486432 - Can't get back to "What's New" tab

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[skierpage]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090401 Minefield/3.6a1pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b3pre) Gecko/20090223 Thunderbird/3.0b2

The first time I ran Thunderbird 3 it showed a nice "What's new in Thunderbird 3" tab.  I can't figure out how to see this again.

Reproducible: Didn't try

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install and run Thunderbird 3.
2. Note the "What's New" tab with "What's New in Thunderbird 3" text.
3. Exit then restart Thunderbird 3.
4. Try to redisplay that text.
Actual Results:  
I couldn't figure out how to redisplay "What's New in Thunderbird 3"

Expected Results:  
Maybe the Mail Start Page should have a link "What's new in Thunderbird 3".  With text to indicate that it opens in a new Thunderbird tab unlike the other links.

And/or there could be a Help menu item for this.

If you don't provide a way to redisplay this page, maybe its text could indicate "You will only see this once", or have a clunky "Don't display this again" checkbox defaulted to off.

Comment 1

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Bryan, Rafael, thoughts?

Comment 2

[Rafael Ebron (:rebron)]

I like the start page idea, though not sure how to invoke a new tab.

Not so sure I like access via the help menu though I've seen it in other apps.

Comment 3

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

Yeah, can we try something with the start page to open the tab again?

Comment 4

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I think we can special-case the about protocol when we click links, I need to look at this for the about:rights patch,

Comment 5

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Attachment: The fix

Adds a menu option to the help menu to get to the What's New tab. This will open the tab in an existing window (putting it in focus) or open a new window with the tab.

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I'd really question if we need this in the help menu. If anybody wants to go and look for it, can't we just link it on the release notes page (which already is in the menu)?

Comment 7

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Well this was discussed with Bryan. I don't see an easy place to obviously link What's New from the Release Notes in such a way that you get "This is the page you want to go to to find that page Thunderbird displayed the first time you upgraded it.".

We're also looking to use the TB 3 What's New page as a better launch pad to demo the new features of TB 3 - I can't say what it will have yet, but demos/examples might be on there - hence the user will want an easy way to get back to it.

Comment 8

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

Comment on attachment 393947 [details] [diff] [review]
The fix

I don't think there has yet been much communication on ideas about the what's new tab.  Like Mark points out I wanted to use it to demo new features like search and tabs that are very different.  Also give launching points for featured extensions like the advanced folder pane, collapsed message reader and other "revert me" type extensions.  I kind of expect that people will want to get back to it if they find that the new Thunderbird has changed too much.  Obviously some people are unhappy with some of the changes and I think we can use the ideas behind those rumblings to showcase extensions that people are using and enjoy.

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

But why isn't that the release notes? If we really aren't expecting anyone to read them, there's little point having them in any form. 

What i mean is, the "What's new" and "Release notes" should be fairly equivalent - i doubt a long page hurts anything. How about merging them? It would be totally fine to open the release notes in a new tab now when we have that capability.

Comment 10

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

The Release Notes are long and focus on things like known issues. The What's new page is focussed on just that - what is new, what new features the user can expect. We can focus it even better if we have a separate page to the release notes.

Comment 11

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 393947 [details] [diff] [review]
The fix

>+  let mail3PaneWindow = null;
>+  if (!tabmail) {
>+    // Try opening new tabs in an existing 3pane window
>+    let windowMediator = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/appshell/window-mediator;1"]
>+                                   .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIWindowMediator);
>+    mail3PaneWindow = windowMediator.getMostRecentWindow("mail:3pane");
>+    if (mail3PaneWindow) {

Declare mail3PaneWindow on first use instead. Can loose the windowMediator tmp if you want.

>+      tabmail = mail3PaneWindow.document.getElementById("tabmail");
>+      mail3PaneWindow.focus();
>+    }
>+  }
>+      


Spaces on emtpy line ^^

>+  if (tabmail)
>+    tabmail.openTab("contentTab", {contentPage: url });

Loose the space before }, and similar fix below.

>+  else
>+    window.openDialog("chrome://messenger/content/", "_blank",
>+                      "chrome,dialog=no,all", null,
>+                      { tabType: "contentTab",
>+                          tabParams: { contentPage: url } });

I'm still not at all keen on the feature in it self though :/

Comment 12

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Thanks Magnus, I understand, I really do think we can do more with a separate page and communicate changes better to users - and being able to get back to it makes it much easier for them if they ignore it on the first display.

Checked in with comments addressed: http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/0ab74a7268e0