Saved Search Folder (aka Virtual Folders) Testing Thread

kooper · Post by **kooper** » October 20th, 2004, 8:46 am

few glitches I can see:

Can I search multiple IMAP servers? What I want is a single INBOX that has all my inboxes from the different IMAP servers. I tried to do this but it only allows me to select folders on a single IMAP server.

I created a search over multiple folders on IMAP server. Sorting these by date will result in them first ordered by the folder and then by date, not by date as expected.

I have the same problem as johnstoj with multiple servers.

Rob

Ommarok · Post by **Ommarok** » October 20th, 2004, 4:08 pm

One thing that I've always wanted to do, and which might be possible by using Virtual Folders is to view conversations including my answers. I always thought that the current "group by thread" is flawed because you see eveybody's answes excepts yours, as they are in the Sent Folder.

So to try this out and to test this new feature I've created a search folder that shows all the Inbox and all the Sent messages and it works fine. I love it! Once the "Group by thread" works properly this would be very close to the way this is implemented in in Gmail or even in Opera M2.

However, the big problem with that, when not using the group by thread, is that the "Sender" column shows your address for the emails that you sent, but you can't see the address to whom you sent the email. I have added the "Recipient" field as well but it seems like a waste of space to have both the Sender and the Recipients when most of the time only one of them is interesting (Recipient for the emails that you sent and Sender for the emails that you received)

A much more elegant solution would be to have a mixed "Sender/Recipient" field that would show the Sender for all the emails that you received and the Recipients for the messages that you sent. Then there could also be an icon (like in the "Subject field" that shows an icon before the actual subject) that would show if the email was received or sent by you (for instance an arrow that would face right for received emails and left for sent emails). What do you think?

It seems so much more natural to not separate received and sent emails. Now that we have "virtual folders" that separation seems completelly artificial to me...

TriEnt · Post by **TriEnt** » October 20th, 2004, 4:10 pm

I'll second that, maybe you want to file in a request on bugzilla...
(although to be honest I don't see many chances of actually getting it done - the usual argument will be that there's plenty of other things on top of the list)

Ommarok · Post by **Ommarok** » October 20th, 2004, 5:03 pm

I am sorry, TriEnt, but I am pretty new to the OSS scene so I don't know how to do what you suggest. But I guess that as it seems that some of the developers hang out in this forum maybe one will find some merit in this idea and if they like it they might implement it some time...

I really think that this would set Thunderbird apart from most other mail programs. In my opinion, once you start using "virtual folders" (like in Gmail) the old paradigm of dividing between Inbox and Sent emails becomes obsolete and arbitrary. But to get rid of it something like what I describe (i.e. a mixed "sender/recipient" filed) would be needed.

So, what do you think, Scott? Does this make any sense? ;-)

ansorg · Post by **ansorg** » October 21st, 2004, 4:16 am

kooper wrote:Can I search multiple IMAP servers? What I want is a single INBOX that has all my inboxes from the different IMAP servers. I tried to do this but it only allows me to select folders on a single IMAP server.

Agree!

that's all I want - for now

wintogreen · Post by **wintogreen** » October 21st, 2004, 6:00 am

Now using the 2004-10-21 winzip build. Previous quoted comments were regarding the 2004-10-18 build.

wintogreen wrote:1. On my first launch of this build (Win zip), I had a crash upon exiting after trying to change the search properties for a VF. (I forgot to note the incident number in the talkback agent, but if you see a crash report from r.ubbish@mail... that would be me.)

Had a crash on the maiden launch of this build, too, when exiting. 2nd launch was OK; no crash.

wintogreen wrote:2. The UI (File > New > Saved Search) gives the impression that you can search more than one account, since you can check the folders from multiple accounts. But for me it doesn't search for more than one account. Is it supposed to?

EDIT: I see from comment #22 here that the UI has now been modified:
modify folder list picker dialog to only let you choose folders from the same account

The new folder-picker definitely takes care of that confusion. (But see #8 below.)

wintogreen wrote:3. If possible, please make the Select Folder(s) dialog resizeable by the user. I find it too short when I have a long list of folders I want to scroll through.

Thank you! Works like a charm.

Not seeing any changes with nos. 4-6 from my post above. Didn't bother checking no. 7.

8. I'm having a display problem with the accounts available in the dropdown. There should be several accounts there but none of them are actually visible. I can select them, but there's nothing to be seen in the dropdown:

Looks just like this in 2 separate profiles, both with default theme.

Bucan · Post by **Bucan** » October 21st, 2004, 11:05 am

in order for virtual folders to work with IMAP, does the server have to support this feature (and do the search for TB) or will TB search the messages (both those that are available offline AND those that are only online)?

I was just wondering who is doing the search: the imap server or TB???

*Dan*

mscott · Post by **mscott** » October 21st, 2004, 11:23 am

Bucan wrote:in order for virtual folders to work with IMAP, does the server have to support this feature (and do the search for TB) or will TB search the messages (both those that are available offline AND those that are only online)?

I was just wondering who is doing the search: the imap server or TB???

*Dan*

Either. The latest builds have a checkbox where you can specify online or offline searches. Online are slower but more accurate. Offline searches are faster.

marciak · Post by **marciak** » October 21st, 2004, 11:45 am

johnstoj : I see this too - I mentioned it to Scott and he indicated he is working on it.

johnstoj wrote:UI bug:

During the creation process, when selecting folders, if I click the drop down for the account listing, only the last account is seen properly. I can still select one of my other accounts, I just can't see what I am selecting.

Build 10/20

<img src=http://www.jsoft.net/selfolder.jpg>

philcozz · Post by **philcozz** » October 21st, 2004, 7:17 pm

Is there any way to have a saved search folder for flagged messages? I couldn't find that in the options, but I always end up flagging messages for later and it would be great to have a folder that could easily organize them for me.

Thanks!

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version 0.8 (20041021) (OSX)

philcozz · Post by **philcozz** » October 21st, 2004, 8:00 pm

Bug for me on OSX... I have created a folder for "important" labeled messages and they sure do show up in the folder as I change the label, but when I try to open the message from the saved folder the message is empty. If I hit reply, the reply window opens with the message that should be there ready for the reply, but there is no sign of the message in the e-mail prior to hitting reply.

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version 0.8 (20041021) (OSX)

stavros · Post by **stavros** » October 21st, 2004, 11:27 pm

Bug: When I drag a Virtual Folder from its original place somewhere in the folder hierarchy into another folder (normal one) Tbird crashes and doesn't let it fly .. actually, when tbird starts up again the 'virtual folder' is under that new folder but is empty, and the original v-folder is in its original place.

[Also confirming bug above by philcozz .. double clicking a message in a v-folder brings up an empty window]

Platform: MacOS X.3.5, Tbird: version 0.8 (20041021)

Feature Request 1: In addition to having emails appear in a v-folder that meat criteria x-y-z, how (im)possible would it be to be able to then drag arbitrary emails into that v-folder that don't fit hard and fast query-rules as well ... so for example, if I had a v-folder for a project .. i can say that every email with "Sender" /contains/ "@company.com" to go in there and that's great, but let's say I want to put another email in there that I can't filter w/ a definite rule (perhaps a message I was cc'd on to someone somewhere regarding the project but no definitive 'flags' (sender email, subject, body, etc) that signify this email to ALWAYS belong to that v-folder?

Feature Request 2: Would be sweet if the folder selection ui (on creating a new "Saved Search" have an option to include all sub-folders in a folder ... that was my initial thought on checking a parent folder, but I realize now that it's not the case.

Great work so far though, I haven't been keeping my ear to the ground lately and didn't even realize this feature was in the works, no less that it has come along so far.

Well done, folks!

mscott · Post by **mscott** » October 21st, 2004, 11:27 pm

Just fixed two more issues tonight:

1) The account picker in the choose folder list dialog now shows the account names instead of showing empty space.

2) The folders in the folder list dialog are now sorted with the special folders at the top.

Fimbo · Post by **Fimbo** » October 22nd, 2004, 4:04 am

Great feature love it but a few things:

1. If you rename a virtual folder by right clicking it and "Rename folder" it renames it ok but generates and error.

2. I have load of sub folders and to select each one if need be it is painful. Can there not be an "Include all sub-folders" option.

3. I have created a virtual folder showing all emails from the past 7 days including sent and received items. It would be nice if I could group by thread (i.e. mr x sent me an email, I responded, he responded etc)

4. When it searches through the folders for all messages that meets the search criteria, it doesnt automatically show them in the order I want (ie descending date/time) but just adds them in the order found. Ok I can reorder once completed but a bit of a pain.

5. The artwork needs sorting out to differentiate these virtual folders as well as my fav Theme needs the search folder select buttons added but sure will be sorted with time.

6. It would be nice to copy/paste virtual folders across to other accounts or even the same account to then modify.

7. It would be nice to be able to create virtual folders which search more than one account

Thats about it for now

Fimbo
TB Build 20041021

sasquatch · Post by **sasquatch** » October 22nd, 2004, 6:54 am

This virtual folder search is a great thing, don't get me wrong, BUT I'd really like to see some of the basic, core stuff improved before a lot more time is spent on this new stuff.

1. I've noticed a major slowdown in the past maybe 3 weeks of builds for starters.
2. I'd really like to see some better handling of mail lists.
3. What is status of LDAP support?
4. Any chance of getting some of mmoy's speedup optimizations working in Thunderbird? (see 1.)
5. "Regular" search is still wanting. Check out this bug for starters: BOTH:#253268cannot mark mail as unread after opening from search window
6. Talkback installer problems/bugs.

Otherwise, this is really coming together just great! Keep up the good work, and thanks.