given the age of the bug I doubt it ever worked in suite.


> > Also, shouldn't this bug be under "Thunderbird" and not "Core"?
> 
> I guess it's in Core because we are heading a common component between
> Seamonkey and Thunderbird, but I'm not sure.

Magnus, Phil?  As this is "pane centric" I'm guessing it's a UI decision best left to the respective products.  If so perhaps bug 254738 should be reopened for Thunderbird.
Severity: major → minor
Keywords: 4xp
QA Contact: esther → composition
Product: Core → MailNews Core
The logic is in ThreadPaneDoubleClick() which is shared:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/base/resources/content/threadPane.js#203

Getting it to open for editing is easy, but there's probably a lot of caveats after that... when to remove the original etc.
re.
> there's probably a lot of caveats after that... when to remove the original etc.

From an end-user's point of view, NS 4.7's method seemed to work fine.  I.e. the user double clicks the message, the message opens, the user makes his/her changes to the message, and then upon 'Send Later', the original mesage is replaced.

I.e. from a technical point of view, I don't know, but from an end-user's point fo view, the original should get removed (i.e. replaced with the editted message) when the user selects 'Send Later'. (My opinion.)
I think it should probably open for reading only by double click, but have a button to open for editing, the same way it is for drafts if you open one in new window from the context menu.
re.
> I think it should probably open for reading only by double click, but have a
button to open for editing, the same way it is for drafts if you open one in
new window from the context menu.

I don't really agree with the double click opening for reading only.  Double click on an email in the 'drafts' window pane opens the message for editting, so why not the same for 'send later'?  However I agree with an 'Edit' button in the 'Send Later' pane, it would make it consistent with the 'Drafts' folder operation.
I composed an invitation, then rethought the date, and saved it in UNSENT MESSAGES.
Once I decided on the new date, I EDITed AS NEW and SENT UNSENT MESSAGES. Both versions went out. Now, I'm getting acceptances for both dates. THIS BUG SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIXED A DECADE AGO.

I cannot find a bug that fixed this, but I believe this is WFM. Do you agree?

Flags: needinfo?(de.berberich)

When I double-click on an unsent message in my Outbox it is opened in a new tab.
But maybe this was the original feature and this is the expected behavior?
Why should it behave like a message saved in the Drafts folder?

Flags: needinfo?(de.berberich)

(In reply to Eckard Berberich from comment #43)

Why should it behave like a message saved in the Drafts folder?

Because that is the desired behavior of this bug report.

When I double-click on an unsent message in my Outbox it is opened in a new tab.
But maybe this was the original feature and this is the expected behavior?

Yes, original behavior is to just open in display mode. But for me, using current beta, it opens in compose. Now that I think of it, it's worked this way for quite a long time. I didn't test safe mode, but I don't think there's a hidden prefernce for this.

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #44)

Yes, original behavior is to just open in display mode. But for me, using current beta, it opens in compose. Now that I think of it, it's worked this way for quite a long time. I didn't test safe mode, but I don't think there's a hidden prefernce for this.

In my tests there is no difference between the actual version 68.2.2 and 71.0b3. In both versions double-click opens the Outbox message in a new tab and not in a compose window.

Strange that we don't see the same thing.

Also works for me in safe mode.

Summary: Allow edit of unsent message (Unsent folder messages should open to a compose window when double click) → Allow edit of unsent message (Outbox folder messages should open to a compose window when double click)

It just opens as a normal message for me (not into compose).
I think it should open like a normal message, but like a draft have the button to start editing. Only with different text in the notification.

I vote for the comment number 30

A little OT: there's something strange about the fonts on this bug page: they are normal at the beginning , and become too smooth(the style that make almost the entire Web hard to read for me) since comment 42!

Severity: minor → S4
Attachment #9387462 - Attachment is obsolete: true
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.

Attachment

General

Creator:
Created:
Updated:
Size: