954348 - Allow dragging buddy names into tags to move them.

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Instantbird Graveyard :: Contacts window, defect)

Description

[Instantbot]

*** Original post on bio 915 by patrickjdempsey <pjdkrunkt AT lycos.com> at 2011-07-10 22:05:00 UTC ***

Currently the only way to organize buddies through tags is via the context menu.  Now that we have the ability to drag buddies to merge them into contact lists, it would be logical to also be able to drag buddies to tags.  The interactions I can see include:

- The drag target should be the tag name.
- Drag buddy from one tag to the other removes it from one tag into the new one.
- Holding Ctrl(Option) or Shift while dragging a buddy should copy it into a new tag without removing it from the old one.  
- Drag a buddy from inside of a contact list to a tag name should remove it from the contact list.

Comment 1

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 915 at 2011-07-10 22:40:35 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #0)

> - Drag buddy from one tag to the other removes it from one tag into the new
> one.
This is the "move" action of Instantbird 0.2 that we removed because it doesn't fit with the concept of tags + it's unreliable (it's not possible to guarantee a buddy will actually be moved, the server may very well ignore our change and revert it at the next connection. This typically happens with facebook chat).
(it was with a context menu, not a drag&drop in Instantbird 0.2. We have never supported moving a buddy with a drag and drop).

> - Holding Ctrl(Option) or Shift while dragging a buddy should copy it into a
> new tag without removing it from the old one.

We attach tags to contacts. We don't put contacts inside tags. Thus "copy" is not an action that makes sense in this context.

> - Drag a buddy from inside of a contact list to a tag name should remove it
> from the contact list.

I see no reason to perform this action often, so I don't see any need to make it easier (to do by mistake).

Comment 2

[Instantbot]

*** Original post on bio 915 by patrickjdempsey <pjdkrunkt AT lycos.com> at 2011-07-10 23:45:56 UTC ***

> This is the "move" action of Instantbird 0.2 that we removed because it doesn't
> fit with the concept of tags + it's unreliable (it's not possible to guarantee
> a buddy will actually be moved, the server may very well ignore our change and
> revert it at the next connection. This typically happens with facebook chat).
> (it was with a context menu, not a drag&drop in Instantbird 0.2. We have never
> supported moving a buddy with a drag and drop).

Ahhh, that is really frustrating!  I hope the issues with Facebook chat can be resolved!  It feels strange to me to have a UI that offers dragging for one operation but not for others that seem logical.  Thank you for explaining the issues involved.

> I see no reason to perform this action often, so I don't see any need to make
> it easier (to do by mistake).

It just feels awkward to drag a buddy into a contact but not be able to drag it back out.  But I understand there may be complications to something like that, especially as above where if a buddy was moved into a different tag there might be problems.

Comment 4

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 915 at 2011-08-02 14:52:56 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #1)

> We attach tags to contacts. We don't put contacts inside tags. Thus "copy" is
> not an action that makes sense in this context.

Ofcourse we do. It's rather obvious when you look at the contact list :D


In my opinion this is exactly the problem: we display the tags as if they were groups containing contacts. They look like a physical thing containing contacts and the real life response to get something in or out a bag is to grab it and move it.

Comment 5

[aleth [:aleth]]

*** Original post on bio 915 at 2012-04-26 23:52:14 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> 
> > We attach tags to contacts. We don't put contacts inside tags. Thus "copy" is
> > not an action that makes sense in this context.
> 
> Ofcourse we do. It's rather obvious when you look at the contact list :D
> 
> 
> In my opinion this is exactly the problem: we display the tags as if they were
> groups containing contacts. They look like a physical thing containing contacts
> and the real life response to get something in or out a bag is to grab it and
> move it.

There is possibly an issue here (maybe only in terms of making the tag system more obvious to the user?), but it should be filed as a separate bug if/when there is something actionable.