451620 - remove the Advanced Preference for Connection timeout

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Under Advanced -> Network & Disk Space

Should this be per account/server??

Or it could be moved into the ( Connection ... ) dialog.

Comment 1

[Ronald Killmer]

Since this is being looked at I suggest the default time be increased.  It would help reduce User issues caused by slow server responses.  In support We commonly recommend Users bump this to 120, though I have found 100 to be sufficient with my worst case news server. 

The worst thing We could do would be forcing the use of about:config or Config Edit to help a novice user resolve server timing cases. 

Comment 2

[rsx11m]

This would (only) fit into the Connection dialog if the size of that window
is increased. Ideally, this should be a server preference as it may differ
for individual servers. Thus far, I personally had no issues with the 60sec default, but I see Ron's argument that some users may need to tweak that.

Comment 3

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Sure, this could be moved to the Advanced Account Settings window.  As put in comment 2 it's likely per account and not a system wide preference.  And like comment 1 points out, this is a debug preference, so it shouldn't be hanging around out in the open where the kids can get to it. :)

Comment 4

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Ok, just asked around in IRC and found out this isn't per server but a global timeout on read, connect, and writes, before we get a server response.

So it wouldn't make sense to put in the individual Account settings.  We should probably just move it into the Connection Settings dialog then.

Comment 5

[Ronald Killmer]

I suggest the Label "Determine how..." be revised to read "Select how ..." The existing terminology hints there is a detector widget, not a User Check off.

Alternatively, I thought the Sub-dialog be renamed to 'Proxy Settings' and move the default [x] Direct Connect out to the parent dialog tab and add [0] Proxy connect that Auto opens the sub-dialog on Xing the Proxy box. A proxy is a more advanced case than a straight DSL or Dial-up subscription.

Any way, this is one element of the Tb Options/Preferences that has been revised more than once in the past 5 years. Were bound to get it right sometime. ;-)

Comment 6

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Attachment: screenshot of patched dialog

Did a patch for this bug.  However after seeing the Connection timeout in the Connection dialog I can see this doesn't actually belong there.  The Connection dialog is only about proxy settings and I think it should remain that way.  While the connection timeout is just a debug option and I'm pretty convinced now that it doesn't need more than the about:config UI.

Trying another patch to bring this closer to the Firefox pref style, will post soon.

Comment 7

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Attachment: improved patch screenshot of dialogs

Here's the improved version that steals a lot from the Firefox codebase

Comment 8

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Attachment: patch removes conn timeout and updates adv. prefs

Comment 9

[Ronald Killmer]

Reply to Comment #7
Looks good, a lot cleaner UI overall. do the new button icons come with the patch?

Comment 10

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Looks good, a lot cleaner UI overall. do the new button icons come with the
> patch?

Yep!  Using the recommended <button icon="network"> which has theme support for all platforms.

Comment 11

[benc]

If you move this into the Connections sub-window, you should provide some sectioning layout to make it clear that the Connection timeout doesn't have any relationship to the Proxy configuration...

Comment 12

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Remember you need to bump the entity name when changing texts (unless it's typos etc) - otherwise localizers can't keep up.

Comment 13

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Attachment: patch removes conn timeout, updates default timeout to 100

Here's the updated patch.  No new screenshot needed as everything looks the same.

Only changes were needed changes to the entity labels as magnus pointed out and bumping the default timeout value up to 100.  I wasn't sure which default value to choose, 120 or 100 so I defaulted to a more conservative value based on an illogical gut feeling.

Comment 14

[Ronald Killmer]

(In reply to comment #13)
> Only changes were needed changes to the entity labels as magnus pointed out and
> bumping the default timeout value up to 100.  I wasn't sure which default value
> to choose, 120 or 100 so I defaulted to a more conservative value based on an
> illogical gut feeling.

Experience points to 100 being adequate for tough NNTP cases. More than that, the user should be on the phone to the ISP.

Comment 15

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 339971 [details] [diff] [review]
patch removes conn timeout, updates default timeout to 100

Looks good to me!
You still need sr for the mailnews/ default pref change.

Comment 16

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

Comment on attachment 339971 [details] [diff] [review]
patch removes conn timeout, updates default timeout to 100

r+sr=dmose for the mailnews.js pref change

Comment 17

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

As we're currently in a string freeze, we'll check this in post beta 1.

Comment 18

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

updating target milestone and other flags

Comment 19

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Patch checked in, changeset id: 487:46d58163456e