http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=557147

There is one message in my inbox. I select the 'reply' radio button for it, fill in my reply text and hit 'Send'. Message is sent, page returns. I still have the message in front of me, and my reply text is still in the reply text box.

Normally at this point I would "'Move' (all but) selected to (deleted)", but I hit the 'reply' radio button again by mistake, and couldn't deselect.

So I didn't check '(all but)', and chose only "'Move' selected to (deleted)".

The selected message was deleted, but it also gave the warning message "Whoa Cowboy! You said that already. Don't 'reload'?".

This warning was inappropriate: the submit button for the form was "Move", not "Send". It might be a bug rather than just a nit if it would have sent my reply text but for the repeat.

Hugo

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Message Inbox nit
by demerphq (Chancellor) on Jun 23, 2006 at 13:32 UTC

    Hmm. Well, yeah, this is a nit. But unfortunately its an intentional nit. In that its behaving exactly as it was designed, but obviously the appropriate usage isnt obvious enough. So for instance the text remains so you can easily send the message several times. Likewise MOVE/SEND etc all do the same thing, because you can send and delete at the same time.

    The way to deselect sending is to click on "Don't send at all".

    The way to avoid the issue entirely is to mark the message for at the same time you send your response.

    Perhaps SiteDocClan needs to write up a nice how-to guide or something.

    ---
    $world=~s/war/peace/g

[reply]
Re: Message Inbox nit
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 23, 2006 at 16:18 UTC
    What I don't like is how it takes three clicks to delete a message. The coder/designer did not adhere to the principle of "simple operations should be easy; hard operations should be doable".
[reply]

      Hmm. "The designer" is me. So you might as well s!coder/designer!demerphq!;

      And feel free to propose a better approach.

      ---
      $world=~s/war/peace/g

[reply]

        How about a delete button next to each message? To delete multiple messages, the user would fall back to the current interface.
        Pro: Single click for a common operation. (Was: click + long move + click + drag + click.)
        Con: Uses up a lot of screen real estate.

        If the above takes up too much screen real estate, the drop box could be replaced with
        Move selected to: [ Inbox ] [ Archive ] [ Deleted ]
        Pro: Removes a click+drag, an operation requiring a fair bit of precision.
        Pro: The options are not hidden in a drop box.
        Con: Not forward compabtible if support for more folders is added.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      For simple operations, you just type the message in the chatterbox. You don't have to go to the message inbox. Of course, that kind of "simple operation" also has its disadvantage: the username and the "/msg []" characters count towards the 256 character limit in that case.
[reply]
[d/l]
        I was talking about deleting (not sending) a message.
[reply]
Re: Message Inbox nit
by ptum (Priest) on Jun 23, 2006 at 15:39 UTC

    Personally, I kind of like being referred to as a 'Cowboy'. It is silly, but it always makes me smile.


    No good deed goes unpunished. -- (attributed to) Oscar Wilde
[reply]
Re: Message Inbox nit (usage)
by tye (Sage) on Jun 24, 2006 at 17:22 UTC

    Submitting the form again won't send a message again unless you have reselected a destination for the message. The page always loads with "Don't send" selected. The radio buttons for selecting who to reply to have nothing to do with move/delete functionality so perhaps you are confusing these radio buttons with the checkboxes used for selecting which message to move/delete?

    My main complaint is that the "move to" drop-down should default to "Archive" (unless only showing archived messages, in which case it should default to the inbox), and that the "Don't reply" isn't in line with the other radio buttons.

    - tye        

[reply]

      Ah, in that case I was even more confused about the form than I had realised.

      Looking again (now that I have something to look at), I notice the 'Sel' checkbox for the first time - since I had previously only ever dealt with 'all but selected' I'd never needed to look this far along the line, and I guess when I read as far as the folder dropdown my mind automatically switched to 'I ain't gonna need this' mode.

      I also notice the 'Simple mode' link for the first time, which changes surprisingly little - but if I could set an option to have this mode linked to in the chatterbox instead of the current 'search inbox' and 'search archive' links I might avoid a small proportion of this confusion in the future.

      I do know that as someone that rarely receives, occasionally replies to and never archives messages I have benefited not at all from the changes to this system; I suspect that whatever the powerusers have gained has come at a cost to the rest of us.

      Hugo

[reply]

        Simple mode should be sticky. So once you view in simple mode, the links from the CB should not change it back to full mode.

        As for the question of trade offs, you are probably right. Its probably a good project for some of the budding pmdevils to look into. OTOH, it does resolve one of the points raised here: it provides a one-click way to delete messages....

        ---
        $world=~s/war/peace/g

[reply]

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