954380 - Some suggestions for improvements that I would love to see

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Instantbird Graveyard :: Contacts window, defect)

Description

[Instantbot]

*** Original post on bio 946 by Jake <jake.lauer AT gmail.com> at 2011-07-28 16:57:00 UTC ***

This isn't really a bug per se, but it's a list of features that I haven't seen suggested elsewhere.

1. Sorting buddy list by protocol and availability. Ideally, I could sort my buddy list so that clients are grouped by protocol, then within this grouping, are sorted by status (online, idle, busy, etc). This should not be the default setting, but should be an option.

2. Creating and moving people within tags should be easier. It takes several clicks just to move somebody into a tag and out of another. I should be able to drag a contact from one tag to another. It's what a user will assume is possible. I tried it and accidentally merged a contact with another one. 

3. Options for turning off only certain sounds. I use chat for work a LOT because my company's employees are spread all around the country. I want to be able to receive chat notifications for jabber group chats, but I don't want notifications when I send IMs. 

4. Ability to have the taskbar icon be visible at all times, including when the chat isn't minimized or closed. I like being able to minimize to tray, but if I want to close the program completely, I either have to end the process, or find the chat window and go to File -> Exit, or close the chat window from the start bar, then right click on the taskbar icon and exit from there. If the icon was always visible (or if that was an option), any time I wanted to exit I could just right click on the icon and hit exit. Many chat programs have this option. They also include other options like setting status from the icon, etc.

5. Snapping chat windows to the buddy list. Digsby includes this, and it's awesome. I like keeping my windows grouped and the same size. I should be able to drag a chat window next to the buddy list and it should snap to it on the closest border. Other chat windows would then be snappable to this group.

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I think it's a good list of things that could be added. Great job so far, it's a pretty solid client as-is.

Comment 1

[Patrick Cloke [:clokep]]

*** Original post on bio 946 at 2011-07-28 17:32:59 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #0)
> This isn't really a bug per se, but it's a list of features that I haven't seen
> suggested elsewhere.
It's better to file one bug per bug, that way each one is specific and easy to work on.

> 1. Sorting buddy list by protocol and availability. Ideally, I could sort my
> buddy list so that clients are grouped by protocol, then within this grouping,
> are sorted by status (online, idle, busy, etc). This should not be the default
> setting, but should be an option.
Options are expensive, someone needs to implement them and maintain them. I think this would more likely fit into an extension (although it might need bug 954206 (bio 772) fixed first), but it's possible other developers will disagree.  The sorting by status is bug 954136 (bio 701).

> 2. Creating and moving people within tags should be easier. It takes several
> clicks just to move somebody into a tag and out of another. I should be able to
> drag a contact from one tag to another. It's what a user will assume is
> possible. I tried it and accidentally merged a contact with another one.
bug 954348 (bio 915)
 
> 3. Options for turning off only certain sounds. I use chat for work a LOT
> because my company's employees are spread all around the country. I want to be
> able to receive chat notifications for jabber group chats, but I don't want
> notifications when I send IMs. 
These account like preferences are probably more likely in an extension, but I'm not sure if someone else has an opinion. We could probably use some finer grain control for sounds, although they could be customized via an extension to not use the outgoing IM sound.

> 4. Ability to have the taskbar icon be visible at all times, including when the
> chat isn't minimized or closed. I like being able to minimize to tray, but if I
> want to close the program completely, I either have to end the process, or find
> the chat window and go to File -> Exit, or close the chat window from the start
> bar, then right click on the taskbar icon and exit from there. If the icon was
> always visible (or if that was an option), any time I wanted to exit I could
> just right click on the icon and hit exit. Many chat programs have this option.
bug 954183 (bio 749)

> They also include other options like setting status from the icon, etc.
bug 954184 (bio 750)

> 5. Snapping chat windows to the buddy list. Digsby includes this, and it's
> awesome. I like keeping my windows grouped and the same size. I should be able
> to drag a chat window next to the buddy list and it should snap to it on the
> closest border. Other chat windows would then be snappable to this group.
Interesting, I don't think there's a bug about this.

> That's all I can think of at the moment, but I think it's a good list of things
> that could be added. Great job so far, it's a pretty solid client as-is.
Thanks for the feedback! :) Please file separate bugs on the ideas that don't yet have bugs (so we can track any work on them properly) -- me marking this as "INVALID" doesn't mean the ideas aren't good, just that it's too confusing having so many ideas in one bug! Thanks again, I'm glad you like Instantbird so far.