Not so new addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird

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KristleBawl
Posts: 2
Joined: December 18th, 2009, 9:40 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by KristleBawl »

Please forgive me for butting in, but I would like to suggest something that might be added to a future version, maybe. The new header takes up a lot of space and not everyone would want only one or two lines. Perhaps a compression kind of compact might be another option to be added.

Compact Toolbar (Compact Icons) 0.1.3 for https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13619 might give you an idea what I mean.

Thank you for all for your hard work! :-)
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JoeS
Posts: 2337
Joined: June 8th, 2003, 9:15 am

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by JoeS »

KristleBawl wrote:Please forgive me for butting in, but I would like to suggest something that might be added to a future version, maybe. The new header takes up a lot of space and not everyone would want only one or two lines. Perhaps a compression kind of compact might be another option to be added.

Compact Toolbar (Compact Icons) 0.1.3 for https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13619 might give you an idea what I mean.

Thank you for all for your hard work! :-)


You might be interested in the experimental work being done here:
# 499516 [Thunderbird] - Provide fullscreen (content only) viewing option [Win]

It seems to work pretty well along with CompactHeader for me.
JoeS Testing current Thunderbird trunk builds WinXP SP2+
news://news.mozilla.org.mozilla.test.multimedia How to Post
tanstaafl_bh
Posts: 602
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 7:49 am
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Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by tanstaafl_bh »

Bug / conflict with Forward 0.7

I have no idea if this is a problem with Compact Header or the Forward extension, so I'm reporting it in both places...

There is a conflict with the Forward 0.7 extension. With Forward 0.7 installed, the ability to toggle the Forward > Non-Default mode by holding the shift key no longer works.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install both the Compact Header and Forward 0.7 extensions

2. Set default compose format to 'Plain Text'.

3. Set default 'Forward messages:' mode to 'As Attachment'

Now, when I have an HTML message I want to forward inline in HTML
format, I should be able to hold down the SHIFT key, and click the
'Forward' down arrow, click on 'Inline', and forward the message Inline
in HTML format, but it only comes up in plain text format.

Otherwise, Compact Header is working great, many thanks for giving me back my screen real estate! :)
Ed1
Posts: 1059
Joined: January 30th, 2005, 2:33 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by Ed1 »

I just installed Compact Header 1.1.4 and tried some of the different settings. I then uninstalled the addon.

After uninstalling, the default header buttons did not return. How do I get them back? I am left with the square shaped buttons with icons and no text.

Has Compact Header made a permanent change to the header's buttons?
jmozmoz
Posts: 365
Joined: August 3rd, 2009, 12:28 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by jmozmoz »

For me it looks like it's working:
Compose messages in html is unselected (=>plain text).
Forward messages as inline is selected

Now if I press SHIFT+forward button the message is inlined as html. But now I see what is the difference: I am using the forwardas 0.1.6 instead of the Forward 0.7 add-on.

Edit: I tried it with Forward 0.7 and it is also working.

tanstaafl_bh wrote:Bug / conflict with Forward 0.7

I have no idea if this is a problem with Compact Header or the Forward extension, so I'm reporting it in both places...

There is a conflict with the Forward 0.7 extension. With Forward 0.7 installed, the ability to toggle the Forward > Non-Default mode by holding the shift key no longer works.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install both the Compact Header and Forward 0.7 extensions

2. Set default compose format to 'Plain Text'.

3. Set default 'Forward messages:' mode to 'As Attachment'

Now, when I have an HTML message I want to forward inline in HTML
format, I should be able to hold down the SHIFT key, and click the
'Forward' down arrow, click on 'Inline', and forward the message Inline
in HTML format, but it only comes up in plain text format.

Otherwise, Compact Header is working great, many thanks for giving me back my screen real estate! :)
Last edited by jmozmoz on December 21st, 2009, 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
jmozmoz
Posts: 365
Joined: August 3rd, 2009, 12:28 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by jmozmoz »

Ed1 wrote:I just installed Compact Header 1.1.4 and tried some of the different settings. I then uninstalled the addon.

After uninstalling, the default header buttons did not return. How do I get them back? I am left with the square shaped buttons with icons and no text.

Has Compact Header made a permanent change to the header's buttons?

Have you uninstalled the add-on or just deactivated? If you have uninstalled it, you should have the standard 5 icons in the header pane.

If you press the right mouse button over the icons you should get a context menu from which you should be able to choose between icons+text, only text or only icons for the buttons? This context menu is there in TB 3.0 by default.
tanstaafl_bh
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Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by tanstaafl_bh »

jmozmoz wrote:For me it looks like it's working:
Compose messages in html is unselected (=>plain text).
Forward messages as inline is selected

Read my steps to reproduce again... yes, if I simply click on the button, as you are doing, it works as expected.

The problem appears when you click the little black drop down arrow and select the non default 'Forward as' type.

So, change your default 'Forward as' to 'Attachment', then click the black arrow next to the button and while holding SHIFT, click 'Inline' - and it will still be in plain text, when it should be in HTML format.[/quote]
jmozmoz
Posts: 365
Joined: August 3rd, 2009, 12:28 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by jmozmoz »

tanstaafl_bh wrote:
jmozmoz wrote:For me it looks like it's working:
Compose messages in html is unselected (=>plain text).
Forward messages as inline is selected

Read my steps to reproduce again... yes, if I simply click on the button, as you are doing, it works as expected.

The problem appears when you click the little black drop down arrow and select the non default 'Forward as' type.

So, change your default 'Forward as' to 'Attachment', then click the black arrow next to the button and while holding SHIFT, click 'Inline' - and it will still be in plain text, when it should be in HTML format.

Ok. I can reproduce it.

Now if I deactive CompactHeader it works with the button in the message header pane but not with the button in the main toolbar (at the top below the menu). The problem with CompactHeader is probably that I clone the button from the main toolbar and hide the button which is in the message header pane by default (for other reasons).

So if really the button in the main toolbar is broken in the Forward add-on CompactHeader will break also the button in the message header pane.
tanstaafl_bh
Posts: 602
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 7:49 am
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Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by tanstaafl_bh »

What I'd really like to see is for Tbird to have an option (yes, I understand not everyone might want this) to reply (and forward, when doing so Inline) in the same format as the original - if I reply to an HTML email and my default is set to plain text, the reply would be in HTML.

I'm fine with having to hold SHIFT to change formats, but it just seems like keeping replies/Inline forwards in the same format makes sense.

Inline forwarding an html message that has anything other than simple text - ie tables, bullets, etc) in plain text is FUGLY, and so is replying to one.
jmozmoz
Posts: 365
Joined: August 3rd, 2009, 12:28 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by jmozmoz »

tanstaafl_bh wrote:What I'd really like to see is for Tbird to have an option (yes, I understand not everyone might want this) to reply (and forward, when doing so Inline) in the same format as the original - if I reply to an HTML email and my default is set to plain text, the reply would be in HTML.
...
Inline forwarding an html message that has anything other than simple text - ie tables, bullets, etc) in plain text is FUGLY, and so is replying to one.

I guess you are right. But this this has to be handled in a separate add-on (or in TB itself).
Ed1
Posts: 1059
Joined: January 30th, 2005, 2:33 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by Ed1 »

jmozmoz wrote:
Ed1 wrote:I just installed Compact Header 1.1.4 and tried some of the different settings. I then uninstalled the addon.

After uninstalling, the default header buttons did not return. How do I get them back? I am left with the square shaped buttons with icons and no text.

Has Compact Header made a permanent change to the header's buttons?

Have you uninstalled the add-on or just deactivated? If you have uninstalled it, you should have the standard 5 icons in the header pane.

If you press the right mouse button over the icons you should get a context menu from which you should be able to choose between icons+text, only text or only icons for the buttons? This context menu is there in TB 3.0 by default.



OK, thanks, jmozmoz. My mistake. I did uninstall. But I did not know those right-click options were there. I see that I can reselect Icons only, Icons and Text, etc. Sorry for the confusion.
tanstaafl_bh
Posts: 602
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 7:49 am
Contact:

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by tanstaafl_bh »

tanstaafl_bh wrote:
jmozmoz wrote:So, change your default 'Forward as' to 'Attachment', then click the black arrow next to the button and while holding SHIFT, click 'Inline' - and it will still be in plain text, when it should be in HTML format.

Ok. I can reproduce it.

Now if I deactive CompactHeader it works with the button in the message header pane but not with the button in the main toolbar (at the top below the menu). The problem with CompactHeader is probably that I clone the button from the main toolbar and hide the button which is in the message header pane by default (for other reasons).

So if really the button in the main toolbar is broken in the Forward add-on CompactHeader will break also the button in the message header pane.

Ah, ok... well, thanks for confirming this. I just sent the Forward dev this info, so hopefully he can fix the issue with the main toolbar button, which will fix the issue with the message header button (when Compact HEader is installed).

Happy holidays to all!
B. Condor
Posts: 40
Joined: June 6th, 2004, 5:00 am

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by B. Condor »

I found a small glitch under XP (classic theme) in combination with flat buttons (version 1.1.5) in the e-mail header pane: on mouse-over the icons move a little to the right; I assume that the specified width on mouse-over is wider than for the normal icons.

Screenshots:
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/563/ ... ons115.png
jmozmoz
Posts: 365
Joined: August 3rd, 2009, 12:28 pm

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by jmozmoz »

jmozmoz wrote:But there is now a much bigger problem: How do I trigger a function to update the button's icon? There are several places inside the xul code of Tb where the flag status of a message is changed, e.g. by key, by the main menu, and inside the thread pane. I found the first two places, so I can "overload" the original function calls and add a reference to my function. But I didn't find the code inside the Tb sources, where the flagging in the thread pane is handled.

It would be best, if a call back function could be added to a central place being triggered when the status of the flag/star is changing. But I guess this possibility is not provided by Tb. Any ideas?


I looked at this in more detail and ended up stepping through the C++ code of TB in the debugger of VisualStudio. The flagging of a message is done in nsMsgDBView.cpp and nsMsgDatabase.cpp. It looks like I cannot hook into some kind of callback function to notify my button to change its icon.

I found the javascript function which is called when you click onto the message pane. But it also looks complicated to overload/overlay this function.

So at the moment I will stop looking into this. For a clean solution there should be some kind of callback function mechanism in TB where you can hook in a function which gets called whenever a message changes its state (not only flagged/unflagged, but also read/unread, junk, tags, etc.).

I filed this bug in bugzilla. I guess this is a longterm project.
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Rod Whiteley
Posts: 11480
Joined: December 6th, 2004, 3:41 am
Location: UK

Re: New addon to compact header pane in Thunderbird 3.0

Post by Rod Whiteley »

I have not been following this thread, so I am not sure that this is relevant, but it seems to me that perhaps a folder listener might be the way to get notification when something changes in a folder.
Rod
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