GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 355249
Evolution reporting of new messages can be improved
Last modified: 2008-09-03 10:22:43 UTC
The way that Evolution reports new messages can be somewhat improved, as currently the only way to know that there are new messages, if I missed the new email notification for some reason - like being away from the desk or the volume being muted - is to actually open the evolution window and to browse the folder list. The only other hint currently available is the number of total messages and new message in the currently selected folder which appears on the title of the evolution window when in mailer mode. This notification is not very useful due to a number of reasons: a) its only available if Evolution is in mailer mode - I for example like to have evolution open on calendar or tasks most of the time. b) it only lists the messages in the currently selected folder, requiring the user to reselect "inbox" before he leaves the evolution window if he wants to use the window title as some sort of notification, and even then it only applicable if the user has only one incoming folder. c) the title lists the name of the folder first, then number of current messages and only then the number of new messages. Even if there was enough place on the window list button for all of that (which often there isn't) a user can be easily confused between the number of current messages and number of new messages when just glancing at the button title. In my opinion, Evolution needs to provide its users with a usable visual feedback of the number of unread messags in all of the user's configured mail folders. There are several ways in which this can be addressed, and I will summarize below the methods that I think should be implemented by Evolution: 1) Change the implementation of the window title to list the total number of unread messages across all the folders, and have that count displayed (when its larger then 0) as the first item on the title, using visible character ques, and regardless of the current display mode of Evolution. So for example, when Evolution is in mailer mode and shows some folder other then inbox, the title display would say something like: [New: 5] Drafts (201 total) Or in address book mode, it will say something like: [New mail: 5] Contacts 2) Offer a system notification area new mail icon like is available in other leading PIM software, which will add an icon to the system notification area when there is new mail. The icon might offer a tooltip listing the number of messages total and/or per account and/or by folder. 3) Have Evolution pop up a passibe notification window to augument the new mail notification sound. Implementing all these will bring Evolution back to the first tier of email suites in this regard, IMHO. Other information: I though og using the mail-notification applet to provide the hints as specified above in 2 and 3, but there are some problems in using this in conjunction with Evoltion (which I'll detail immediately) and in general (which is out of scope for this discussion). The main problem is that Evolution doesn't mark messages as read in the server immediately when they are marked as read in the Evolution mailer display, as a result other email clients that opperate concurrently with Evoltuion - mail-notification amnog them - still see messages that I've read as unread and screw up the unread message counts compared to what I see in Evolution.
1) please not. i always have messages which are unanswered set to unread. i do not want to see the entire number of unread messages in the title. 2) it's already possible, use libnotify. 3) why? where's the difference to 2)? (with regard to that other information:) is that about IMAP? evo syncs the imap flags when you change the folder in evo.
1) Well, I'm glancing at the title shown on the window button, and it gives me no useful information, except confuse me to think I might have 120 new emails (which I don't). I can't see how adding more information can be bad: as its already useless, adding more info which you don't use wouldn't bother you while it might help people who are interested in the number of unread messages they have. 2) is there something that does this right now, for evolution ? I looked in the plugin list and didn't see anything that resembles that option (I have most of them enabled anyway). 3) its not instead of 2, I just think its a useful addition to 2 - any other mailer in the world does it anyway. why does evo only updates when you move away from the folder ? When I receive a new mail in my inbox, I read it and then either move it to another folder, delete it or leave it where it is - at any case I usually have no reason to navigate away from the current folder - I would expect that evo would anticipate that pattern and update the folder once in a while. Currently, if I have an external notification client or another email, and I change something on the folder (delete, move, mark as read), the other client doesn't see it, and hence won't stop bothering me about new mail.
Oded, i guess new mail notification (committed in 2.12 cycle) which pops up near clock applet should solve your problem.
Oded, ping
Hi, sorry for not responding - I was not available for the last month or so. I'm currently using Evolution 2.22 and the new email notification is nothing but annoying: * when I get a new mail message I get a blinking icon (can it be more intrusive?) which lasts until I either click it or click a message in evolution - any message, not just the newly received one, and not even just new emails - every message turns off the notification. * The libnotify passive popup is nice, but its text is nearly useless (same text as the tooltip for the blinking icon): "you've got 1 new email in your Inbox", which means 1 new email since I last bothered you, but it doesn't tell me how many unread email I have, nor does it tell me which of the 4 folders I have called "Inbox" it referers too. * Lastly, the notification does not alert for any email other then those in the Inbox, so for example if I have my server file messages from mailing lists directly to mail folders on the IMAP server, I get no notifications for new email there. Back to current ticket: Request 1 is stupid, I understand now, lets disregard it. 2 and 3 are essentially the current implementation but it can be massively improved, here are some pointers: 1. Don't have the tray icon blink all the time - it is quite annoying. Have it blink once or twice and then stay static. It is already very prominent - bright colored and with a yellow highlight it is highly noticeable (which is a Good Thing). 2. Make the notification report for new messages in folders other then the Inbox. 3. Make the notification report the full identification of the folder where the new message was received, in cases where the user has more then one account configured - for example it could say "You have received 2 new messages in Work: Inbox". 4. Make the popup text (but not the icon tooltip) also report the total unread count of messages, either in the current folder (where the message was received) or better - total in the current mail account or total across all accounts. e.g. "You have received 2 new messages in Work: Inbox. You have now 125 unread messages for account Work". For an example how it could work (not a brilliant example, but much better then the current situation), please see the mail-notification application at http://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/
see bug 496380, bug 464400
Thanks for finding those. I'm closing this ticket as a dup of bug 496380 as that bug report is clearer and has more people involved. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 496380 ***