978449 - "Blocked remote content" message is distracting.

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, defect)

Description

[Barney Laurance]

Attachment: privacy.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:27.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/27.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20140218135856

Steps to reproduce:

Recieve an email with inline links to inline images

View the image - either in the preview pane or its own message. Scroll down.


Actual results:

A very high contrast area appears at the top of the email. It has a black background and large white text, as well as some smaller red text:

"To protect your privacy, Thunderbird has blocked remote content in this message

[Show Remote Content]

Always load remote content from [e-mail]"

Scrolling the email doesn't move this message out of view.

As it is so high contrast, both in internaly and with the usual white background of the email, I find it distracts me from reading the message. Sometimes I will press "Show Remote Content" just to make the message go away, even though I'm not interested in the remote content and I would prefer to keep my privacy protected.


Expected results:

I don't know, but these are some ideas:

Use a lower contrast design
Make the message scroll with the email instead of being fixed at the top of the viewport
Add a button to dismiss the message without loading remote content.
Add an option to never load remote content from [e-mail]

Comment 1

[David Speck]

When I access Thunderbird on a remote computer via Teamviewer, the "Blocked remote content" message causes the message text pane to redraw several times over several seconds as the yellow announcement unrolls.

This animation is superfluous and distracting.  I would request either:

1) a setting to leave remote content blocked, but do not remind me of it on every single Usenet message, or

2) a flag icon in the heading of the message that doesn't cause scrolling of the main text pane.

3) a setting to make the yellow ribbon open without the cute "unrolling" effect.  

Thanks,

Dave

Comment 2

[Gustave]

On modern laptop/home computers vertical screen space is reduced in favor of width (to watch movies, I guess)
So, unless I missed something in Thunderbird 38.0.1
* Issue 1 :
The 'remote content' bar takes some vertical space for only ONE button : "Options"
It has a useless animation when appearing that makes the mail content scroll down
The "Options" button could be near the "More Actions" button in the mail header
* Issue 2 :
There is no option NOT to show the 'remote content' bar, if this option existed then comes the Issue 3
* Issue 3 :
The drop-down menu from the "Options" button is not duplicated in the main menu/right-click menu/any toolbar button

However for those who do not allow remote content by default, you can hide the 'remote content' bar by creating or editing the file (in Windows systems) :
C:\Users\[your windows account]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\[your thunderbird account]\chrome\userChrome.css

/* Required header for userChrome.css */
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

/* Always Hide Remote Content Bar */
#msgNotificationBar {display : none !important;}

And you can still allow to load remote content for a site or a sender in :
Menu>Tools>Options>Privacy>Exceptions

Comment 3

[David Speck]

Gustave,

I tried the solution you proposed above.  My situation is a little unusual, in that I have my Thunderbird installed in the "D:" drive as a precaution against the inevitable Windows crashed that make reinstallation necessary occasionally.  

I could find no "userChrome.css" file anywhere on the computer before starting the modification.  

There was no "chrome" directory under the 

C:\Users\{MyUserName}\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ycpvw819.default\

path, so I created one, and put in a copy of the userChrome.css file as specified above.

On my "D:" drive, where the bulk of Thunderbird resides, I found a chrome directory, but it contains only a single subfolder of icons.  I put a copy of userChrome.css there as well.

D:\Thunderbird\chrome\icons

I restarted Thunderbird, but there was no change in the behavior of the annoying notification bar.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dave

Comment 4

[Gustave]

To David Speck

Here is my configuration : Win 8.1 64bits / Thunderbird 38.0.1 32bits

The fact that Thunderbird is run from the D: drive should not matter, only the active profile folder matters
WRONG folder for userChrome.css : D:\Thunderbird\chrome

The right place for your userChrome.css seems to be :
C:\Users\{MyUserName}\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\[your alphanumeric code].default\chrome\userChrome.css
(the chrome folder and userChrome.css file do not exist by default I think, so they must be created)

To check the location of your active profile folder : in thundebird go to
Menu>Help>Troubleshooting Information>Click the 'show folder' button facing 'profile folder'

My userChrome.css is a standard text file, created by right-clicking in the chrome folder and create a new 'text document'
(there are numerous text format like DOS, UNIX, UNICODE so it's better to create it this way,
edit the file with the Windows Notepad, and save it with ANSI coding when doing a 'save as', just in case...)

*Needed line to place before other commands :
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

*The useful line to always hide the 'remote content' notification bar :
#msgNotificationBar {display: none !important;}

*Another way of hidding the 'remote content' notification bar :
#msgNotificationBar {visibility: collapse !important;}

*A test line that should make disappear the tree pane on the left (to see if userChrome indeed works) :
#folderTree {display: none !important;}

Check that any comment opened with /* is correctly closed with */ (this is multiline comment, so a new line does not end the comment)
Double/Triple check everything (the 'chrome' folder in the profile folder, the 'userChrome.css' file name, the lines of command inside it)
Restart Thunderbird.

It HAS to work (this is only a computer).

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This is an accessilbity issue as mantioned in bug 1311132

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

This bug is unlikely to get any attention because comment 0 and the screenshot attachment 8384128 [details] is outdated, and there are too many issues here, plus high noise ratio. Some things have already been improved (fixed), others will never happen (wontfix), and yet again others need their own bug (not actionable here).

I think the accessibility issue of bug 1311132, namely that the animation can be hazardous with certain medical conditions, albeit an edge case, should be taken serious. I suggest to reopen that bug and implement a pref for the animation there (I do think animation is useful for most users).(In reply to Barney Laurance from comment #0)

(In reply to comment 0:)
> Expected results:
> Use a lower contrast design

Already implemented, unless Linux is different?

> Make the message scroll with the email instead of being fixed at the top of
> the viewport

I don't think that's a good idea. When I discover further down that my message is unreadable without remote images, I don't want to go up again all the way just to retrieve the button.

> Add a button to dismiss the message without loading remote content.

Tempting, but tricky in terms of UX. You might find users clicking it out of the way only to discover later that they need it after all. I don't think we'll remember states per message, i.e. every time you load that msg again, we must show you the bar again to allow getting the remote content.

> Add an option to never load remote content from [e-mail]

Already implemented: On remote content info bar, click "Options > Edit Remote Content Options".
I don't think it's necessary to have another entry in the dropdown menu for that.

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to David Speck from comment #1)
> When I access Thunderbird on a remote computer via Teamviewer, the "Blocked
> remote content" message causes the message text pane to redraw several times
> over several seconds as the yellow announcement unrolls.
> 
> This animation is superfluous and distracting.  I would request either:
> 
> 1) a setting to leave remote content blocked, but do not remind me of it on
> every single Usenet message, or

That would require at least another way to unblock remote content for that message, maybe in "More" button dropdown.
Could be filed as a new bug, but unlikely to get resources unless somebody volunteers.

> 2) a flag icon in the heading of the message that doesn't cause scrolling of
> the main text pane.

This is another possible solution for 1). Actually nice. Like minimizing the big info bar into a small icon. Perhaps with animation ;) That might work. Similar to how the downloads button is animated in FF.

> 3) a setting to make the yellow ribbon open without the cute "unrolling"
> effect.  

Yes, in view of bug 1311132, this seems needed.

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Gustave from comment #2)
> On modern laptop/home computers vertical screen space is reduced in favor of
> width (to watch movies, I guess)
> So, unless I missed something in Thunderbird 38.0.1
> * Issue 1 :
> The 'remote content' bar takes some vertical space for only ONE button :
> "Options"

Hmmm. I hear you wrt vertical space, but we need to make this visible, and we can hardly push a vertical info bar.
Maybe if we follow 1) and 2) as explained in my comment 8, we can allow minimizing the info bar into iconic or menu representation. If the icon is implemented, maybe we could allow never showing the info bar if the user so prefers.
But all of these details are unlikely to get developer time for something which essentially works correctly as it is now, apart from bug 1062961 imo.

> It has a useless animation when appearing that makes the mail content scroll
> down

Point taken, needed per bug 1311132.

> The "Options" button could be near the "More Actions" button in the mail
> header

No it couldn't. That space is already pretty crowded, and we can't just have "Options" there. Options for what? Iconic would be maximum, but insufficient for the general use case. For the average user, we need the big bar, because we are massively changing the layout of their messages. We do so to warn about the privacy implications.

> * Issue 2 :
> There is no option NOT to show the 'remote content' bar, if this option
> existed then comes the Issue 3

Just not showing it doesn't fly, but see my related comments above (minimize to icon, icon instead of bar if user so prefers).

> * Issue 3 :
> The drop-down menu from the "Options" button is not duplicated in the main
> menu/right-click menu/any toolbar button

Yeah, that sounds right. Can you please file a new bug for this?
 
> However for those who do not allow remote content by default, you can hide
> the 'remote content' bar by creating or editing the file (in Windows
> systems) :
> And you can still allow to load remote content for a site or a sender in :
> Menu>Tools>Options>Privacy>Exceptions

Not recommended for the general public!

Comment 10

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

(In reply to Thomas D. (currently busy elsewhere; needinfo?me) from comment #7)
> 
> I think the accessibility issue of bug 1311132, namely that the animation
> can be hazardous with certain medical conditions, albeit an edge case,
> should be taken serious. I suggest to reopen that bug and implement a pref
> for the animation there (I do think animation is useful for most users).(

No need, it's already implemented (if I'm correct in TB 55) with the pref toolkit.cosmeticAnimations.enabled. Also is the animation now faster.