42458 - Autocomplete algorithm should match first word too

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Composition, defect, P2)

Description

[Phil Peterson]

Using 2000-06-13-08 on NT

1. Kimberly Bradway is in my Collected Address Book.
2. Open a compose window
3. Type "kim br" in the addressing widget, no match
4. Type "kimberly br" in the addressing widget, now it matches

Seems like we need to do substring matches on the first word, in addition to the
last word. In 4.x, we called this the "Chris Yeh" problem, since he was in LDAP
as "Christopher Yeh"

Comment 1

[Phil Peterson]

Add 4xp and nsbeta3 keywords

Comment 2

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Maybe you should list options which match the whole string first, and options 
which match only one of the words (e.g. `Kit Fr' to match `Christopher Francis') 
after that? Or maybe list options which match any of the words only if there are 
no matches which match the whole string.

Comment 3

[Phil Peterson]

Personally, I wouldn't want either of those options. I want an alphabetical list
of hits matching the pattern (kim* br*).

A segmented list of matches would be confusing to me (non-sorted would look like
a bug) and deciding to show some matches but not others defeats the purpose of
the autocomplete picker (which is to unambiguously choose the right recipient
based on all possible matches)

Comment 4

[Suresh]

adding myself to the cc list.

Comment 5

[scottputterman]

Mail Triage is marking [nsbeta3-]

Comment 6

[pmock]

Changing qa assign to myself.

Comment 7

[jglick]

Add mail3 keyword

Comment 8

[scottputterman]

*** Bug 62225 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[scottputterman]

marking nsbeta1+ and moving to mozilla0.8

Comment 10

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

In 4.x, if I type "Kim Brad" in the adressing field, I get back
"[e-mail], [e-mail] <No match found>. This despite the fact I
have an entry for Kimberly Bradway in my address book. However, 4.x is able to
find her if I type "Brad" but not 6.x. However, as 6.x is not able to
autocomplete several email addresses on the same line (input), It should be
possible to try to match any partial words as described by Phil.

We should try to do the following matches for a dual word input: <xxx> <nnn>
1) <xxx> <nnn> against the display name (last name + first name) Already done by 6.0
2) <xxx> <nnn> against the nick name.Already done by 6.0
3) <xxx> <nnn> against the email address. Already done by 6.0
4) <xxx> against last name and <nnn> against first name
5) <xxx> against first name and <nnn> against last name

And for a one word input: <xxx>
1) <xxx> against display name, 6.0 does that
2) <xxx> against nick name, 6.0 does that
3) <xxx> against email address, 6.0 does that
4) <xxx> against fist name
5) <xxx> against last name (just in case it's different than the display name)

Comment 11

[Phil Peterson]

> In 4.x, if I type "Kim Brad" in the adressing field, I get back
> "[e-mail], [e-mail] <No match found>. This despite the fact I
> have an entry for Kimberly Bradway in my address book.

I guess 4.x uses a different matching pattern for local AB entries, vs. LDAP
entries. I'm pretty sure "Kim Brad" will match for LDAP autocomplete.

> We should try to do the following matches for a dual word input: <xxx> <nnn>

Sounds very complete. One thing perhaps to keep in mind is that an LDAP filter
string which expresses that logic will be pretty complex.

Comment 12

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

Ok, I have implemented the whole logic I'have described earlier.

Now I am looking at sorting the result but I don't know on which criteria to do
it? matches are shown as:
 [firstName] [lastName] <[email address]>

any preference for the sort?

Comment 13

[scottputterman]

it's hard to tell until I use it, but I think I like the idea of it being sorted
by the first name.  Only because normally when I autocomplete, I start typing
the first name and so that's how I'd be looking for it in the list.

Comment 14

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Sorting by last name would only make sense in those cultures where the surname is 
the last name (e.g. the US and most European cultures). Sorting by first name 
would make sense everywhere (because it's obvious alphabetical order, same as for 
the other uses of auto-complete in Mozilla).

No it should not be a pref. (Just in case anyone suggests that.)

Comment 15

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

I've just check in the new algo that solve the initial problem reported in this
bug. I'll open a new bug for the sorting issue.

Comment 16

[Jean-Francois Ducarroz]

Bug 64662 has been filed. Please use it for further discussion about sorting the
autocomplete result and add yourself in the cc list if you are interested.
Thanks

Comment 17

[fenella]

Win32 (2001-02-20-09 mtrunk)
This problem is fixed as originally reported.