758969 - [Meta] Mailing Lists: Bugs caused by problem: Contacts list pane of contained contacts not updated/refreshed (artefacts, ghost duplicate entries, apparent and real dataloss of cards, display names etc.)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Address Book, defect)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

There's a really insidious problem in Mailing Lists:

For most changes done in the Mailing List Properties dialogue, the list of contained contacts in *Contacts List Pane* of *main AB* (on the right) does not update immediately to reflect these changes. Instead, users are facing all sorts of undefined states and artefacts:
- duplicate entries
- stale entries showing wrong information
Which in turn leads to more errors, including dataloss, as users are trying to fix or remove these stale or ghost entries (for ugly "workaround", see below).

This meta bug wants to collect the subset of Mailing List bugs that are a direct result of this broken update of the contacts list, so that duplicates can be identified and if this problem is ever fixed, we can resolve related bugs more easily. Unless declared otherwise in subsequent comments, I think it's ok if we add strong suspects, but don't be too generous as we'll end up collecting too much.

This meta bug *does not* collect *all* Mailing List related bugs, because if summary correctly contains "Mailing List", these are easily found with simple search:

Basic general overview search for "Mailing list" related bugs in TB and MailNews Core:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=%3Athun%2Cmail%20summary%3A%22mailing%20list%22%2C%22mail%20list%22;list_id=3158999

Another interesting Meta bug in this context:
Bug 757736 - [Meta] Relationship of mailing lists with address book cards is conceptually flawed - explore improvement options

I think the scope of that bug is different (larger, more conceptual, less technical), but there might be intersections with this bug.

The fix of this problem should happen in a separate bug, not here.

"Workaround" until this is fixed:

As a temporary and ugly "workaround" (most literally) for the problem of this meta bug:

After each change in Mailing List Properties Dialogue, before you proceed in main AB view:
- click on another item in the main list of Address books on the right
- re-select your Mailing List (single-left-click)
-> this forces a list update which will remove all duplicates, artefacts etc., so you're now seeing the data which is *really* existing, which is kinda helpful.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

This bug should really *block* bug 413260, but that creates circular dependency so it becomes *depends on*.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #1)
> This bug should really *block* bug 413260, but that creates circular
> dependency so it becomes *depends on*.

Same applies for bug 464833.

Comment 3

[:aceman]

Maybe this gets fixed by bug 1061648. Steven, can you look at it with your knowledge gained from that bug?

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Given that the mail lists in the new AB will have a complete rethink, and the bugs here are pre-102, shall we close this?

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #4)

Given that the mail lists in the new AB will have a complete rethink, and the bugs here are pre-102, shall we close this?

Yeah thanks, let's put this to rest! Given that we're still using much of the poor pre-102 mailing list code/design in 102, it was quite possible for the issues linked up here to persist even in 102 and still cause significant problems for users. I had a look, but fortunately most of them are gone, so I was able to close almost all of the blocking bugs down and thus find out what's left:
Bug 1106783 -> WFM
Bug 434014 -> WFM
Bug 694925 -> WFM, removed from depends-on
Bug 699357 -> WFM
Bug 1352079 -> Incomplete
Bug 1329295 -> Incomplete

I've re-filed what looks like the only remaining issue here (derived from Bug 699357):

• Bug 1799368 - Adding duplicate email address in Edit mailing list dialog causes temporary ghost duplicate item in the list view, then deleting either duplicate removes both (i.e. the email address now gone from the list).

Also met and filed the following on the way:

• Bug 1799356 - Adding a contact's secondary email address to a Mailing List adds the primary/default email address instead (should still fix this datalossy privacy violation in 102 if possible imho)
• Bug 1799362 - After deleting selected contact(s) inside a mailing list view, display pane still shows the deleted contact(s)