575313 - Labels on QuickFilter buttons should be togglable

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Search, enhancement)

Description

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

I have Lanikai running on Windows 7 and on Linux, and I have noticed that in Windows the QuickFilter buttons have text labels, but in Linux they don't.

I'd like to see means to toggle those labels. I personally would choose icons only, but I'm pretty sure that many people would choose icon+text, or maybe even just text.

Comment 1

[Charles]

Is there a way to accomplish this through userChrome.css mods?

Comment 2

[Jim Porter (:squib)]

The presence of the labels is based on the width of the quick filter bar. I'm guessing on Windows, your window is wider than on Linux, so you're seeing this.

Comment 3

[Charles]

(In reply to comment #2)
> The presence of the labels is based on the width of the quick filter bar. I'm
> guessing on Windows, your window is wider than on Linux, so you're seeing this.

I know this, but fail to see the relevance of your reply to the issue/question.

Comment 4

[Jim Porter (:squib)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I know this, but fail to see the relevance of your reply to the issue/question.

Because this is false in general:

> in Windows the QuickFilter buttons have text labels, but in Linux they don't.

Comment 5

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> The presence of the labels is based on the width of the quick filter bar. I'm
> guessing on Windows, your window is wider than on Linux, so you're seeing this.

Correct, I never noticed that. Thanks for clarification. I don't even know what to do with this bug in that case...

Comment 6

[Charles]

I think the current summary is fine...

Leave the automatic behavior as it is, but provide a way to toggle them off when they would otherwise normally be shown.

(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #3)
>> I know this, but fail to see the relevance of your reply to the
>> issue/question.
> 
> Because this is false in general:
> 
>> in Windows the QuickFilter buttons have text labels, but in Linux they don't.

Right, but the main point of him opening the bug was not that they were displayed in windows and not in linux, he wants (and I would like) a way to toggle them off when they are being displayed.

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Jim, thanks for providing clarification of comment 2, which is definitely helpful for the correct assessment of this bug even though it happens not to answer Charles comment 1... ;)

Essentially, the underlying problem of this bug is "customizability" (once again...):
- filter bar is a toolbar (don't know technically, but from an UI pov)
- toolbars should be fully customizable:
  - add/remove buttons
  - choose icon/text variants
  - hide/show the toolbar from view menu

So it's essentially the same problem we used to have with new mail header buttons before herb implemented them as a customizable toolbar. Maybe one day we will accept the need of implementing such things as customizable from scratch, instead of getting lots of bugs afterwards. (I am deliberately ignoring the fact that full customizability is probably more work, and more work needs more time, which is a scarce commodity...)

I just opened bug 580550 (Add "customizability" keyword to b.m.o) so that we can start flagging relevant bugs (your vote will be appreciated).

In this particular case it's somewhat tricky because developers implemented a kind of one-for-all workaround for customizability where we change from text+icons to icons-only automatically. Which I think is useful behaviour for many users. Maybe some variant of that should be added to the toolbar customization dialogue of toolkit (which unfortunately involves more coding work...), so that people can, well, customize things according to their needs... :)

Comment 8

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

There are some size constraints that would need to be worked out for this to happen.  If the screen size is too small to fit the text + buttons something has to give.  Even in the (current) automatic system at a certain point the text filter input gets pushed off the screen.  You would need to be able to remove some of the elements for this to work at all.

The quick filter was implemented with customization in mind but we didn't implement those pieces.  The ability to add and remove buttons is all accessible for extensions.  And I believe userChrome.css should allow you to force text hidden or visible.

Thomas, the Quick Filter is in the view -> toolbars menu, isn't it?  I'm assuming you mean "in general".

A custom quick filter toolbar palette, like other new features, is likely best explored through an extension.  Extensions help us gauge interest across the general Thunderbird population and give people who want to test the functionality a way to do that without having to run a nightly which is often unstable.

Comment 9

[Mihovil Stanic [:Mikeyy - L10n HR]]

+1 on this.
I'm searching for a way to force icons + text in quick filter bar.
Using Win, 1600x900 resolution and TB is always maximised. TB has some erradic behavior and sometimes I see icons only (I have a lot of spare place since it's wide screen resolution).

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

The QFB will redesigned, which will be announced at a future date in bug 1846359. Comments will gladly be accepted at that time.