[dev] Significant changes

[Jan Schneider]

Hi,

I have a request from a long-time client who already sponsored a bunch  
of features in Horde in the past. They request the feasibility of a  
bunch of changes for Horde 4 applications to help them decide if they  
can keep using Horde in the future. Since some of the changes are  
somewhat massive, I'd like to discuss them here to hear your opinions  
about those, whether they make sense to you, whether they conflict  
with other expectations, etc. I added my own opinions below where  
applicable.

General
-------

- Add possibility to add custom help pages, or link to custom help system.

Jan: IIRC we already discussed this in the past, especially whether to  
move online help to the wiki, and I don't see any problems with that  
(the custom link, not the wiki help) if implemented cleanly.

- Layout theming without changing PHP scripts.

Jan: Well, we can always dream :) We all know how limited this is,  
even with our recent CSS-only designs.

- No success notifications (if disabled in prefs) unless the result of  
the current action is not immediately clear to the user.

Jan: This shouldn't be hard to implement, though it doesn't make any  
sense to me. Notifications are not very obtrusive and are a usability  
bonus IMO.

DIMP
----

- Add top menu bar that duplicates context menu functionality for  
folder and message management and takes the prefs and the custom  
entries.

Jan: We already have this for messages, and adding this only for  
folder actions is waste of screen estate. I don't like duplication  
either. OTOH this better resembles a desktop client. It could also  
replace the somehow awkward top tab bar.

- Clicking on a user/email link should open the compose window  
directly because this would be the user's expectation. Address book  
functionality should be a separate icon again.

Jan: I never was happy with the two-item-only popdown either, but it  
makes more sense now that it also shows the email address (I think the  
client didn't have this yet in the version they reviewed), and  
especially if we would add more items like black/whitelisting (why do  
we have this in the message menu instead of there anyway?). I don't  
see a WTF factor for users either, because even if they expect the  
compose window to open right away, they immediately see and understand  
how it works instead. And honestly: how often do you compose messages  
by clicking on an address, instead of using the reply functionality or  
open a compose window directly?

- Moving/copying messages by (context?) menu too.

- Redirect is missing

Jan: should probably be added to the forward menu?

- Missing option to deselect all messages

Jan: It's as easy as clicking on a message. Could still be added by  
toggling the "Select All" option though.

- Show either date or arrived column per preference.

Jan: Doesn't make sense to me.

- Setting default behavior of reply button

Jan: I think the current smart behavior is a huge improvement over  
that. I'm not sure if they have this in their version already, or if  
they noticed at all.

- Make all context menu actions available through a second way.

Jan. No, thanks.

- Only mark messages as seen after opening for a (configurable) time  
period, so that they aren't marked seen if you just navigate through  
the mailbox.

Jan: Yes, please.

- Ability to hide mime part details like download option for certain  
mime types.

- Customization of help message when no message is selected.

- Add explicit "empty trash" link to sidebar.

- Find a better place and icon for the folder actions button.

- The search icon should start the search instead of opening the context menu.

- The search context menu entries are too confusing and should be  
moved to the advanced search instead.

- Improve usability of advance search.

Jan: Sure, ideas?

- Allow to add custom fields to compose window.

- Option to replace HTML editor with a custom editor.

Jan: I think we are done with this discussion, right?


Ingo
----

- Add option to disable/enable all rules at once.

Jan: We already have an option to deaktivate the whole script, though  
this only works with server-side filters.


Kronolith
---------

- Add option to disable calendar section in the sidebar.

- Delete option directly from the calendar views.


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