97326 - Turbo and new mail notification should use the same tray icon

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

This bug is (so far) a debogosified version of bug 90466.

WHEN new mail notification in the Windows system tray is implemented (bug 
18729), AND Quick Launch mode is active, AND there is new mail, THEN there 
should be only one icon in the system tray (sharing the Quick Launch and mail 
notification roles) rather than two icons.

That's all.

Comment 1

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

*** Bug 90466 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[Peter Lairo]

Dear "Assigned To:" person (currently pchen):
Please take a "glance" at bug 90466. It contains *many useful ideas* on how this
could be implemented (or where it could go after this bug is fixed),
particularly the menu designs. It's a pitty it was closed. 'Nuff said ;)

Comment 3

[Peter Lairo]

RE Summary: It's called "Quick Launch" in the UI. For query purposes, I suggest
to change the summary to:

"Quick Launch (Turbo) and New Mail Notification should use the Same Tray Icon"

Comment 4

[Paul Chen]

makring p3 and mozilla0.9.8 for the moment assuming 18729 gets done in 0.9.7

Comment 5

[Paul Chen]

pushing out to mozilla0.9.9 since 18729 was pushed out to that milestone also

Comment 6

[Paul Chen]

Pushing out to mozilla1.0.1

Comment 7

[scottputterman]

reassigning to mscott.

Comment 8

[scottputterman]

marking WONTFIX. There will be 2 icons.

Comment 9

[Peter Lairo]

WHAT? Two icons? I protest! Pretty soon my tray icons are going to come over and
EAT my start button :(

Have you posted the reasons for this "decision" anywhere?

Comment 10

[basic]

What is the rationale behind this WONTFIX? Any reason why there can not be only
one icon?

Comment 11

[timeless]

look what the tooth fairy delivered: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platfo
rm/Shell/Functions/Shell_NotifyIcon.asp
The taskbar notification area is sometimes erroneously called the "tray."

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platfo
rm/Shell/shell_int/Taskbar.asp
Applications can put icons in the status area to indicate the status of an 
operation or to notify the user about an event. For example, an application 
might put a printer icon in the status area to show that a print job is under 
way.

Comment 12

[Roger D]

Having done the necessary cut and paste to follow the links above, all I see is
permission from MIcrosoft to clutter the user's tray if we want to. What is the
rationale for deciding that we want to do so? Is there a reason why some people
feel that two icons are better than one, or is it just that we can't be bothered
to do this given that Microsoft has said that it's OK not to?

Comment 13

[Blake Ross]

I'm not saying combining turbo and biff is necessarily the best idea, as we
really want both in certain states, but I wish the turbo owners were consulted
before such a decision was made... in fact, Marlon set up a meeting on Monday to
discuss general turbo issues, and biff integration was one of the topics of
discussion. Scott, any chance the mail team can be represented at that meeting
so we can discuss it?

Comment 14

[scottputterman]

Just let me know where and when and I'll try to get mail representation there. 
The mail team is pretty set on having a separate notification.  We thought about
integrating with turbo but decided that it didn't make sense.

Comment 15

[timeless]

The tooth fairy (aka [e-mail]) from earlier wanted me to share his idea:

There shouldn't be two icon's.  The "taskbar notification area" is called that 
for a reason as you use it to notify the user about information.  It is not a 
quick launch bar as that toolbar on the task bar is called "Quick Launch"  So 
anything you want to launch quickly should have an icon there.  So only mail 
notification should be in the notification area.

But that doesn't mean you can't have a faster startup time.  You can have your 
mail notification icon act as just mail notification.

In the Quick Launch toolbar you can have an icon that just runs a bootstrap 
program. That bootstrap program can then launch the browser in the best way 
(i.e. check if the turbo stuff is running in the background and then either use 
it if its there or go the other route if its not)  What's good about this is 
that the icon can be anywhere like any other shortcut to run a program.

The turbo stuff that run in the background should have no icon in the taskbar.  
That way if someone doesn't want to have the mail app installed, or doesn't 
want the tray icon for some other reason then there will be no problems.  The 
UI should be in the browser itself. So the setting for whether or not to use 
turbo mode should be in the preferences and fully quitting should be done by 
holding down ctrl while clicking on the X in the top right, quitting in the 
file menu or by using alt-f4 (so it becomes ctrl-alt-f4).  Also if turbo mode 
is running and you hold down ctrl the text for "Exit" in the file menu should 
change to "Exit and Unload" to indicate what is happening.  There should also 
be a circle next to "Exit" to show if the turbo stuff is running in the 
background so if it is then there should be a filled in circle if not it should 
be an outline.

So for a novice user they just see the icon in the notification area as a new 
mail notifier and the icon in the Quick Launch bar (and any other place you 
want to be able to start the browser like from the start menu) as the icon to 
launch the browser.  The power user will still be able to use it like that but 
also remain in full control of whether turbo mode is on and to be able to 
really close the browser.

Comment 16

[Nahor]

The icon for the turbo mode could be in the tray to "notify the user that the 
turbo mode is on".
The other advantage to have in the tray is that you can have a local menu. That 
way, you can quit mozilla without having to show a window first to do your 
"ctrl+alt+f4" (which by the way is not intuitive).
With the menu, you can also have to possibility to start the window you want 
(browser, mail, chatzilla, ...). You would need many icons in the quickstart bar 
to do so. Or you would have to show a dialog box everytime. With the tray, you 
doubleclick to get the default window (browser), or use the menu for special 
case.
To me, the tray allow for a lot more flexibility and more "intuitivity".

And if you don't want to have a too big tray, you can use XP which can hide 
icons

Comment 17

[marlon bishop]

the meeting is now set for tuesday, please let me know which mail rep need to be
invited.

Comment 18

[Blake Ross]

You're right, it probably doesn't make sense.  I think any attempt to combine
the two would be far too complex for the end user. But in any case, a discussion
can't hurt. The meeting is monday, not sure of the time. Marlon?

Comment 19

[marlon bishop]

the meeting is tuesday, not monday set for 2:00-3:30, check your calendars

Comment 20

[Peter Lairo]

Below is some information from duped bug 90466 that may be useful for the
meeting next week. I think with this UI (and some tray-icons which show each
possible combination), it will be possible to use just one icon. I think the
suggested UI is very understandable to the end user.

--> The benefit of having the icon there all the time is that the user has a
visual confirmation that there is *something* there at all that is doing
something. You know there is a program running, because you can see it. It is
nice to be able to glance down there and see "ah, no new mail", instead of
thinking "is that mail checking thing running or not?". 

The user can also CTRL+double-click to force a mail check if he wants to know if
there is any mail *now* (especially useful if the mail check interval is long -
e.g., 1 hr).

Since I am sure  this is an issue where people feel strongly both ways, I
suggest that the icon have an option to be "always visible" or "only visible
when new mail arrives".

So the tray-icon could look like this when right-clicked on:

+--------------------------+
| *Check for Mail*         | <-- bold = double click behaviour (configurable)
|  Mail & Newsgroups       |
|  Navigator               |
|  Composer                |
|  Address Book            |
| ------------------------ |
| Activated Features:      |
| [x] Mail Notify          |
| [x] Tubo Mode            |
| ------------------------ |
| Notification Options...  |
| ------------------------ |
| Close and Exit Mozilla   | <-- brings up warning/info dialogue?
+--------------------------+


+- Notification Options -------------------------------+
|                                                      |
| Check for mail every [    ] minutes                  |
| [ ] If no internet connection [autoconnect   |v]     |
| -----------------------------------------------------+
| Double click does this:        [open Messenger |v]   |
| CTRL + Double click does this: [check for mail |v]   |
| ALT  + Double click does this: [write a mail   |v]   |
|------------------------------------------------------+
| Tray icon is visible:                                |
| <+> Always (default)                                 |
| < > If turbo mode is on or when new mail has arrived |
| < > Only when new mail has arrived                   |
+------------------------------------------------------+

The main menu should be short and easy to understand.

PS. Additionally, if we ever get a download manager that shows each download as
a tray icon (as GetRight nicely does), you should really think about if you
really want to hog the tray icon with two icons for this notification (where one
will clearly do.

Comment 21

[scottputterman]

I'm going to reopen this.  I believe it should be two icons.  I believe it will
be two icons :)  But, in my quest to get bugs off our list, I should have left
this open until this proposal was communicated to everyone which it will be on
Tuesday.

Comment 22

[Ben Ruppel]

I think Peter Lairo's example is a perfect demonstration of how we can avoid
unnecessary clutter and make mozilla/netscape a more polished, professional
application.  I sincerely hope that everyone who is attending the meeting will
take a look at it, or that someone who is attending the meeting will bring this
example to show everyone. 

Yes, windowsXP has a feature to hide inactive icons.  This shows that icon
clutter is indeed a problem and mozilla would do well to recognize this.  

Comment 23

[Ian Pottinger]

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11056#c23 begins the discussion of 
integrating Mozilla calendar alarms with nsnotify.

Is this something that should be discussed here??  Should a flexible, 
expandable set of UI API be considered for a "system notification service"???

Comment 24

[marlon bishop]

Ian - thanks for bringing that point up, that definitely needs to be considered

Ben, Peter - i will try to represent ideas such as this in the meeting, as well
as most of the concerns raised in this and dependent bugs.

Comment 25

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

Something that seems not to have been considered (as I look at Peter Lairo's
post) is that the default double-click option should be to do the same what Moz
does if it is started "normally" (running mozilla from a cmd line or
double-click its icon on the desktop): In Edit/Preferences/Appearance you can
configure what should be launched, which is one or more of Navigator, Composer,
Mail.
Maybe implementing this behaviour is or should be another bug, but I think it'd
have to be considered here, right?

Comment 26

[Alex Bishop]

*** Bug 122496 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 27

[Blake Ross]

This is done, right? Not combining the icons?

Comment 28

[Peter Lairo]

WONTFIX??? Are you guys nuts?

Now, yet another application that is trying to fill up my system tray and win
the race over to my START button - damn :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( 

Comment 29

[Sören 'Chucker' Kuklau (gone)]

I agree with Peter. If organised well, one icon is sufficient. Maybe it should
be configurable for those who _do_ want two icons.