574986 - Message threading status and sort order not inherited when applying column layout to other folders

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect, P2)

Description

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

This is another remnant of bug 505035. While it made resetting column list for other folders based on currently shown one possible, neither sort order  nor threading status is being inherited. I think it should be.

Comment 2

[Jan Janousek]

(In reply to Rimas Kudelis from comment #0)
> This is another remnant of bug 505035. While it made resetting column list
> for other folders based on currently shown one possible, neither sort order 
> nor threading status is being inherited. I think it should be.

Please keep applying columns independent on applying sorting and/or threading (see also bug 622181 comment 13).

Comment 3

[Brian Hauer]

A means to quickly copy the user's preferred sort order to a group of folders would alleviate a big headache associated with Thunderbird's periodic whole-database rebuild events.  Without sidetracking this comment too much about such events--be they caused by computer crashes or whatever--most long-term users have seen Thunderbird do a full rebuild where the IMAP mailbox is re-downloaded and a default oldest-first sort order is applied to all folders.

After such an event, I find myself repeatedly opening a folder for the first time since the rebuild and having to change the sort order of that folder to my preference (newest-first) manually.

For what it's worth, I would be fine with coupling the application of sort order with column specifications.  However, as bug 622181 comment 13 suggests, making that a separate function would be acceptable.  Perhaps a checkbox on one of the dialogs: e.g., "Also apply sort order?"

Comment 4

[Ryan Lee Sipes]

We need to revisit this. Putting on my list of things to champion.

Comment 6

[Andrei Boros]

Any news on this topic? Just being marked as a duplicate (I appologize if my initial search didn't yield relevant results) doesn't really help if the issue 12 years old already ... :-(

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

In a post Bug 1764842 world (Enable "Threaded" as default view flag for new profiles) it will be useful to have this fixed.

Comment 8

[Adam Reece]

This issue will be annoying for anyone experiencing the recent MSF corruption in TB 102 (fixed in TB 102.0.1) wanting to re-apply their preferred column view across many folders. Across a dozen folders, fine, but not 100+.

The column view's threaded mode definitely does not apply when using "Apply columns to...".

Comment 11

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

The "Apply columns to..." feature only applies the visible, hidden, and order of those columns, but it doesn't apply the sorting order, or threaded option, which is actually correct because those are 2 separate things.

If we want to do something for 102 we should add another option in the column picker, something like "Apply the current view to...", which should include sorting order and threaded option, and not change the "Apply columns to..." behavior.

Comment 13

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Will take a look.

Comment 14

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 574986 - Add Apply Current View to folders to allow setting threading/sorttype/sortorder. r=aleca

Comment 15

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/268e382db445
Add Apply Current View to folders to allow setting threading/sorttype/sortorder. r=aleca

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/ee178a245075
followup - back out unwanted part of the change. rs=backout DONTBUILD

Comment 17

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/ef827f79f84e
Follow-up: Use unicode apostrophes in Fluent strings. rs=fluent-lint

Comment 18

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9288219 [details]
Bug 574986 - Add Apply Current View to folders to allow setting threading/sorttype/sortorder. r=aleca

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): not a regression
User impact if declined: can't bulk-change threading for many folders at once
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): c-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): pretty safe. Has string changes though, which will show in English until localizers pick up, and we pin to the new l10n revision.

Comment 19

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9288219 [details]
Bug 574986 - Add Apply Current View to folders to allow setting threading/sorttype/sortorder. r=aleca

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 20

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 104.0b3:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/37ad4689c02b
(combined 3 patches for uplift)

Comment 21

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9288219 [details]
Bug 574986 - Add Apply Current View to folders to allow setting threading/sorttype/sortorder. r=aleca

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

How do we reconcile strings for this?

Comment 22

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

I can update the l10n pinnings to pick up the new strings. 19 locales have the new strings translated and will pick them up. Notably, we have 4/10 tier 1 locales that have not translated them yet: de, fr, es-ES, nl.

I plan to update the changeset pinnings a few more times so there will be opportunity for the untranslated locales to do the translations.

Comment 23

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Actually, it might be a good idea to hold off uplifting this to comm-esr102 for the moment.

The reason is that bug 1586984 is going to be a problem. Only 23 locales have the mailWidgets.ftl file. Any locale that is missing that file will fallback to all en-US strings for messenger.xhtml. We don't want that.

Bug 1779330 will automatically handle creating empty .ftl files when needed during L10n repackaging. It is queued to land on c-c now and can be uplifted to comm-esr102 along with this so there won't be any more issues than there are otherwise.

Comment 24

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.2.0:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/cce16ff874b2

Comment 25

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Backout Thunderbird 102.2.0:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/fc407e1d65e6

Comment 26

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

This can be uplifted to comm-esr102 once bug 1779330 is uplifted.

Comment 27

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

I checked just now. Of the top 10 locales, German (de) is the only one that has not translated the new mailWidgets.ftl file added by this patch. Overall, 30 of 67 shipped locales have the file.

Given that, and that bug 1779330 is approved for c-esr102 uplift to prevent en-US fallback issues, I will proceed with uplifting this bug for Thunderbird 102.2.1. Once a build is ready, I will check de and a couple others that do not have mailWidgets.ftl and look for untranslated strings.

Comment 28

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.2.1:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/f96bc7009c86

Comment 29

[TheGrave]

(In reply to Rob Lemley [:rjl] from comment #28)

Thunderbird 102.2.1:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/f96bc7009c86

I'm on 102.4.0 and bug is still here.

Comment 30

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

It is fixed, but you do need to take manual action to use it of course. In the column picker, choose "Apply current view to..."

Comment 31

[TheGrave]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #30)

It is fixed, but you do need to take manual action to use it of course. In the column picker, choose "Apply current view to..."

I know. Did this, applied to the whole account and it doesn't work.

Comment 32

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Try Help | Troubleshoot mode. If still a problem, file a new bug with details.

Comment 33

[Anje]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #30)

It is fixed, but you do need to take manual action to use it of course. In the column picker, choose "Apply current view to..."

I'm not sure what the scope of this fix was supposed to achieve.
It only works if you only select one folder as follows

Select Inbox
Set 'View' > 'Sort by' > as 'Unthreaded'
Right click on column headers and select 'Apply current view to..' > 'Folder and it's children' > select 'mail account name' and then 'choose a specific top level folder' - not a mail account name folder - which you already know has a 'threaded' setting.

So if this fix was only ever intented to work on one folder then it is fixed.

There are many frustrated people commenting in Support Forum. It always seems worse for those who have never used or seen the 'threaded' view. So clicking on the top level collapsed folder and it rendering dozens of emails to open in dozens of tabs made people concerned about weird bugs etc etc.
People need to be able to set this on an entire account.

Right click on column headers and select 'Apply current view to..' > 'Folder and it's children' > select 'mail account name' and then 'mail account name'
Repeat above line to select other mail accounts.

It does then have a pop up saying that it gets applied to all folders in the mail account.
This should force an unthreaded sort into all folders in that selected mail account.
But it does not. Any folders with threaded already selected either manually or by default remain threaded.

Was this fix designed to be applyed manually one top level folder at a time OR applied to all folders within the selected mail account name folder ?

Comment 34

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

We're improving this mechanism for 115, but meanwhile users can set mailnews.default_view_flags to 0 from the about:config page if they want to not have threads by default on all folders.
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/cc5837b209537d99febe8d64eef7d9a76807fe62/mailnews/mailnews.js#97-104

Comment 35

[Anje]

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #34)

We're improving this mechanism for 115, but meanwhile users can set mailnews.default_view_flags to 0 from the about:config page if they want to not have threads by default on all folders.
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/cc5837b209537d99febe8d64eef7d9a76807fe62/mailnews/mailnews.js#97-104

That's good information and seems to work on new folders, but not on folders that have already been set up to use threaded either manually or by default.

As requested by Magnus I've created a separate for this bug 1801941