Closed Bug 48757 Opened 24 years ago Closed 23 years ago

Multiple identities per account not supported

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Composition, defect, P3)

defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 44863
Future

People

(Reporter: BenB, Assigned: vparthas)

References

Details

Reproduce:
1. Add the lines similar to those below to your prefs.js
2. Reply to a msg or create a new one in account1

Actual result:
The identities dropdown shows:
 <>
Ben Bucksch <mozilla.news@bucksch.org>
(the latter is selected).

Expected result:
All identities are shown correctly

Additional Comments:
If you use |user_pref("mail.account.account3.identities", "id1");|,
"<mozilla@bucksch.org>" is shown instead of "<mozilla.news@bucksch.org>" in the
dropdown, and "..." is selected by default.

Nominating for nsbeta3. While multiple identities per account cannot be created
with the current UI, they are a core feature. Adding complete accounts is a bad
workaround, because servers are said to slow down the shutdown noticably.

user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1,id2,id3");
user_pref("mail.account.account1.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account2.server", "server2");
user_pref("mail.account.account3.identities", "id1");
user_pref("mail.account.account3.server", "server3");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account1,account2,account3");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount", "account1");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.localfoldersserver", "server2");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.draft_folder", "imap://user@server/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder", "imap://user@server/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fullName", "Ben Bucksch");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.organization", "Me, myself and I");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.reply_to", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.stationery_folder", "imap://user@server/Draft");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.useremail", "mozilla.news@bucksch.org");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.valid", true);
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.compose_html", true);
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.draft_folder", "imap://user@server/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.fcc_folder", "imap://user@server/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.fullName", "Ben Bucksch");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.organization", "Me, myself and I");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.reply_to", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.stationery_folder",
"mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Templates");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.useremail", "ben@bucksch.org");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.valid", true);
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.compose_html", true);
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.draft_folder", "imap://user@server/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.fcc_folder", "imap://user@server/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.fullName", "Ben Bucksch");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.organization", "Me, myself and I");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.reply_to", "");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.stationery_folder",
"mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Templates");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.useremail", "mozilla@bucksch.org");
user_pref("mail.identity.id3.valid", true);
Keywords: correctness, nsbeta3
you're right, multiple identities are not supported... I have reiterated this 
many times: they are not a core feature as you claim. they're a neat little 
thing I added for hackers.

"servers are said to slow the shutdown noticably"? what does this mean? I have 
12 servers in one profile, and startup/shutdown is not noticably slower than a 
different profile I have with only 2 servers..
I don't remember you saying this, but I understand that they are not a core
feature for Netscape. At least, they are a core feature for me :).

Anyway, I found a workaround: Add multiple accounts each pointing to different
identities, but all pointing to "Local Folders". With this workaround, this will
get nsbeta3- anyway, so I'll remove the nomination.

> "servers are said to slow the shutdown noticably"? what does this mean?

See comments of jefft in bug 39810:
"Especially, if you have a lot of mail accounts (server)."
"Ben, how many servers do you have?"
IIRC, the shutdown was really faster after I deleted most accounts.
Keywords: nsbeta3
Target Milestone: --- → Future
mark future per mail triage
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
*** Bug 54022 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Ben Bucksch said: "Adding complete accounts is a bad workaround, because [...]".
I would be happy to do that, but the current (0.9.2) UI complains that I already
have an account for that server/username pair.

Is that a bug I should report (or is it already reported), or is the bug in the
missing support of identities (aka this one)?
Ben, could you elaborate the workaround you mentioned?
Risto Kankkunen, just use fake (non-existing) servers.
*** Bug 97120 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 97304 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
over to varada
Assignee: ducarroz → varada
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
*** Bug 103275 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
here is the conversation I had about this issue that brought upton my Duplicate
bug 103275.

-----------


Jay Garcia wrote:

Jay Garcia wrote:


Taco Witte wrote:



dman84 wrote:

<snap>

Its called creating new profiles with profile manager - creating an account the
way you want it for each profile.





No, that's not what I mean. The problem is that each account can only have one
outgoing 'name'. I mean that for each account only one field is added to the
options in From:. (I have configured my e-mail accounts at my service providers
in such a way that all messages are delivered to one single inbox, and when I
reply, I can only select one address from which I send my reply.) Do you know
what I mean?




The other thing is an option to have more outgoing e-mail addresses per account.
This is very useful in a family situation, in which there's only one inbox
(multiple e-mail addresses for one mailbox), but everyone wants to send mail
using the personal e-mail address. I know that it's possible to 'override' this
feature by creating a void account in which only the name and e-mail address are
configured, but this is no solution..
I hope that I'm not the only one who thinks these things are useful.




With regards,
Taco Witte




A "profile" can consist of many accounts. An "account" is a single
identity, the two are synonymous.

I don't quite understand what you're after here. Doesn't make sense that
the account "Joe" (Joe@isp.com) would also be "Betty" (Betty@isp.com)
configured in the same account.

Example:

You have ONE account named "Joe" which sends/replies as Joe@isp.com. You
have a second account named "Betty" which sends/replies as Betty@isp.com

If you have email received in the account "Joe.isp.com" and you want to
reply as "Betty@isp.com" then that's quite simple to do by clicking the
drop down "From" list and choosing any account name/address.

Both of the above "accounts" are in one single "profile" ....




I might also add here that if you are in the "Joe" account and you
send/reply as the "Betty" account it picks up the Identity settings of
the "Betty" account such as Betty's signature for example.




This, I found out is a dup of: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48757


True.. Jay, Yes.. Taco, that is what you can do add accounts for other people
but while writing a message you can change the from pulldown menu..

Jay, I'm thinking that you are thinking that he only has a 'Joe@isp.com' account
and wants to reply using 'Betty' from 'Betty@isp.com'

but it sounds to me like he wants 'Betty' <joe@isp.com> which works already..
using multiple accounts.

1) I'm thinking he wants to just create one account, for simplicity sake and use
another profile 'Betty' that would produce 'Betty' <joe@isp.com> in the
account.. (does this work? I believe so it can be configured for each profile to
use an account.)

2) I see filtering yes would work to sort incoming email but not help send out
account identities would be best.. Each folder has their name..

3) but I think he wants to be able to configure one account and adding some
identities that can produce 'Betty' <joe@isp.com> or 'Jill' <joe@isp.com> and
have it show under (From selection)


-Dman84

ok, sorry ben.  I was just trying to illustrate an example of how it can be
implemented based on what a given user wants and is asking for.. to help clarify
why users are asking for this feature and how it should be implemented if added.

Although I guess everyone here understands already what kinda implementation
users are asking for?  is that it?  I was trying to add an example is all.  Here
is where all the dups are generated back to, so why not add some discussion
info?  Afterall, does everyone read the newsgroups for every little thing everyday?

-dman84
[OT] dman84,
adding new ideas / viewpoints from newsgroup discussions to bugs is very much
appreciated. But please make sure that it's *new* (i.e. hasn't beeen already
mentioned) and that it is as short as possible (i.e. make a summary or cite only
very small portions).
/QA ignore

[OT] Ben, again sorry, I do agree with you, you are right after I had read your
reply and took a look at the content.  Thanks for bringing it up.  There was way
too much stuff which I could/should have left off.  Anyway, onward with discussion.

-dman84
Part of what I posted on n.p.m.mail-news
(snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/3BC31A36.1060803@removethis.netscape.net)

> Now, instead of taking information from the account in the From drop 
> down box, imagine the GUI like this.
> 
> Identity: <Drop Down box>
> From:     <non-editable field>
> 
> Based on the identity you select, things change. Of course an additional 
> pref like
> 
> user_pref("mail.identity.id1.friendlyname", "Joke spam identity");
> 
> would be nice.


So when the user has not specified any additional identities, Identity name
could be equal to the Account Name. But a user can go in and add identities to
his prefs.js file and they would show up on the Compose window too in the drop
down box.
QA Contact: lchiang → nbaca
*** Bug 50183 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I have just noticed that another bug of mine, bug 44863 is a duplicate of this
bug (or the other way round), it would like to mark it duplicate, but it has 6
votes and 5 dups so...
a) does bugzilla transfer the votes?
b) including the 5 dups this bug has, isn't this a mostfreq bug then?

Keywords: mail3
Let's mark this a dupe of bug# 44863. I don't think that dupes or votes are
brought over.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 44863 ***
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Verified Duplicate.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
I would like to add another reason why this feature would be very usefull. I use
different ISPs for connecting to the internet. Let's say there are two ISPs with
each having its own SMTP-server. For example:
ISP-1: smtp.isp-1.com
ISP-2: smtp.isp-2.com

When you dial in through isp-1.com, you can't access smtp.isp-2.com. And when
you dial in through isp-2.com you can't access smtp.isp-1.com (anti-spam!).
I want to have one account (pop.isp-1.com). I can access that through either
ISP. But I want to be able to easily switch SMTP servers within that account.
You could include the SMTP-server within an identy. It would make sense to
choose an identy when composing an outgoing message (with the drop down box).
Usually you already are in the right account/folder when you press Compose.

If this is a bad idea or no one is willing to implement I might try to figure
out XUL and try it myself. Could this be done?

Marcel
this is true, but don't forget that with most ISPs, if you are dialed into
isp-1.com, and your identity is "alecf@isp-1.com" you often can send mail
through smtp.isp-1.com as your other identity, "alecf@isp-1.com" - meaning that
really the SMTP server depends on your CONNECTION, not the IDENTITY.

That said, for people who often switch between ISPs, I think what you really
want is:
1) a menu in the compose window which allows you to choose which SMTP server to use
2) the product should remember the last SMTP server used, at least for the
lifetime of the session. 

I've already built some of this into the current API, as well as written an SMTP
server RDF DataSource to make generation of the menu very easy. all the backend
to do 1) and 2) is there, we just need a UI. I think there's even a bug on it
somewhere.
SMTP server is related to ISP indeed. That was my point as well. But I suggested
binding the SMTP server to the identity because:
1. Mozilla has no knowledge of connections (and right so).
2. If SMTP server/connection would be a separate drop down box you would have to
pick a) an account, b) an identity, c) an SMTP server. Three is too much I guess.
no, you'd
1) pick an identity
2) change the SMTP server ONLY if it is different than last time
there's no "choose an account" step
If we will still have multiple identities next to multiple accounts it sounds
great to me. When can I have this ? ;-)
Re last 4 comments: Compare bug 43429 (maybe the SMTP server could somehow
depend on that switch).
Product: MailNews → Core
Product: Core → MailNews Core
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