539883 - (Temporary/ephmeral bug) Search messages was disabled.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Search, defect)

Description

[ISHIKAWA, Chiaki]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; ja; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; ja; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100111 Thunderbird/3.0.1

After I upgraded TB3 to TB3.0.1 in the last 24 hours (actually, TB3 
started auto-update after I said YES.), I noticed that the search messages
didn't work because the pull-down menu shown by "Edit -> Search -> "
has the "search messages" button DISABLED for some unknown reason.

I scratched my head and during that particular session, I found that if I 
choose the top-most account in the left pane (I am using the classical style
where the left pane shows the tree of folders of accounts), the right hand pane shows the major features of TB in which "message search" appears
as the  first item of advanced functions. From THAT link, I could invoke
the message search function all right (!?).

Then, however, trying to see if this bug can be reprodued, I could not
find the problem after restarting the TB3.
The search message now works fine from the "edit -> search->" pull down menu.

I have no idea why it didn't work after the upgrade, but
I have noticed a few anomalies after upgrades in the past.

But I am posting my experience since there may be a bug lurking around in the
related code somewhere.


Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try to invokde message search by,
2. clicking on Edit -> Search and see the pull down menu, BUT
3. search message menu item is grayed (i.e., disabled!), and
I could not run search messages. 

Search within the message was enabled...

Actual Results:  
Since the menu item was not enabled, I could not invoke the search message
function.

Expected Results:  
The search messages menu item should not be grayed out.

As I mentioned above, the search message functions could be
invoked from the top-most menu screen shown on the right pane
[that says something about
mail (reading, and writing), account (showing setting, creating a new account),
advanced function (searching messages, and changing message filter setting)
when I chose the top-most account on the left pane.

In the initial session when I noticed the problem, after a few searches using this
top-most menu screen on the right pane, I noticed that suddenly
the search messages function from "edit -> search" pull-down menu can be 
invoked again (it is not disabled any more!).

However, when I tried to reproduce the problem by shutting down TB and re-starting, the problem seems to have gone away, and I can't reproduce it any more.

Sounds like a stray pointer overwriting memory location(?).

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

 ISHIKAWA, chiaki, do you still see this problem?

Comment 2

[ISHIKAWA, Chiaki]

(In reply to comment #1)
>  ISHIKAWA, chiaki, do you still see this problem?

No, I don't see it any more.

I have no idea what caused it. The experience was very spooky one, but I think
it could have been some strangely initialized data structure after the upgrade for one time only. Or it could be related to some high-lighting issues which seems to plague the re-painting of long item list (as in lengthy filter list). But the search message menu list is not that lengthy, I would rule that out.

Since I can't reproduce it anymore, this bug can be closed as UNCONFIRMED (?).
Too bad, bugzilla doesn't seem to have UNREPEATABLE.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Since I can't reproduce it anymore, this bug can be closed as UNCONFIRMED (?).

In this case we use the resolution of WORKSFORME.
see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html#status which has a clickable link of "Status:" next to UNCONFIRMED