Open Bug 587172 Opened 15 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Feed back of '"Local directory:" path textbox not editable' should be improved to avoid user's confusion

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Account Manager, defect)

defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: mike001, Unassigned)

References

()

Details

(Whiteboard: [gs])

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.16 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2.7) Gecko/20100713 Thunderbird/3.1.1 Although the "Local directory:" path in the "Server Settings" and "Local Folders" screens appears in a textbox, it is not editable. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Click "Server Settings" (under an account) or "Local Folders" in "Tools->Account Settings" 2. Click in "Local Directory:" textbox 3. "Text-insert" cursor appears where clicked 4. Try to insert or delete characters Actual Results: The text cannot be modified. Cursor-movement keys do move the cursor, but the text is not modifiable. Expected Results: The "Local Directory:" field should either be uneditable (and the button re-labeled "Change..."), or the text field should be editable.
OS: Mac OS X → All
Hardware: x86 → All
Whiteboard: [gs]
Version: unspecified → 3.1
The field is similar to <input type=fiie>, not similar to <input type=text>, and is not edtable(selectable via folder picker dialog only). Button label of "Browse" looks common default of HTML's <input type=file> and similar element of XUL. Cursor is to indicate position of path string when it is longer than field width and is scrolled left or right by arrow key. If the field is editable, it means Tb permits user to speciy non-existent path or wrnog string. So, additional logic for valid string, existent check etc. will be required. Michael A. Pasek, do you want to force developers to write excess code?
(In reply to comment #1) > [...] Cursor is to indicate position of path string when it is longer than > field width and is scrolled left or right by arrow key. That makes sense. > If the field is editable, it means Tb permits user to speciy non-existent path > or wrnog string. So, additional logic for valid string, existent check etc. > will be required. I agree that allowing direct user edit (and the additional validity-checking required) would not be worth the effort. A dialog (e.g., "This field is not editable. Use the 'Browse..." button to change the directory location") would explain why the key you just typed didn't do anything. Even a "beep" (i.e., the "You have entered the wrong key" sound) would give the user some indication that his keystrokes were, at least, recognized. > Michael A. Pasek, do you want to force developers to write excess code? Do we need to force them to do that ?!? ;-) I don't know if I'd call it "excess". It would certainly more than there currently is, but there must already be code to only allow the cursor-positioning actions; the addition of a dialog would just make the user experience "more complete", and prevent people (including me) from thinking that I _should_ be able to edit it. Adding another dialog after changing the location (e.g., "You must quit and restart Thunderbird for the change to take effect") would also reduce confusion -- although adding "Do you want to restart now ?" with "Yes" and "No" buttons might well be considered "excess code".
(In reply to comment #2) > Adding another dialog after changing the location (e.g., "You must quit and > restart Thunderbird for the change to take effect") would also reduce confusion > -- although adding "Do you want to restart now ?" with "Yes" and "No" buttons > might well be considered "excess code". It's my old trying to force developers to write EXCESS code :-) > Bug 224831 Issue warning to restart (due to Bug 2654) when Local Directory setting is changed By the way, a bug exists for requst of warning in case of "user deleted mail directory after selection of existent folder at Local Directory:". So, I don't think code for kind warning required to reduce user's confusion is not EXCESS code.
(In reply to comment #3) > > Bug 224831 Issue warning to restart (due to Bug 2654) when Local Directory setting is changed Bug 224831 covers the second dialog mentioned in Comment #2 (I must not have looked back far enough in the list of bugs found by my search). This bug can cover some sort of notification that the "textedit" field is not editable -- a "beep" or dialog, with the dialog being preferable as it could provide an explanation.
Improvement of cursor design may be a solution. a) Modifiable - Insert mode(current) b) Modifiable - Replace mode c) Not modifiable. Indicates current position only. It's usable for "Start point" indicator of text selection. Improvement of Button Label may be another solution.
Summary: "Local directory:" path textbox not editable → Feed back of '"Local directory:" path textbox not editable' should be improved to avoid user's confusion
Can the cursor design be modified in a manner that would make it obvious that a particular shape indicates one of the proposed classes? Is there a "standard" for the options you propose ? If there is, I haven't experienced it. As before, a simple "beep" may suffice, but I think an explanatory dialog box (with a single "OK" -- or "Darn!" -- button) would be better.
Clicking on the textfield could just open the folder picker (as is done in Firefox for <input type="file"> as if the user clicked the button. Would that be a solution? On the other hand, inactive textfield at least enables the user to see (scroll right) the full path.
Component: General → Account Manager
Product: Thunderbird → MailNews Core
QA Contact: general → account-manager
Version: 3.1 → Trunk
Severity: minor → S4
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