72139 - new email method doesn't have context

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(Bugzilla :: Email Notifications, enhancement)

Description

[Cesar Eduardo Barros]

One thing I liked in the old "diff" method (besides being much prettier) was
that it tended to show the last lines of the previous last comment when someone
added a comment. This is very useful when people start having a "conversation"
in bugzilla, so you don't have to go to the page to read the previous comments
(99% of the time it's about the previous comment). Also, it helps remembering
what the bug was about (it's easier to remember seeing a comment than reading
the summary lines, specially when the summary line is kind of obscure (which
happens when the reporter is trying to be funny -- see for instance this one =) ))

My suggestion is to add a preference to have the X comments before the newly
added one be sent together with the one being added (of course there's no need
to send any comments when no new comment was added). Setting it to 1, 2 or 3
would be the most useful (and setting it to 0 would disable the feature).

Comment 1

[Stephan Niemz]

It's a matter of taste which one is prettier, I prefer the new one. :)
But I agree that some context would be helpful.  Adding dependency to email
tracking bug.

Comment 2

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

How much context should be given?

If we put the last comment, it might not be relevant, so we might want more
comments.

We could try something like taking the comments within the last week, and if
there are none, just the last comment.

Oh, my kingdom for comments that are in reply to other comments.

Comment 3

[Cesar Eduardo Barros]

No, please, not time based. Basing the context in "number of comments in the
last _n_ days" is bad for bugs which are too "busy" (too many comments per
email, and you've already seen all of them a few minutes ago), and bad for bugs
which are too "slow" (you'd get zero comments of context if the bug got its last
comment five weeks ago).

The idea is to have just two or three comments not because it might be a reply
to one of them, but as a mnemonic (sp?) device to help the one reading the email
remember the recent discussion in the bug (and if it's a reply, most of the time
it's a reply to the last comment or the one above it). If the thread is too
busy, with just the last two comments before the one recently added you'd be
able to remember what the discussion was about. If the thread is old, the last
comment is generaly enough.

Comment 4

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

-> Bugzilla product

Comment 5

[xyzzy]

Bugzilla automatically linkifies some text within messages, like 'comment #1',
for example.  These are often more suggestive of the real context than the most
recent comments, but there are numerous pitfalls in using them to determine context.

The only real way I see to address context consistently is through threading, or
threaded and "flat" modes.

Comment 6

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Changing default owner of Email Notifications component to JayPee, a.k.a.
J. Paul Reed ([e-mail]).  Jake will be offline for a few months.

Comment 7

[Shane H. W. Travis]

(In reply to comment #3)
> The idea is to have just two or three comments not because it might be a
> reply to one of them, but as a mnemonic (sp?) device to help the one reading
> the email remember the recent discussion in the bug (and if it's a reply,
> most of the time it's a reply to the last comment or the one above it).

(In reply to comment #2)
> How much context should be given?
...
> Oh, my kingdom for comments that are in reply to other comments.

Since we now *have* comments that are in reply to other comments, context can 
be included by the person writing the response, and they should have a fairly 
good idea of how much context is needed.

Furthermore, with the landing of bug 31314 and the addition of threading 
headers, bugs will be sorted properly (by intelligent mailreaders).

As such, everything this bug was opened for seems to have been resolved through 
the landing of other bugs. Resolving as WORKSFORME.

Comment 8

[Cesar Eduardo Barros]

(In reply to comment #7)
> (In reply to comment #3)
> > The idea is to have just two or three comments not because it might be a
> > reply to one of them, but as a mnemonic (sp?) device to help the one reading
> > the email remember the recent discussion in the bug (and if it's a reply,
> > most of the time it's a reply to the last comment or the one above it).
> 
> Since we now *have* comments that are in reply to other comments, context can 
> be included by the person writing the response, and they should have a fairly 
> good idea of how much context is needed.
> 
> Furthermore, with the landing of bug 31314 and the addition of threading 
> headers, bugs will be sorted properly (by intelligent mailreaders).
> 
> As such, everything this bug was opened for seems to have been resolved through 
> the landing of other bugs. Resolving as WORKSFORME.

Agreed, this is more than enough to show the context of the discussion. Marking
as VERIFIED.

Comment 9

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

clearing target of DUPLICATE/WONTFIX/INVALID/WORKSFORME so they'll show up as
untriaged if they get reopened.