642092 - Manual settings UI should use a less technical term than "SSL"

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, enhancement)

Description

[Vincent (caméléon)]

Attachment: Current UI for Autoconfig manual settings.

The new UI proposal for TB3.3 use "SSL" as a column title for connexion security settings. I am afraid that it is too technical for the end user. I propose that we use the same term that the one available in the account settings panel, which is "Connexion Security".

Comment 1

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

"Connection security" is too long.

Also, I intentionally did not use the term "security", because it can mean too many things. SSL is *not* "security", this whole association is wrong. You can have an SSL connection which is totally insecure, because the server or client has a security hole, or you connected to the wrong server (and you have to select the server here), etc..

Comment 2

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

(And esp. for people who don't know what SSL is, it's important not to give a false impression.)

Basically, this is manual config, you have to *know* the right setting, your admin or setup instructions have to tell you. Your instructions will typically say "SSL", but the term before can vary depending on client, so just using "SSL" as label is clearest, IMHO.

Comment 3

[Vincent (caméléon)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> "Connection security" is too long.
Why? Is it really a problem if the windows is a little bit longer than actually? I think the clarification provided for the users worse it. Do not forget that autoconfig request is successful for only 40 or 50% of Thunderbird's users, so manual settings is still used by a lot of non technical people.
Also, I have done some comparison with Outlook, Evolution and Windows Mail and all of them use the same terme of "Secure connection", or "SSL secure connection" for this setting.

Comment 4

[rsx11m]

"Connection Security" would be consistent with the Account Settings dialogs. Simply "Connection" vs. "Authentication" might do, which would require though that "SSL/TLS" and "STARTTLS" are recognized as secure protocols by the user.

Comment 5

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> [other apps]

Already answered. SSL = "Secure" is just wrong.

> Is it really a problem if the windows is a little bit longer

Yes.

> autoconfig request is successful for only 40 or 50%

ISPDB has a hit rate of 40-50%. The guessing afterwards captures a lot more users.

The fact stays that once the user is in manual mode, he must *know* this information from some other source, he cannot guess it, and that source typically says "SSL" or not.

Comment 6

[Vincent (caméléon)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> The fact stays that once the user is in manual mode, he must *know* this
> information from some other source, and that source typically says "SSL" or not.

I believe that the source would say :" Secure connection = SSL (or SSL/TLS or STARTTLS)"...

I have a proposal which doesn't require to enlarge the window. 

However, if you really don't want to change this name, please just mark this bug as wontfix and I won't fight for it longer.

Comment 7

[Vincent (caméléon)]

Attachment: UI proposal which doesn't require to enlarge the window

Comment 8

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

To avoid the word 'security', it could be called 'encryption method' or so.

Comment 9

[rsx11m]

I like caméléon's suggestion to group general server parameters and security option separately, and there should be space for the additional labels on top. Rimas, "authentication" isn't necessarily "encryption" either, you may have some ticket-based system like Kerberos/GSSAPI, which uses cryptography but is a concept on its own.

Either way, please make sure that labels in the Account Wizard and in the general Account Settings are consistent to avoid confusion.

Comment 10

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

"Encryption" (instead of SSL) would be fine with me.

Comment 11

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

(FWIW, I do not like the grouping. The SSL is also a server setting, the user can NOT choose freely what he wants. The SSL setting is also closely related to the port, and the port to the hostname, so there's no natural grouping.)

Comment 12

[Vincent (caméléon)]

Attachment: Second UI proposal

In this second UI proposal, the security settings are part of the server settings, which I agree is more logical.
I am not sure if we should prefer "Connection" (used in the account settings) or "Encryption".

Comment 13

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Just "Connection" (without "Security") would be fine, too.

Comment 14

[Vincent (caméléon)]

Attachment: The simpliest UI proposal (simply replace "SSL" by "Connection")

Simple UI proposal following Comment #13 from Ben Bucksch

Comment 15

[rsx11m]

(In reply to comment #13)
> Just "Connection" (without "Security") would be fine, too.

Wouldn't you possibly end up with "Connection: None" in that case?  :-D
Thus, noEncryption.label needs changing as well if you go with this.

Comment 16

[rsx11m]

On a side note, resultNoEncryption and resultSSL in accountCreation.properties differ from their respective counterparts in accountCreation.dtd as well...

Comment 17

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

I think "Connection" is way too vague. IMAP and SMTP could also be considered "Connection".

By the way, I wonder why abbreviations like IMAP, POP3 and SMTP don't confuse caméléon but SSL does. This dialog is full of those weird words, and I tend to agree with Ben's Comment #5 – if you're in this manual mode, you should already know enough about which choices to make.

Comment 18

[Vincent (caméléon)]

(In reply to comment #17)
> if you're in this manual mode, you should already
> know enough about which choices to make.

If this is really the case, then why not use the same abbreviation in the account settings parameters in order to be consistent? Seriously, I still do not understand why it is so important to keep this windows so small... 
I think that whats is important here is really to keep same vocabulary (=consistency) between all Thunderbird windows.

Comment 19

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

(In reply to comment #18)
> (In reply to comment #17)
> > if you're in this manual mode, you should already
> > know enough about which choices to make.
> 
> If this is really the case, then why not use the same abbreviation in the
> account settings parameters in order to be consistent?

Indeed. In my locale it says "Connection security", which, according to Ben, is misleading...

> Seriously, I still do not understand why it is so important 
> to keep this windows so small... 

I guess Thunderbird's developers try to keep netbooks in mind.

> I think that whats is important here is really to keep same vocabulary
> (=consistency) between all Thunderbird windows.

Good point. I'd go with "Encryption" or "Connection Encryption" though. Simply "Connection" is too vague IMO.

By the way, the server type column could also have a heading IMO...

Comment 20

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I'd go for "Connection security" too. Arguing it's not about security is really splitting hairs. If ssl isn't secure you have other problems, unrelated to your mail setup.

Comment 21

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

I'm actually fine with using SSL here as it's the text people will see in their help documentation.  This is the more advanced configuration which requires a person to know their settings.

Comment 22

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Agreed. WONTFIX?

Comment 23

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

(In reply to comment #22)
> Agreed. WONTFIX?

Ok.