[imp] imp questions (usability issues)

[Max Kalika]

Quoting Chuck Hagenbuch <chuck@horde.org>:

> Quoting Jeff Tucker <jefft@wciatl.com>:
> 
> > No need to tell me "Patches?". I'm perfectly willing to do that. I just 
> > want to make sure that I'm doing things optimally to start with and that 
> > these aren't impossible or impractical ideas.
> 
> All right, then. Here's some feedback, and I'll cross my fingers and hope for
> 
> diffs. ;)
> 
> > FILTERS
> > - It's non-intuitive to me that I have to manually apply the filters. It 
> > would be nice if every time the mail Inbox display was generated, the 
> > filters were applied. When I login, my "imp" filter gets applied but never
> 
> > again unless I click a button. I'd like to see the filter applied when the
> 
> > Inbox refreshes to show new mail, or when I return to the Inbox from 
> > somewhere else.
> 
> This sounds like it would be another good preference.
> 
> > - I haven't been able to figure out a reasonable (IMO) way to handle 
> > filters and deleted messages. When I enter my mailbox, it might say I have
> 
> > 44 new messages. 25 of those are imp messages which have actually already
> 
> > been deleted from my Inbox, yet they still show up (as deleted). So, when
> I
> > login, I invariably have to "Purge Deleted" first to get my Inbox to a 
> > reasonable view.
> 
> It sounds like it might be a good idea to add an option to a filter for
> whether 
> or not to expunge after running it, or a general option to expunge after 
> running all filters.
> 
> > Now, I tried setting delete mail to actually move to Trash. This works for
> 
> > mail delete by clicking delete, but doesn't work for filtered mail. So, I
> 
> > end up with the same problem. I thought about setting up "Hide Deleted". 
> > However, it's not clear to me that those messages will EVER get purged. 
> > After a month, I could end up with 1000 deleted imp messages hiding in my
> 
> > Inbox.
> 
> I'd be interested to know why this doesn't work for filters; the filtering
> code 
> calls the IMP_Message::delete method, which should obey the trash folder 
> preference.
> 
> > - When I click on Options->Filters->Edit my Filters, I get to a screen
> with
> > no visible way back except the toolbar on top. All the other Options 
> > screens have a "Return to Options" button.
> 
> This should be added.
> 
> > - I couldn't find an obvious way to filter on the string "[imp]". I can 
> > filter on "imp" but that matches "import" and other words. Should the 
> > filter allow non-alphabetic characters? If it already does, should this be
> 
> > added to the Help for that line? I tried "[imp]", [imp], \[imp\], but none
> 
> > worked.
> 
> Hmm. Not sure why that doesn't work, though it might have to do with the 
> imap_search stuff. Max, any luck with this?
> 
> > - It would be nice if I could filter on a couple more fields. I know 
> > everyone will have their own personal list, but I think Sender and 
> > Mailing-List would cover most situations I can see. Many mailing lists do
> 
> > not put their name in the Subject line and I really like filters to put 
> > mailing list traffic into its own folders.
> 
> If you can test these and make sure they work with the imap_search code, go
> for 
> it.
> 
> > DELETED MESSAGES
> > - I personally understand IMAP and how it works regarding deleted
> messages,
> > but I don't expect all my users to. It would be nice if there were a 
> > maintenance selection to automatically purge all deleted messages from a 
> > folder when that folder is closed. Or to purge from all folders when you 
> > login (although some people have hundreds of folders). Then again, if 
> > filtering worked the way I expected, there would never be deleted messages
> 
> > in a folder. That's probably best from the standpoint of non-technical 
> > users.
> 
> When a folder is closed is a pretty vague idea (programatically) from a
> webmail 
> client. And purging all folders, as you note, isn't a good option. So you're
> 
> saying that if the filter deletion obeyed trash folder settings, this would
> be 
> a non-issue?
> 
> > ADDRESSBOOK
> > - I won't put any Turba issues here, because I realize that's a separate 
> > project. But, when sending an email, it would be very nice if the names on
> 
> > the To: field were auto-expanded before the mail was sent. It's confusing
> 
> > to a user who is used to just emailing "mom" or whatever to have to 
> > remember to click that button. It's especially bad if that user actually 
> > exists locally, which means their email gets sent to the wrong person.
> 
> This has been planned since when I first specced out the EXPAND_NAMES option;
> 
> it just hasn't been implemented yet. It should be done.
> 
> > Thanks for all the great work. I actually do look forward to contributing
> 
> > in the future. I hope y'all won't take this as a big list of complaints. I
> 
> > LOVE many of the features and it's obvious a lot of time has been taken 
> > getting things right.
> 
> Thanks for the feedback! Hopefully I'll have some more time soon to tackle
> some 
> of this, and hopefully I'll get some help at that. ;)
> 
> -chuck
> 
> --
> Charles Hagenbuch, <chuck@horde.org>
> "What was and what may be lie, like children whose faces we cannot see, in 
> the arms of silence. All we ever have is here, now." - Ursula K. Le Guin
> 


-- 
---max kalika
--max@lsit.ucsb.edu
-lsit systems administrator