Open Bug 868961 Opened 11 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Feature Request: Make 'Smart Reply' button available to all toolbars

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Toolbars and Tabs, enhancement)

17 Branch
x86
All
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: tanstaafl, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
Build ID: 20130409194949

Steps to reproduce:

Clicked Reply button on message that has valid list headers and an explicit Reply-To set


Actual results:

Standard 'Reply to Sender' was executed


Expected results:

Button should have detected the explicit Reply-To and honored it.

Had there not been one set, it should have executed a 'Reply-To-List' based on  the presence of valid list headers.

This is a request for a new 'Smart Reply' button that works like the following:

1. If an explicit 'Reply-To' is set for any given message, honor it,

2. If no explicit Reply-To is set, but there are valid list headers, then Reply-To-List

3. Finally, if there is no explicit Reply-To set, and there are no list headers, then execute the default 'Reply to Sender'
Just stumbled on the 'Smart Reply' button that is available for the Message View/Header Toolbar.

This does *precisely* what I want.

So, all I'm asking for then is the ability to have the exact same button, but for the Main Toolbar(s).

I use the CompactHeader extension and virtually always keep Header collapsed, and never, ever use the Header/View toolbar buttons.

since the button is already built, it should be trivial to provide one for the main toolbar - no?
Summary: Feature Request: 'Smart Reply' button/option → Feature Request: Make 'Smart Reply' button available to all toolbars
Component: Untriaged → Toolbars and Tabs
OS: Windows XP → All
This is complicated somewhat by the fact that the Smart Reply button changes sizes, and we have thus far avoided making main toolbar buttons that change size. I'd very much like to make all the buttons in the main toolbar match the ones in the message header toolbar, though.
See Also: → 979447
The button in the header pane changes size when the button mode is Image+Text, but it stays fixed if you pick Image-Only. But I use Image+Text myself so the button would indeed resize a little if you were to adjust the button text dynamically (and my Mail Toolbar is full, I might have to get rid of a button). However, you can make the button a "smart" button without changing the button text; leave it at "Reply" and just add a dropdown menu so we can pick other reply "modes". And make it smart so that it understands lists and replies to the list when reading a list message (which is what Charles wants). It already does "FollowUp" when replying to newsgroup messages, even tho the button text says "Reply" and no one is complaining. Just make it smart(er) without changing the caption...
I see a few options for this:

1) Size the Smart Reply button based on the *maximum* width of all the possible text (Reply, Reply All, Reply List, Followup). This is what we do for Delete (it also has Undelete) and Junk, but some folks dislike that; see bug 525574.

2) Let buttons on the Mail Toolbar change size. This might be confusing/disruptive, or it might be ok; I really don't know.

3) As you say, don't change the button text. I don't think we can do this though, since it would be unclear what the default action is; I certainly would want to click "Reply" and get "Reply All"!
I'm confused... what exactly is the problem? The Forward, Print, Reply and other buttons are duplicated (available on other toolbars), what is so hard/different about the Smart Reply?
Good day

> 1) Size the Smart Reply button based on the *maximum* width

Sure, if you do want to make the text dynamic, go for it; I put text below the image, so the impact would not be too big for me, but I can see bug 525574 people will complain. About Delete/Undelete: Must be a new feature, my Delete button has never turned into UnDelete (I am on TB24).

> 2) Let buttons on the Mail Toolbar change size. This might be 
> confusing/disruptive, or it might be ok; I really don't know.

Ya, it will be unsettling, they have never done that so far.

> 3) As you say, don't change the button text. I don't think we can
> do this though, since it would be unclear what the default action 
> is; I certainly would want to click "Reply" and get "Reply All"!

Ya, if you make it too smart, it will pick ReplyAll when there are multiple recipients (I see now that this is exactly what the smart button in the header pane is doing). This is indeed a problem, you don't want 2 different smart buttons. It *has* to ReplyAll as the default action in appropriate circumstances just like the smart button in the header pane. This is annoying, lol, I see no other choice than to make the button text dynamic (with a larger button; I think I prefer that to a size-changing button, but I could be wrong, we'd have to try for a week to see how it feels to have a resizing toolbar).

Whatever you pick, I will be able to remove the Reply & ReplyAll buttons from my toolbar to be replaced by a single slightly larger Smart Button - that's fine by me. Don't forget the drop-down for other reply options. And of course you want this to be a new button, so that the classic Reply button is still available. When this comes I shall email the author of "Change Quote and Reply Format" so that if he can he makes his extension compatible with the new button...

Regards,
(In reply to Booze from comment #6)
> About Delete/Undelete: Must be a new feature,
> my Delete button has never turned into UnDelete (I am on TB24).

Just an aside: "Undelete" shows up in the Mail Toolbar (I don't think it works on the Message Header Toolbar) if you're using IMAP with "Mark As Deleted" enabled. In other cases, it shouldn't show up.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Blocks: 1322136
(In reply to Jim Porter (:squib) from comment #4)
> 2) Let buttons on the Mail Toolbar change size. This might be
> confusing/disruptive, or it might be ok; I really don't know.

I really don't see how this could be confusing. We're only talking about a tiny change - what, 15 -30 pixels at the very most?

Don't forget - the button isn't even placed on the mail toolbar by default - the user would have to intentionally do this.

> 3) As you say, don't change the button text. I don't think we can do this
> though, since it would be unclear what the default action is; I certainly
> would want to click "Reply" and get "Reply All"!

Agreed. But as long as you limited the amount of text, and also provided meaningful tooltips, I just don't see a problem.
Seems to me that this update might help me get around some issues discussed in bug 1309486.

Surely the problems mentioned are relatively minor and shouldn't hold you back from implementing this change? I'm assuming that text size changes may make other icons jump around. That's not ideal, but is it enough of a problem to block something that may be a very useful feature? Also, the text isn't *that* dynamic as far as I can tell; it only alternates between a set of strings that's known in advance. How about allocating space for the one that's longest and/or occupies most space in the display font? That may require "ugly" padding of the other texts, but again, how much of a problem is this?
Ok, this is really kind of silly.

First, for a long time now, none of these buttons show up on the main toolbar by default, and if memory serves, even for existing installs, when this change was introduced, I had to go back and re-add these buttons to my main toolbar.

Second, if you make this an alternate button, keeping the original standard Reply button to choose from for anyone who decides to add one of these buttons to the main toolbar, there is no problem

So, there really is no reason not to do this, and since it appears to have been confirmed here that this is a trivial bug to fix, so I'm hoping someone will take another look and say 'why not?'!
Severity: normal → enhancement
The button being in the email header is, for me, rather useless.  If the Smart Reply logic is already built in, then it would make sense to me to also make it available in the app header with all the other standard buttons.
Severity: normal → S3
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