801534 - Should be impossible to have all chats hidden

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox Graveyard :: SocialAPI, defect)

Description

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

STR:
* Resize the window such that a single chat will not fit fully in the content area.
* Open a chat.
[Or similarly, resize the window after chats are open such that none fully fit]

Actual:
* No chats are shown.  Attempting to open a new chat appears to have no effect.  Selecting a user from the chat nub has no effect.

Expected:
* One chat should always be shown even if it is truncated horizontally, as the UX of the chat operations having no visible impact seems worse than truncation.

I'm looking at this as part of bug 798083, but would like confirmation this bug is valid.

Comment 1

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Having a chat window overflow out of the browser area looks sloppy, as well as looking like a bug.  I would opt for the UI looking correct and fixing the issues a different way.  There are a couple different things we could try out:

- if chat is enabled an open, force a minimum width on the browser area so you can never reduce to a place that the chat window must be collapsed, or, disable/collapse the nub so chats cannot be choosen.
- if the width is too narrow, return an error in the open chat APIs.  It is too late for new strings, but ideally we would show an error in this case.
- if the width is too narrow and a chat is opened, force the width to be enough. could be limited to user initiated chat
- if the width is too narrow and the sidebar is open, collapse it

Some combination of the above may work pretty well.  There may well be more idea's about how to address this.

Comment 2

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

(In reply to Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy) from comment #1)
> Having a chat window overflow out of the browser area looks sloppy, as well
> as looking like a bug.

Note I'm not suggesting we overflow out of the browser - simply that the chat gets truncated like the content in the browser.

ie, if the window is so small that a chat can't be fully visible, it becomes only partly visible.

>  I would opt for the UI looking correct and fixing
> the issues a different way.  There are a couple different things we could
> try out:
> 
> - if chat is enabled an open, force a minimum width on the browser area so
> you can never reduce to a place that the chat window must be collapsed, or,
> disable/collapse the nub so chats cannot be choosen.

disabling the nub doesn't help - the user may select a new chat from the sidebar.  When they do that, it must do *something* (whereas now it may be nothing visible)

> - if the width is too narrow, return an error in the open chat APIs.  It is
> too late for new strings, but ideally we would show an error in this case.

This seems heavy handed.  Instead of returning an error we should just open the chat so it takes all the available space, even if it is truncated.

> - if the width is too narrow and a chat is opened, force the width to be
> enough. could be limited to user initiated chat
> - if the width is too narrow and the sidebar is open, collapse it

I don't like the idea of the user selecting a chat automatically forcing a resize of the window - the user has presumably sized the window on purpose.

> Some combination of the above may work pretty well.  There may well be more
> idea's about how to address this.

I'm afraid I still think that displaying the chat using all the available area, even if it becomes truncated, is the best option of those identified.

Comment 3

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Attachment: chatoverflow.png

Comment 4

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

(In reply to Mark Hammond (:markh) from comment #2)
> (In reply to Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy) from comment #1)
> > Having a chat window overflow out of the browser area looks sloppy, as well
> > as looking like a bug.
> 
> Note I'm not suggesting we overflow out of the browser - simply that the
> chat gets truncated like the content in the browser.
> 
> ie, if the window is so small that a chat can't be fully visible, it becomes
> only partly visible.

Yeah, I know, but to be clear for everyone I've posted an image.  My point is there are options we can come up with rather than showing ui that looks like this.  It's also why I pinged Boriss.  If she is fine with the ui in overflow, that's cool too.

Comment 5

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Comment on attachment 671642 [details]
chatoverflow.png

Just to be clear, I'm only saying the *last* chat should be truncated.  ie, the example above seems to be showing 1.5 chats visible, which in my idea would still be impossible - the right-hand truncated chat should still be collapsed.

If the window size was reduced such that only 1 chat could not be fully shown, then that 1 chat would be truncated.

To put it another way:
* If one chat (or more) can fit fully, then chats will never be truncated.
* If one chat can not fit fully, then exactly 1 chat will be shown and it may endup slightly truncated.

  As new chats are selected, it will replac

Comment 6

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Attachment: one-chatoverflow.png

here's the overflow with one chat window

Comment 7

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Fixed as part of bug 798083