577790 - Add task icon option to display only for unread mails

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, enhancement)

Description

[Paul-Kenji Cahier]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; en-US; rv:2.0b2pre) Gecko/20100709 Minefield/4.0b2pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20100608 Thunderbird/3.1

Messages marked as read from another client or by a filter on the server, that appear as read in thunderbird too, trigger the new email notification(in tray or other). Typically this happens with gmail and sent mail in the inbox.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Do you enable "IDLE command use"? (Server Settings, Advanced)
If Inbox is seleted and IDLE is used, IMAP server notifies TB about new mail before "marking as Read by other IMAP client". This is IMAP design/implementation. When Tb knows about new mail, Tb fetches flags and mail headers(may be offline-use=on case only). If mail is marked as Unread(\Seen is stored) by other client before fetch of flags by Tb, the new mail is appears as Unread at a Tb.
Do you enable "new mail checking for Inox, Sent, [Gmail]/All Mail, [Gmail]/Sent Mail etc."? (Flder Peoperties) Do you enable IDLE command use?
If yes, Tb can know about new mail before "marking as Read at Inbox by other IMAP client" is propagaed to Gmail IMAP's folder such as [Gmail]/All Mail, [Gmail]/Sent Mail etc.. This is Gmail/Gmail IMAP's design/Implementation.

What is evidence(data such as Log, Trace) that phenomenon you saw was really produced by Tb's flaw in code? (Here is bugzilla.mozilla.org, not support forum)
Have you read and understood Gmail Help documents(can be said instruction manual/operation manual of Gmial IMAP) well before you started to use Gmail IMAP?

Comment 2

[Paul-Kenji Cahier]

Yes, this is with IDLE support enabled.
And I certainly do understand that TB will see an unread flag at first. The issue is that once it gets the message that the message is read(which it does get fine) it should cancel the notification. There's no reason to show a notification on a box with only read messages.(In my humble opinion, a sane behaviour would be to only have new message notification as long as there is unread mails)

Comment 3

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #2)
> The issue is that once it gets the message that the message is read
> (which it does get fine) it should cancel the notification.
> There's no reason to show a notification on a box with only read messages.

AFAIK, new mail alert is issued upon new mail notification via IDLE(number of new mails is notified) or upon recoginition of new mails by periodical STAT(by per folder periodical new mail check setting, number of new mails is returned), instead of flag/header fetch time.
Get IMAP log with timestamp, with writing down your operations and your observations, and check IMAP log, please.
Showing "Order Received" column may help your analysis, because "Order Received" column value is UID of a mail if IMAP.
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging
>   Win example: SET NSPR_LOG_MODULES=timestamp,imap:5
> IMAP command/response: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501

Comment 4

[David :Bienvenu]

I see this for new pop3 mail as well, so it may not be imap-specific. I.e., if I get new pop3 mail when I'm in my imap inbox, and then I click on my pop3 inbox, I get the new mail alert again.

Comment 5

[Paul-Kenji Cahier]

Yes, new mail alerts comes when there is recognized new email, which is fine. The issue at hand here is that if those unread emails then get marked, from another client, Thunderbird still displays the new mail icon in the notification area(system tray). It's pretty easy to reproduce if you have a gmail account, and have IMAP with idle configured. Just add a rule to mark some specific emails as read in gmail, then open up Thunderbird, and send a mail matching that rule to yourself. The tray new mail icon should appear, and then if you open Thunderbird the email will be there, marked as read. 
Alternatively, without a rule, one can just open the mail in gmail(which marks it as read), and the same thing happens.

I understand this might be complex to implement, but at least to me the purpose of the new mail icon is that I have new unread emails.

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #5)
> The issue at hand here is that if those unread emails then get marked, from another client,
> Thunderbird still displays the new mail icon in the notification area(system tray).

You are not talking about "new mail alert". Right?

AFAIR, "removing of Task Icon" on MS Win was/is irrelevant to that new unread mail still exists or not, and/or to that new mails are already read by someone or unread yet.
"Click of any folder under the account" cleared/clears Task Icon for new mail.
So, next happens if Gmail IMAP.
(1) Inbox is opened(selected), [Gmail]/All Mail is not selected.
(2) Two new mails arrive at Inbox. Say UID1 and UID2
    (UID1<UID2, UID2=highest used UID, UID2<UID3==next UID)
(3) Two new mails in Inbox is notified via IDLE => new mail alert.
(4) Click a folder(not [Gmail]/All Mail) => Task icon is cleared.
(5) Tb issues STAUS for [Gmail]/All Mail and knows about two new mails.
    => new mail alert
(6) Click Inbox => Task icon is cleared
(7) Change status of the two new mails in Inbox from Unread to Read.
(8) By other client, change status of the two new mails in Inbox to Read.
(9) Status UID2(highest UID) is changed to Read automatically.
    Status UID1(not highest UID) is not change to Read automatically.
It's because Gmail IMAP notifies new flag status(no \Seen/with \Seen) of only UID2(higest) via IDLE, or by response to STATUS or "uid UID3:* FETCH FLAGS" command.
So, even if "Clear of Task Icon" will be changed to "bases on Unread mail count or number of mails with \Recent flag in Inbox", it's impossible to know "Change from Unread(no \Seen) to Read(with \Seen) of UID1 by other client", unless re-synchronization of folder(fetch flags of all mails in IMAP folder" is executed upon each IDLE or STATUS. It's absolutely same on \Recent flag. 
For performance reason, I believe that "execution of 'fetch flags of all mails in an IMAP folder' upon each IDLE or upon new mail check by STATUS" is not good behaviour of IMAP client.

Comment 7

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #5)
> but at least to me the purpose of the new mail icon is that I have new unread emails.

It's absolutely different from current purpose of "Task Icon for new mail" of Tb. When multiple new mails arrived at same time and when you read only some of them, "Task Icon for new mail" can not be used as an indicator of "You have new unread emails yet" even with POP3 folder, even with IMAP folder of single client access only, because Tb's current implementation of "Task Icon for new mail" is different from your thought.

Comment 8

[Paul-Kenji Cahier]

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of that "new mail" icon then.

Can we at least have a way to force a periodic resynchronization?(while still having IDLE enabled)

Alternatively, I'm not sure how things exactly work(your technical explanation was not the easiest to understand) but wouldn't it be possible to just refetch flags only on mails that Thunderbird thinks are new, and clear the tray icon if those are read.

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #8)
> I'm not sure I understand the purpose of that "new mail" icon then.

As "Click of any folder under the account which is not selected at folder pane" clears "Task bar icon for new messages", Tb's implementation of it is apparently different from your thought. It's merely a notification of "new mail was arrived in the past, and you didn't click folder yet" currently, I think.

> Can we at least have a way to force a periodic resynchronization?(while still
> having IDLE enabled)
> Alternatively, (snip), but wouldn't it be possible to just refetch flags only
> on mails that Thunderbird thinks are new, and clear the tray icon if those are read.

It's possible.
User can request any changes of software as you want, which is categorized as Severity=Enhancement at B.M.O. And, any software can be changed as you want, unless the change produces unforgivable behaviour(e.g. produces RFC violation, easily be used by criminals, ...), if the change is useful for majority of users, and if one developer or some developers thinks your proposal is reasonable, and if one developer or some developers thinks the change is required or mandatory, and if one developer or some developers can use or wants to use his valuable time to implement your request.

Comment 10

[Paul-Kenji Cahier]

I will file another bug then. Feel free to set this one as WONTFIX/RESOLVED.
This whole confusion started because I thought it was a new mail indicator, when it's not.(I'd like to point that mozillazine have it wrong: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disable_the_new_mail_system_tray_icon is definitely wrong since it's not a new mail tray icon, but a received mail icon.

Comment 11

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

If you are not talking about "new mail alert" and if you are talking about "task icon for new mails", bug summary is invalid and answer to bug summary is INVALID.
Change bug summary to apropriate one, please.
Please note that I didn't post any comment on your request of improvement or enhancement about feasibility of your request.

(In reply to comment #10)
> I will file another bug then.

If so, please opene with Severity=Enhancement.

> This whole confusion started because I thought it was a new mail indicator,
> when it's not.(I'd like to point that mozillazine have it wrong:
> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disable_the_new_mail_system_tray_icon is definitely
> wrong since it's not a new mail tray icon, but a received mail icon.

Which part in the document is wrong?
Could you please request correction or improvement of the document via "Discussion" of the document(Talk: of the document).

Comment 12

[Paul-Kenji Cahier]

I have changed the summary to a more fitting one then.

Comment 13

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #12)

Thanks for changing bug summary.
AFAIR, design of "Task Tray Icon for new mail" like one on MS Win was changed several times.
- In the past(perhaps Tb 1.5 or Tb 2), unread count or something was put in
  MS Win's registry for "new mail or unread counts" used by MS Win's mailer,
  which is shown by MS Win as unread mail count by you.
- It was not used for "Task Tray Icon for new mail" like one any more.
  It's perhapes used by "unread mail count" shown by MS Win(may be by Win-XP
  only which I use), when username of MS Win is shown at user selection upon
  login of Win's user or upon usr selection upon resume.
Above may your confusion or "wrong in the MozillaZine Knowledge Base article".

Comment 14

[David :Bienvenu]

I don't think read mail should trigger the new mail alert, fwiw, just like junk mail should not trigger the new mail alert.