54171 - [FEATURE] Folder pane is missing `Unread' and `Total' columns

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect, P3)

Description

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Build: 2000092212, Mac OS 9.0

To reproduce:
* Open Messenger and look at the top of the folder pane.

What you should see:
* a `Name' column
* a `Unread' column
* a `Total' column
* a widget for selecting which columns are displayed in the folder pane, just
  like for the thread pane.

What you actually see:
* a useless purple bar which says `Mail Folders' -- even if the only items shown
  are not mail folders, but Usenet groups.

At the moment you have to scrub the folder/group name to get a tooltip telling 
you the unread/total message counts for the folder/group. This represents a
*severe* usability decrease from 4.x.

It is daft for two reasons. Firstly, it makes seeing how many messages are in a 
given folder/group take about ten times longer. And secondly, you won't be able 
to use tooltips for this purpose once you start using title tips to expand on the 
truncated name of a truncated folder/group, because you can't use tooltips and 
title tips at the same time while keeping a straight face.

The Unread and Total columns from 4.x should be available instead.

Comment 1

[David Hallowell]

One of two things that I think put Netscape 4.x above outlook and current
mozilla releases was this feature (the other being the options for displaying
headers covered in another bug).

I'll attach a screenshot of the 4.x implementation, there's a few things that
need to be sorted out.

The name of the server was truncated, it'd be much better allowing the server
name to span across all columns (dunno if this is possible).

The columns for unread and total messages were too narrow you couldn't see what
they meant, apart from making the columns wider (not really the best solution)
I'm not sure how to best approach that.

Comment 2

[David Hallowell]

Attachment: A screenshot of Messenger 4.x

Comment 3

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

*** Bug 78035 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Bob Lord]

I used this feature of C4.x all the time.  I'd love to see it return in Mozilla.

Comment 5

[Benjamin Mucci]

It's a *must* bring it back!

Comment 6

[Håkan Waara]

If we bring it back, we gotta implement sorting of those two columns, which is
the real challenge.

Comment 7

[timeless]

i'm willing to have the sorting not working just to have the numbers. I use 
this a lot in nc4 and will not switch to mozmail for dogfood until this is 
changed :(

Comment 8

[scottputterman]

adding nsenterprise-.  Reassigning to Seth.

Comment 9

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

accepting.  I'll work this into the folder outliner branch landing.

Comment 10

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

this is currently not in the spec, but we used to have this.

I'll await approval from jglick before restoring the 4.x columns.

Comment 11

[jglick]

Agree it would be nice for users to have the option to use the Unread and Total 
columns if desired. 

Same selector widget as used for column selection in the Thread Pane should be 
used. Would like to see only the Folder column shown by default though (Unread 
and Total not shown by default).

Also, if the Unread column is shown, the unread number in parenthesis following 
the folder name should not be shown.

Comment 12

[Alfonso Martinez]

*** Bug 93279 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13

[jglick]

20241 seems like a dup.

Comment 14

[Ninoschka Baca]

*** Bug 20241 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

this is coming along nicely.  

for a screen shot, see http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?
attach_id=44840

I'll work on the issues jglick listed.

Comment 16

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=44948

all of jglick's issues are resolved in the patch for #73865.

Comment 17

[jglick]

nice. :-)

Comment 18

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

fixed.

Comment 19

[R.K.Aa.]

unread and total count doesn't refresh when i use "mark newsgroup read" or read
messages in main pane. Instead the count remains, and in bold. The count IS
modified however, but not visibly. In order to see the new values i have to
close/open the newsgroup server folder.

Comment 20

[Benjamin Mucci]

When unread msg = 0 ->  zero should be displayed in unread column when total >= 1 
msg. As in NS.

Comment 21

[jglick]

Using 2001081504 build. Total and Unread columns are being shown by default.
Would like to see them hidden by default (show only the name column)to avoid
confusing novic users who don't know how to make them go away.

Shall I file a separate bug for this?

Comment 22

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

those columns are hidden by default for a new profile.

(they are for mozilla, and will be for ns as soon as I update the commercial
version of localstore.rdf)

Comment 23

[Ninoschka Baca]

Build 2001-08-15-04: WinMe
Build 2001-08-15-08: Mac 9.04, Linux RH 6.2
Update: The Unread and Total columns appear in the folder pane and appear to be
working. 

In a new profile the default still displays the Unread and Total columns. Once
the default does not show these columns then I will verify this bug.

Comment 24

[Håkan Waara]

nbaca, I just attached a fix to some regression that should fix that.

Comment 25

[Ninoschka Baca]

Mozilla build from 8/31: WinMe, Mac 9.04, Linux RH 6.2
Verified Fixed. 

Bugscape #8717 tracks the implementation in the Netscape build.