545217 - rename "Smart folders" to "Unified folders"

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

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

A number of points of feedback have shown that the term "unified" is clearer than the term "smart" for the smart folders system.

Lets change the string, even though it appears to be more difficult than that.

Comment 1

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

Also, while glancing at the code I noticed this variable seems to be unused.

diff --git a/mail/base/content/folderPane.js b/mail/base/content/folderPane.js
--- a/mail/base/content/folderPane.js
+++ b/mail/base/content/folderPane.js
@@ -136,19 +136,16 @@ let gFolderTreeView = {
    * Called when the window is initially loaded.  This function initializes the
    * folder-pane to the view last shown before the application was closed.
    */
   load: function ftv_load(aTree, aJSONFile) {
     const Cc = Components.classes;
     const Ci = Components.interfaces;
     this._treeElement = aTree;
 
-    let smartName = document.getElementById("bundle_messenger")
-                            .getString("folderPaneHeader_smart");
-
     // the folder pane can be used for other trees which may not have these elements.
     if (document.getElementById("folderpane_splitter"))
       document.getElementById("folderpane_splitter").collapsed = false;
     if (document.getElementById("folderPaneBox"))
       document.getElementById("folderPaneBox").collapsed = false;
 
     try {
       // Normally our tree takes care of keeping the last selected by itself.

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Can we mark these blocking ? Would be nice to have them in b1 to gather feedback.

Comment 3

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

Simon - 

Because of how the code is structured it seems like we have to change all the folder pane header strings as there is no easy way to just change the smart folders header string.

http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/search?string=folderPaneHeader_

We can land this change now, but if you feel it's too late we can wait until after the b1 release as this isn't a critical change which requires a lot of testing.

I'll be attaching the patch shortly.

Comment 4

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

Attachment: changes the folder pane name of smart folders to unified folders

Comment 5

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

(In reply to comment #1)
> Also, while glancing at the code I noticed this variable seems to be unused.

NOTE: This change was handled in attachment 428478 [details] [diff] [review] of bug 545221

Comment 6

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Comment on attachment 428487 [details] [diff] [review]
changes the folder pane name of smart folders to unified folders

I think Bryan missed some changes, and will post a new patch soon, which I will review post haste.

Comment 7

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

After discussions with Standard8 and clarkbw, the plan is that we'd like for Simon to make the call from comment 3, and if he thinks this is appropriate to land for b1, we would allow this patch to go in tomorrow, despite it being slightly past code freeze.  Otherwise, we'll slip it to b2, and land it as soon as the tree re-opens.

Comment 8

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

Please don't break the string freeze for something as trivial as this. I think having this land early in the beta2 cycle is more than fine.

Comment 9

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Simon - 
> 
> Because of how the code is structured it seems like we have to change all the
> folder pane header strings as there is no easy way to just change the smart
> folders header string.
> 
> http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/search?string=folderPaneHeader_

Please excuse my ignorance, but why don't we just replace?

- folderPaneHeader_smart=Smart Folders
+ folderPaneHeader_unified=Unified Folders

Comment 10

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Otherwise, we'll slip it to b2, and land it as soon
> as the tree re-opens.

Given where we are, moving to b2.

Comment 11

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

(In reply to comment #9)
> (In reply to comment #3)
> > Simon - 
> > 
> > Because of how the code is structured it seems like we have to change all the
> > folder pane header strings as there is no easy way to just change the smart
> > folders header string.
> > 
> > http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/search?string=folderPaneHeader_
> 
> Please excuse my ignorance, but why don't we just replace?
> 
> - folderPaneHeader_smart=Smart Folders
> + folderPaneHeader_unified=Unified Folders

Yeah, it would be nice if it was that easy but the mode names are referenced in the code.  header = getL10n("folderPaneHeader_" + mode) so I'd have to replace every reference to "smart" in the code with unified.  At first pass it wasn't easy to do.

Comment 12

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

Attachment: version 2 includes the migration assistant strings

just checkpointing myself here because I haven't been able to build TB for the Mac I haven't been able to test this patch

Comment 13

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

Attachment: tested version

Ok, here's a much nicer and working version of this patch.  I'll detail the major changes below.

The code in mail/base/content/folderPane.js looks for the following entities where ${mode} is replaced with a folder pane mode.

folderPaneHeader_${mode}

This entity has been changed to:
folderPaneModeHeader_${mode}

In mail/locales/en-US/chrome/messenger/featureConfigurator.dtd

Any entity referencing smartFolders was renamed to unifiedFolders.  e.g. 
-<!ENTITY featureConfigurator.smartFolders.heading "Smart folders mode">
+<!ENTITY featureConfigurator.unifiedFolders.heading "Unified Folders mode

However if the entity referenced "smart" mode I didn't rename that to unified as it reflect the code better.  e.g.
-<!ENTITY featureConfigurator.smartFolders.smart.status "Using the &quot;smart folders&quot; mode.">
+<!ENTITY featureConfigurator.unifiedFolders.smart.status "Using the &quot;unified folders&quot; mode.">

I've been testing this out for a while and it works well for me.  I played with the Migration Assistant quite a bit and that works just as it used to.

Let me know if you find any issues.

Comment 14

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

Attachment: missed one reference to Smart Folders

missed one last reference

Comment 15

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

So, I think we might want to change
http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Thunderbird+3+for+users
http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/New+in+Thunderbird+3
and
http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Migration+Assistant

And shouldn't we also change mail/locales/en-US/chrome/messenger/messenger.dtd:
<!ENTITY smartFolders.label "Smart">
<!ENTITY smartFolders.accesskey "S">
so that the menu says the same thing as the folder list, and people can search for "Unified" and get a hit?

Comment 16

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

I'm going to r- this, based on the questions above.

But, if you wanted to spin the sumomo stuff into a new bug, and make the smartFolders fix, I think I would accept that.

Comment 17

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

(In reply to comment #16)
> I'm going to r- this, based on the questions above.
> 
> But, if you wanted to spin the sumomo stuff into a new bug, and make the
> smartFolders fix, I think I would accept that.

Yeah, I'd put the sumomo stuff into a new bug.  I should have an updated patch for this soon.

Comment 18

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

Ugh, we already have Unread using the 'U' so it looks like 'n'

<!ENTITY unifiedFolders.label "Unified">
<!ENTITY unifiedFolders.accesskey "n">

Comment 19

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

Attachment: final version with menu fixes

Ok, here's the final version with fixes to the menu.  Thanks!

Comment 20

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Comment on attachment 431653 [details] [diff] [review]
final version with menu fixes

Looks good to me.  I'ld like it if you added tests, and pasted in here the bug number(s) of the bugs to change sumomo, but I won't block the checkin on those.

Later,
Blake.

Comment 21

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

(In reply to comment #20)
> (From update of attachment 431653 [details] [diff] [review])
> Looks good to me.  I'ld like it if you added tests, and pasted in here the bug
> number(s) of the bugs to change sumomo, but I won't block the checkin on those.

Added, depends on this bug.

Can you give me a hint of what I should be testing?  I'm not really sure what to write.  Testing that the string reads as the dtd file suggests seems odd to me.  I could test the new accesskey for Unified folders, but that's my only idea.  Thanks!

Comment 22

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

doh

Comment 23

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

(In reply to comment #21)
> (In reply to comment #20)
> > (From update of attachment 431653 [details] [diff] [review] [details])
> > Looks good to me.  I'ld like it if you added tests, and pasted in here the bug
> > number(s) of the bugs to change sumomo, but I won't block the checkin on those.
> 
> Added, depends on this bug.
> 
> Can you give me a hint of what I should be testing?  I'm not really sure what
> to write.  Testing that the string reads as the dtd file suggests seems odd to
> me.  I could test the new accesskey for Unified folders, but that's my only
> idea.  Thanks!

My main thought with the tests was switching to and from Unified Folders, just to make sure we didn't forget to change an element name somewhere that would cause it to blow up.  But I agree that it's tricky to test.

Thanks,
Blake.

Comment 24

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Checked in: http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/8f5d55d3a285

Comment 25

[Alex Ihrig [:Thunderbird_Mail_DE]]

An entity in messenger.properties isn't renamed to "...unified":

folderPaneModeHeader_smart=Unified Folders

Comment 26

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #25)
> An entity in messenger.properties isn't renamed to "...unified":
> 
> folderPaneModeHeader_smart=Unified Folders

That is correct. The internal name of the folder mode is still "smart" - we have to do that for extensions. That is why the prefix changed but not the postfix.

Comment 27

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Maybe worth a relnot for people using 3.0.x ?

Comment 28

[Charles]

A very long time ago when 'Smart Folders' were first introduced, I didn't like them due to a number of frustrating limitations (hard-coded, couldn't customize them), and searched for and found the CSS to hide them permanently.

Recently I was forced to re-examine this when helping someone else who was using them in Thunderbird, and after playing around, realized that, with some tweaking, they could be really useful - especially after being forced to help someone else with an Outlook issue...

So, I have opened four bugs for enhancing this folder system: bug 1163562 (first one) and bug 1163555 (last one) are very related, and the first would be automatically 'fixed' if the last one was implemented. Personally I believe that implementing these enhancements would cause this folder system to go from 'interesting concept/idea but needs work before it will be useful to me', to 'awesome power tool that makes Thunderbird really stand out!'...

bug 1163562 - Make Favorites show at top of Folder Pane

bug 1159713 - Allow customization of choices in View > Folders (Unified Folders'

bug 1159716 - Add my own custom 'Unified Folder' choices

bug 1163555 - Allow 'Split' view of multiple 'Unified Folders'
(this one could actually replace and be much more powerful than bug 1163562)

Now... during this time I also discovered this bug that caused 'Smart folders' to be renamed to 'Unified Folders' - but in his opening comment, Bryan didn't elaborate at all on "A number of points of feedback have shown that the term "unified" is clearer than the term "smart" for the smart folders system", and I for one do not understand the rationale for this at all...

Naming them 'Unified Folders', then having one of the views named 'Unified' is confusing. Unified is absolutely the perfect name for the Unified view, but it doesn't make sense as the name for the overall system.

So, I also just opened bug 1163567 to change this name back to 'Smart Folders'. Absent convincing argument to the contrary, I personally think 'Smart Folders' was the ideal term for this folder system, and will be even more appropriate if any of my above referenced bugs/enhancements for improving on it are ever implemented.