Custom headers RFE WAS: Re: [Evolution] RFE: ability to add headers to "standard" display.

[Rob Walker <rob myinternetplace net>]

On Mon, 2002-04-22 at 15:53, Kenneth Porter wrote:
> On Mon, 2002-04-22 at 15:32, Larry Rosenman wrote:
>
> > > Should you have multiple custom views? Again, how would it work?
> > Good questions...
>
> The hard part is the design. If you can adequately spec what you want,
> the coding shouldn't be that tough.
>
> > > Of course, patches are welcome. ;-)
> > Again, with how big and multicomponent evolution is, and my extreme LACK
> > of experience with GUI and Evolution programming, this probably won't
> > happen. (unfortunately). 
>
> No need to specify the X/Y coordinates of the controls, but you can say
> what controls go in each dialog, and how the logic should work, and what
> goes on which menu. Someone who knows the GUI framework can then churn
> that into code.

I will take a stab at this.  If I totally miss the mark, say so.



RFE: Custom Header View

  Changes needed:
    New sub-menu item in the mail view pane
    New configuration dialog box in the configuration area
    New code in the mail header display code


1.  New sub-menu item.

    In the _V_iew menu, under the _M_essage Display submenu, add a new
radio button titled _C_ustom headers.

2.  New configuration dialog box.
    Under _T_ools, _M_ail Settings..., on the Display tab, underneath
the "In HTML mail" box, add a button, with the label "Custom headers" 
When choosing this button, you will be taken to the "Custom Header
Configuration" dialog box.  This dialog box will borrow from the
semantics of the "Edit Rule" dialog box which you can see by clicking on
the _T_ools, Virtual Folder _E_ditor... menus, and then select a
vFolder, and click on the edit button.  Just like in the "Edit Rule"
dialog box, the "Configure Custom Headers" dialog box needs to be
resizable, and have OK and Cancel buttons at the bottom.  To be
consistent with the "Edit Rule" dialog box, the Cancel button should be
initially selected.  There would be two criterion areas, like the "If"
box which is on the "Edit Rule" dialog box.  The first one would be
titled "Show these headers", and the second one would be titled "Don't
show these headers".  You would have buttons to be able to "Add regexp"
(general button at the top of each group) and "Delete regexp" (specific
button at the right end of each header).  There would be text below each
criterion area.  Underneath "Show these headers" would be the following
text:


"

List of headers that should be visible when Evolution first displays an
email message.  These should be listed in the order you wish them
presented.  Regular expressions are allowed.  There's no need to anchor
patterns with "^", as searches always start at the beginning of
a line.  Put a colon at the end of patterns to get exact matches.
For example, "Date" matches "Date" and "Date-Sent".  Header names
are always matched case insensitively.

If the value "Don't show these headers" is empty, only the
headers matched by "Show these headers" will be displayed.  Otherwise
all headers are displayed except those matched by "Don't show these
headers"  In this case "show these headers" specifies the order in which
headers are displayed.  Headers not matching "Show these headers" are
displayed last.

"

Underneath "Don't show these headers" would be the following text:

"

A text entry should be a regular expression that tells what headers
Evolution should NOT normally display when presenting a message.  All
other headers will be displayed.  The variable "Show these headers" 
specifies the presentation order of headers; headers not matched by
"Show these headers" are displayed last.

No text entries causes Evolution to display ONLY those headers specified
in "Show these headers"

"

( I took that text directly from the file vm-vars.el.gz file in the
xemacs21-basesupport-el in debian unstable )


3.  New code in the mail header display code.

    New code would be needed to run down this list of entries and
re-order the displayed headers appropriately.



rob

PS.   VM defaults their version of "Show these headers" to the
following:  "Resent-" "From:" "Sender:" "To:" "Apparently-to:" "Cc:"
"Subject:" "Date:"  I don't know if this is good or bad, but it is an
example of "good defaults" which was spoken of in an earlier referenced
article.