954232 - If the topic is editable, make this more discoverable

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Instantbird Graveyard :: Conversation, enhancement)

Description

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2011-05-23 14:17:00 UTC ***

Right now there's no hint or tooltip that the topic can be set from the new conversation header UI. The mouse pointer changes to a text-select cursor when over the input box but that could as well mean that you can select and copy the text if you like.

I think we could show a small icon that displays that the text can be edited (I think I saw a sort of "Pen" icon in Thunderbird?)

Comment 1

[Patrick Cloke [:clokep]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2011-05-23 15:11:50 UTC ***

I think it would also be good if this could be disabled by the protocol (i.e. not all IRC users necessarily have the permissions to edit a topic). I don't think libpurple handles this right now. (See bug 954063 (bio 627).) Also I think some protocols don't have topics / they can't be edited.

Comment 2

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-21 23:28:15 UTC ***

Changing title to better reflect comment #1 and bug 953761 (bio 318).

Actually I think clicking on something to see whether it becomes editable isn't bad, though maybe a context menu ("Change topic") would help too. The real problem is if it appears editable but then can't be set.

Comment 3

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-21 23:52:47 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #3)
In fact it isn't necessary to do anything special, as long as the "usual things you would try" are made to work (clicking, context menu).

Comment 4

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-21 23:59:01 UTC ***

Also, at least in XMPP MUCs, /topic doesn't currently give an error message when the topic can't be set (do XMPP MUCs ever have them?).

Comment 5

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-22 10:44:49 UTC ***

Collated from IRC:
- XMPP MUCs can have topics
- The permissions needed to set them are different to IRC (e.g. the channel founder may not have the right)
- Support for topic in MUC is currently no (fully) implemented in JS-XMPP

Comment 6

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-23 12:01:49 UTC ***

interface prplIConvChat: prplIConversation 
135   /* Whether the protocol plugin can set a topic. Doesn't check that
136      the user has the necessary rights in the current conversation. */
137   readonly attribute boolean topicSettable;

It seems there are two ways to go here: 

- Introduce another flag (topicChangePermitted ?). JS-xx protocols could support this, but then libpurple-based chats would in effect never allow setting the topic.

- Alternatively one could modify the definition of the existing flag, and JS-xx protocols would only set it if the user actually has the necessary permissions. You'd still be in the position that libpurple chats think topics are editable when they are not, but JS-XMPP and JS-IRC should eventually cover most MUCs, so this might not matter in practice.

Comment 7

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-23 12:20:46 UTC ***

Just fix that comment ;). This attribute mostly means that the conversation UI should let the user attempt to edit the topic.

Comment 8

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-02-23 13:29:11 UTC ***

Then it seems there is actually nothing to be done here (on the UI side) apart from fixing that comment ;) 

Because when the JS-xx protocols only set topicSettable if the user has the appropriate permission, the topic will no longer be editable when it shouldn't be (with the existing code). And adding a context menu seems unnecessary as I've just noticed right-clicking on the topic also brings up the editbox.

So it appears a user trying to discover if he can change the topic will in fact discover just that.

I think I've just convinced myself this bug is invalid, or at least that I disagree with comment #0 ;)

Maybe it should be retitled/refiled as "Protocols should set topicSettable correctly"?

Comment 9

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 798 at 2012-05-16 17:29:39 UTC ***

Bug 953761 (bio 318) disables the editbox when the topic is not changeable by the user for IRC. The mouse cursor will be different when the topic is editable. But the original bug was filed with a suggestion that this was not enough, so leaving this open.

Comment 10

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

On the behalf of Florian:
Closing bugs related to the Instantbird UI as WONTFIX, as the development of the standalone chat client Instantbird has stopped. Instantbird users are encouraged to migrate to Thunderbird. The user interface of instant messaging in Thunderbird will feel familiar, as the Thunderbird IM support started as a fork of Instantbird.