Re: [Evolution-hackers] Where to put UI items for templates (Bug #127529)

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 14:09 +0530, Sankar P wrote:

> I looked at the patches attached in the above url. The patches are not
> yet complete so I am not doing an in-line patch-analysis reply. Some of
> my comments are :
> 
> - An account should be able to choose, what should be the default
> template that it has to use and it should be noted that NONE should also
> be an option here.

This is not how I understood the long-time user-requested feature of
Templates. See my previous mail -- what are we really discussing here?


> - You can add an option, "File->New from templates" which should list
> the templates and the user should be able to choose a template and start
> composing a mail. I will recommend getting a nod from Srini (CCed) for
> any usability/UI aspects regarding this, before you start coding.

Exactly. This approach introduces a *lot* of UI issues and different
concepts, that need to be discussed before implementing it.


> - You need to add a view-column, "Template name" that will be available
> for the Templates folder (only).  All messages stored as templates
> should have a name associated to identify the message-template. It is
> far more usable to read, "Status Report", "Release Announcement Mail",
> "String Announcement Mail", "ABI Break announcement ;-)" etc., rather
> than opening every mail and seeing, "Is this what I want to send now ?"

Where did the "Template name" come from?? So far I haven't seen any
mention of an additional text input field for this in the Composer, or
any other way to define it. I did not get the impression either this has
been planned when discussing Templates with Matthew on IRC.


> - You need to close the composer once an user chooses "Save
> Template" (as of now it is not doing and it keeps on creating new
> templates) .

NO. This is totally wrong.  Example: Every bloody text editor. Saving a
document does not close the editor.


> - Reopening a template and saving it again should not create a new
> template.
> 
> - Your patch misses mail.error.xml changes as a result none of the user
> choice-asking dialogs appear.
> 
> - All mail operations like copy/move/DnD on templates folder should be
> disabled. (IMO, it is a lot more easier to implement a new tab under
> Composer-preferences than a new templates folder)
> 
> - When there is a clash between account's default signature and the used
> template's signature, the template's signature should be given more
> priority.
> 
> - The code to save a template should ensure teh uniqueness in naming
> etc.

Which code to save the Template. What name (again)?

The current implementation is just like Drafts. The list view is. And
there is no uniqueness other than a mail is a mail is mail. Templates
(currently) are stored using the Evo internal (actually, account
specific) backend. That is a single mbox file, internally.

For Drafts it is totally valid to have multiple Drafts with the same
Subject. And users are used to deal with lousy Subjects, providing no
information at all. They do send it out all the time. They receive it
all the time. And yet they somehow manage to distinguish between them.
(How many mails with Subjects like "your info" do you get? Or the all
time classics for mailing lists: "help" and "$app error".)


> - There must be a way to create a normal new mail when the user has set
> a default-template. (May be a default Empty-mail template)

The current discussion shows, we first need to decide what this mystery
Template thingy actually is about...

  guenther


-- 
char *t="\10pse\0r\0dtu\0  ghno\x4e\xc8\x79\xf4\xab\x51\x8a\x10\xf4\xf4\xc4";
main(){ char h,m=h=*t++,*x=t+2*h,c,i,l=*x,s=0; for (i=0;i<l;i++){ i%8? c<<=1:
(c=*++x); c&128 && (s+=h); if (!(h>>=1)||!t[s+h]){ putchar(t[s]);h=m;s=0; }}}