96968 - Card preview pane contents can't be selected for copy to clipboard

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

Description

[Andriy Palamarchuk]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i586; en-US; rv:0.9.3+) Gecko/20010824
BuildID:    2001082421

When address card is selected in the card list pane, the content of the card is
displayed below - in preview pane. I can't select the text with mouse on this
pane and copy it to clipboard.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Launch address book, click on an address card
2. Press mouse button over text in the right lower pane and move the mouse over
the text
3.

Actual Results:  Nothing happens

Expected Results:  The text should be highlighted for copying to clipboard

Possibility of copy text from that pane to clipboard is very important for
exchanging data with other applications.

Comment 1

[Keyser Sose]

Marking these all WORKSFORME sorry about lack of response but were very
overloaded here. Only reopen the bug if you can reproduce with the following steps:

1) Download the latest nightly (or 0.9.6 which should be out RSN)
2) Create a new profile
3) test the bug again

If it still occurs go ahead and reopen the bug. Again sorry about no response
were quite overloaded here and understaffed.

Comment 2

[Christopher Hoess (gone)]

reopening.

Comment 3

[Christopher Hoess (gone)]

Confirmed Linux 2001110908

Comment 4

[scottputterman]

reassigning to racham.

Comment 5

[Ninoschka Baca]

Marking nsbeta1 because you should be able to highlight items in the card pane,
right click and Copy. Bug# 35837 covers the case where a Copy would take all the
contents of the card, not just the highlighted region.

Comment 6

[Chan Min Wai]

I think this should be slove as people can have their Needed information being
copy. And it wouldn't hurt any thing for doing so.

May I know the status now?

Comment 7

[Samir Gehani]

Mail triage team: nsbeta1+/adt3

Comment 8

[Samir Gehani]

Correction to last comment: 
Mail triage team: nsbeta1-

Comment 9

[anatolie]

Mozilla Thunderbird 0.2 (2003090) - Bug still there... :(

Comment 10

[Rob Pegoraro]

This would be a *huge* help in my job (even more than real vCard support). I can
work around this limit by clicking the get-map button and copying the address
out of MapQuest, but that procedure is pretty much the definition of "kludge."
Being able to edit an address-book entry in this preview page would be even
better, but I'd be content for a while if I could just copy this text--just as I
can in almost every other application that presents text fields. (Yes, I'm kind
of amazed that this wasn't built in from the start.) 

Comment 11

[R.K.Aa.]

dup of bug 35837?

Comment 12

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 138161 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13

[Jim Booth]

*** Bug 236944 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Jim Booth]

*** Bug 210275 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Jim Booth]

Changing hardware/OS to All

Comment 16

[Scott MacGregor]

*** Bug 254198 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 17

[Chan Min Wai]

Shouldn't there is a way to send an Address book? 
E.g I want to send someone on my Addressbook on the email using vcard?

I think that is the very good way and This Copy on the address book will ease
our problem when we want to put them in the online address book somehow.

Comment 18

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

*** Bug 172294 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 19

[Scott Davis]

Requesting blocking-aviary1.1 flag

Since can't forward VCards yet, there is currently no easy way to copy an
address into an email or other document - you have to either retype the
information (!?!) or copy and paste each line (line 1, line2, city, state...)
separately from the card properties window.  This is basic functionality
currently missing from the address book.

If the card preview window was selectable/copyable, this would make the window
function the way a user would expect, and provide a way to easily extract
address information.

Comment 20

[James Paige]

Today a field representative called me and asked how to forward a Mozilla
address book entry to someone. He is accustomed to Micrsoft Outlook, so he
expected a button to forward as a vCard.

After checking it out, I was disappointed to discover no support of any kind for
forwarding address book entries. (that would be bug 11406 and bug 20304 and bug
176803)

I then started to walk him through copying-and-pasting the address book entry to
the body of an e-mail, which I figured was a decent workaround... but it is
impossible to copy text-- impossible even to select it!

Comment 21

[Robert Kaiser]

Don not ever set bug flags to + if you are not in any special group that manages
releases, please.
Many Mozilla suite versions have shipped with that, SeaMonkey will not block a
release for that.
Also unsetting bogus (very old) target milestone of unassigned bug.

Comment 22

[Chris Siller]

*** Bug 301230 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 23

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 266553 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 24

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Despite being a Suite bug, TB bugs are being duped against this (following 
Scott's lead at comment 16).  Presumably that means this feature is actually 
Core.

This bug is actually an RFE, but I'm not going to change the severity.

Comment 25

[Robert Rothenberg]

*** Bug 319151 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 26

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

*** Bug 346073 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 27

[adam]

This behavious bugs the hell out of me, any sign of it getting fixed? It was first reported five years ago!

Comment 28

[jsnod]

See related Bug 365421 ... is it a dupe?

Comment 29

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #28)
> See related Bug 365421 ... is it a dupe?

not a dupe.  this is about copying selected text. 365421 is about extracting data from a clickable field.

Comment 32

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I could use several times a week

Comment 34

[Chris Chubb]

I could also use this about every day. Going to the edit screen, then the notes, then scrolling to find text, then copying is a bit tedious.

Comment 35

[Joel Goguen]

This has been reported at https://launchpad.net/bugs/235101.  Any word on where this fits in the grand scheme of things?

Comment 36

[kurt rosenfeld]

The ability to copy the total contents of an address card in one operation is TOTALLY essential.
This is particularly so because it is impossible to highlight the address card name in one list, then copy it to the clipboard and add the address card to another list

A much more sensible solution would be to allow the link to an address card to be used in 1 or more lists to enable that card to be used by all the selected lists.
Currently a new card has to be opened in each list and the required contents have to be tediously filled in. This causes not only much frustration but also errors and omissions.
The result is that the several cards (in different lists) my not contain the same data. Indeed some may contain out of date phone numbers or email addresses.

Comment 37

[LeftCoastBCer]

This has been an issue for me for years now. I use the address book as my central repository of contact information and not being able to copy & paste is a HUGE inconvenience. PLEASE, Please, please someone take this on and fix it! I will name my first child in your honor if you do.

Another alternative might be to keep the address books in XML or LDIF format, or any other HUMAN READABLE format, so that I can create my own tools to manage the books. The MORK format is ubiquitous inside Mozilla and I've rarely seen anything more useless. How about moving into the 21st century with XML?

Comment 38

[kurt rosenfeld]

(In reply to comment #37)
> This has been an issue for me for years now. I use the address book as my
> central repository of contact information and not being able to copy & paste is
> a HUGE inconvenience. PLEASE, Please, please someone take this on and fix it! I
> will name my first child in your honor if you do.
> 
> Another alternative might be to keep the address books in XML or LDIF format,
> or any other HUMAN READABLE format, so that I can create my own tools to manage
> the books. The MORK format is ubiquitous inside Mozilla and I've rarely seen
> anything more useless. How about moving into the 21st century with XML?

It is high time that such a simple fix is carried out.
How about gettingmit done!

Comment 40

[Frantisek]

there is add on that brings needed functionality
https://addons.mozilla.org/cs/thunderbird/addon/7065

Comment 42

[wazz]

I had thought or hoped opensource software had matured.  Apparently not.  This issue has been around for almost 10 years and nothing done about it.  Microsoft is lovin' it.

Comment 43

[Launchpad]

John Vivirito added the following comment to Launchpad bug #235101:

File a bug upstream. Saying things like you did
should be posted somewhere else as it does not
have anything to do with the bug.

On 04/26/2010 04:55 AM, Wazz wrote:
> I had thought or hoped opensource software had matured.  Apparently not.
> This issue has been around for almost 10 years and nothing done about
> it.  Microsoft is lovin' it.
> 

-- 
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

"How can i get lost, if i have no where to go"
    -- Metallica from Unforgiven III



-- 
http://launchpad.net/bugs/235101

Comment 47

[valedweller]

Thank you Frantisek for advising about the add-on. (I nearly missed it)
This solved the problem for me (on Mac) it is a great help.
Could this feature be incorporated into the main application?

Comment 49

[Patrick O'Keeffe]

Oh good, I'm not the only one desiring this functionality. Of course, 20 versions, 12 years and 18+ duplicate bug filings later, I'm not very hopeful. 

Then again, why fix what can be worked around with a 3rd party add-on? /s 

Sorry to be so demanding :( I just want to copy-n-paste.

Comment 56

[Ruslan Bekenev]

Attachment: make-ab-view-text-selectable.patch

The patch makes text in ab card view selectable. 
It's pretty straightforward, just one css line. 

The patch is pretty useful for me as well... so I guess I have to vote for the bug too :D

Please let me know what do you think. 

P.S.
Jorgk, again, I'm setting you as a reviewer since I see your name most of the time in hg log of the file I've changed. Let me know if I should ask for review from someone else.

Comment 57

[Ruslan Bekenev]

I have to mention, context menu is not there. I'm not really sure how good it is from UX standpoint. CTRL+C works of course.

Comment 58

[Ruslan Bekenev]

One more thing I have to mention is addon suggested as a workaround cannot be installed in latest TB. So it is not a workaround anymore.

Comment 59

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Comment on attachment 8965043 [details] [diff] [review]
make-ab-view-text-selectable.patch

CSS is something for Richard ;-)

Comment 60

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Comment on attachment 8965043 [details] [diff] [review]
make-ab-view-text-selectable.patch

Thanks, Ruslan.

Comment 61

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Actually, this is a good step forward, but the header is still not selectable. Perhaps another line of CSS missing.

Comment 62

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Is the header really needed? When you select all the content (without the headers) the formatting isn't like the card view. But if you really want the headers, you need to add ".CardViewHeading".

Comment 63

[Dennis Plöger]

Guys, guys! It seems that this bug is about to be solved! Don't you think, you should wait one more year? At least, it'd be an adult then! :D

No, seriously. Nice to see that you're working on it. Thanks!

Comment 64

[Ruslan Bekenev]

(In reply to Jorg K (GMT+1) from comment #61)
> Actually, this is a good step forward, but the header is still not
> selectable. Perhaps another line of CSS missing.

Honestly I didn't even think about making header selectable. But it should be pretty easy to do. Let me know if I should provide you with patch for this.

Comment 65

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Well, the first thing I tried to select was the header and it didn't work. There's no reason why that text shouldn't be selectable, so let's fix it while we're here and not wait another 17 years ;-(

Comment 66

[Ruslan Bekenev]

Attachment: make-ab-view-text-selectable.patch

It's now possible to selected basically everything in the card view. There is card header which is display name by default. It's also possible to selected subheaders ("contact", "phone", etc...). They are not useful to select by their own but it's a good context if select them together with other contact info. 

Excuse me, I'm still not really good at understanding the review process, so I'm asking for review from both of you, since Richard is good at CSS and Jorgk should check if selection is working as expected.

Comment 67

[Ruslan Bekenev]

Attachment: screenshot to see what is selectable

and here is screenshot for everyone else to see what is selectable.

Comment 68

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Comment on attachment 8965427 [details] [diff] [review]
make-ab-view-text-selectable.patch

Yes, everything can be selected. But I think it makes not much sense to select the whole pane as the output isn't well formed to use directly.

Better all can be selected than nothing how it is now.

Comment 69

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

I've played with this during a fair amount of time. The only perfect solution would be to format the selected content nicely in the clipboard. As Richard said in comment #68, the text currently placed on the clipboard doesn't lend itself to pasting in a formatted way. I tried omitting headers (CardViewHeading), but then the selected text loses its context. So let's land it as proposed.

Comment 70

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/4d7274e18df2
make text in AB card view selectable. r=Paenglab

Comment 71

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Beta (TB 60 beta 3):
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/d265c609707c59469473b13bf50b24cf7616e1e6

Comment 73

[Ramona Gavrilescu]

Can confirm this as Verified.
Tested on OS WIN(64):
Version 61.0a1
Build: 0180501100117

 Version 62.0a1
 Build: 20180606101752

OS MAC Sonoma 14
Version : 126.0b1
Build: 20240422190155