Open Bug 256582 Opened 20 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Mail-filters can't be sorted (by name) any longer

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Filters, enhancement)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Filters
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: boris, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 1 open bug)

Details

(Keywords: uiwanted) 

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de-AT; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803 MultiZilla/1.6.4.0b
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de-AT; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803 MultiZilla/1.6.4.0b

In previous versions of mozilla it was possible to sort mail filters alphabetically.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Mail-Filter window
2. Click on Filtername column


Actual Results:  
Nothing happens.

Expected Results:  
In previous versions of mozilla this sorted all filters alphabetically, which
makes it easier to locate a certain filter. I can't say in which version this
feature was lost. IIRC it worked with 1.6.
It's clear that this doesn't influence the order in which the filters are performed.
You're mistaken; this has never been a capability.  Sorting the filters affects 
the order in which they're run.  See bug 151226.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 20 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
No you're wrong. It was possible to sort filters by clicking on the column
header. Not for reordering their execution order, but for e.g. finding a certain
one quick. IIRC this ordering was lost when the filter window was closed an
reopened, but that's ok.
So, where is this feature gone?
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: INVALID → ---
I concur! This used to be possible in previous versions of Mozilla.

It probably was only a viewing feature as you had to sort the list each time you
looked at it but it was really useful and I miss it. Please reactivate it.
Thanks Thomas. I assume it's only a really small config issue of the listbox
widget. So please reactivate it. I have dozens of filters and a certain one is
really hard to find.
This feature was available in Netscape versions prior to 7.2 as well as Mozilla.
Confirming bug.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Product: MailNews → Core
*** Bug 227643 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Severity: normal → minor
OS: Linux → All
Hardware: PC → All
Summary: Mail-filters can't be sorted any longer → Mail-filters can't be sorted (by name) any longer
sorry for the spam.  making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs.  filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.
Assignee: sspitzer → nobody
QA Contact: filters
Product: Core → MailNews Core
Yeah, it was intentionally removed by bug 210912, because sort-by-name breaks the listing's designed purpose, showing and letting you change the order in which filters run.

Not sure what a dialog that would work for both and let you get back to the original state after sorting by name would look like: show a hidden "Order" column when it's sorted by name, and have sorting by order reenable the move buttons?
Severity: minor → enhancement
Keywords: uiwanted
At present I've got 149 mail filters. I'm sure you can imagine that it's a tedious task to maintain them, if they are not alphabetically sortable!
Almost all of the rules are of the type file into folder, so the order in which they are executed is not very important to me since in most of the cases the destination folder can be exactly predicted.
Concerning an improved GUI I would be very interested in a window that displays only the filters associated with the currently selected folder. This could be even integrated in the folder properties window using a new tab.
I'm very sure that most of the users would appreciate such an solution since sorting specific mails in a specific folder should really be the most used filter rule.
For me this goes hand in hand with bug #11039 which requests filtering outgoing messages. The idea is to easily organize conversations with certain persons/email addresses to seperate folders like it can be done with MS Outlook.


I have 250 mail filters just for pasing on mail - they are all named like: mail forward to amg - the rule is mail sendt to (cc. to) amg@davidsen.dk is passed on to amg@davidsen.as and after moved to at "sendt" folder. My problem is not the order the filters are run in - but the are all in the order of entering - meaning that amg might be betwen lok and bee --> therefor very difficult to lokate.
re: [comment 10] Boris Folgmann      2008-08-07


> Concerning an improved GUI I would be very interested in a window 
> that displays only the filters associated with the currently 
> selected folder. 

Yes, that would be a sanity-saver.


> This could be even integrated in the folder 
> properties window using a new tab. I'm very sure that most of the 
> users would appreciate such an solution

+1
As far as I ever knew filters could not be "sorted" in Thunderbird.   I also never say "mail filters" only "message filters."   Could someone explain how the message filtering process was suppose to (or did) work earlier and what was lost in v. 3.   I looked for years for a way to sort filters so I could find them, having probably as many as 300-400 of them.   Never found out how I could do that but apparently missed something.   All I ever saw was the ability to move a given filter up or down on the list.  Was there more?
As far as I ever knew filters could not be "sorted" in Thunderbird.   I also never saw "mail filters," only "message filters."   Could someone explain how the message filtering process was suppose to (or did) work earlier and what was lost in v. 3.   I looked for years for a way to sort filters so I could find them, having probably as many as 300-400 of them.   Never found out how I could do that but apparently missed something.   All I ever saw was the ability to move a  filter up or down on the list.  Was there more?
1. Permit sorting of message filters by name, showing execution order as number.

2. Permit right-click of folder to show message filters applicable to this folder.

Please supply instructions for interfacing to the development environment and I will try to apply these fixes.
Actually, I recently experimented with another email client that used rules in a hierarchical order.  It allowed filters to be dragged to their desired location rather than having up / down buttons.  That would solve the problem for me and probably be a easier fix.
in thunderbird 11 it's not possible to sort by Name in the extras -> filter... settings. 

it would be very nice to fix it :-)
Sorting/grouping/searching etc. in message filter maintenance is nice to have feature, and bug 151226 is a request for it. I think requesting of sort by each field of filter rule per a bug is not so well for implementing such feature.
Setting dependency to that bug for ease of tracking and search.
Depends on: 151226
I found out that I can sort filters by editing the file 'msgFilterRules.dat'
On 27:   You must have used a script or program to sort the file, it is not trivial.  If you did use a script, could you publish it?   Or publish the way you used to sort the file? (In reply to Wayland Moncrief from comment #27)
> I found out that I can sort filters by editing the file 'msgFilterRules.dat'
Drag and drop suggested in #23 would be good, esp. if the list scrolled when you past the top/bottom edge. 

Perhaps a simpler to implement interface would be , for example, shift-up_arrow/shift-down_arrow to move selected item. This would autorepeat and probably be the easiest to actually do.
Comments 1 and 2 are right: the order of filters determines which runs first, so the capability to alpha-sort them would be dangerous and not very useful.

But I would really like to see better editing and re-ordering capabilities for the filter list.  Bugs 103684 and 373075 are discussing similar ideas and you might want to comment further there.
Comment on number 30:  I care nothing about the order of evaluation, all the filtered out stuff is equally hideous.  I care about management, and need alpha sort so I can find the rule I want, I have hundreds of rules.
I see no reason why alpha-sorting could not be available as a one-off operation for those (like me) who want to work that way and for who order is not important. 

Suggests an alpha-sort button. 

Those doing other things where preserving order is important will chose not to use it. 

I currently alpha-sort my filters. This usually mean having to hit the down arrow about fifty times !!! on average.
What would make more sense is to simply have an alpha-sort option that is temporary (for that session only), and does *not* change the order of evaluation.

That would make it easy for someone to find the rule they are looking for and be able to modify it, without affecting the order of evaluation.
Filters should be sortable as mails can be : by name, location, account, etc..
We already have filtering in the filter list. Adding temporary sorting mode to the list could became a confusing UI. This needs good thought from the UX people.

Maybe this would be good for an extension.
Agreed, since the order is critical for the filters applications.
However, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151226 would provide something that would help. (even if the order of folders + order of filters inside folders still needs to be understood)
I used the alpha sort feature just for finding and editing certain filters because I've got so much. 

Instead one could think about a text entry field that is used to determine which mail filters should be displayed. This does not need to alter the order if mail filters in any way. Like the search field above the list of emails which searches for subject and mail addresses.

Let's say you want to edit a filter named "Mozilla". You enter "m" and all filters that do not begin with m or M are hidden. Then you add an "o" so that the string is now "mo". With a little bit of luck this will now only display the filter named "Mozilla".
Boris, we already have that in TB 17. Can you try it out?
Severity: normal → S3
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