Mail actions: very easy to wreak havoc due to UI inconsistency
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I suggest to make the interface of the mail actions a little less error prone (bugged as VB-84664):
I wanted to create a mail filter marking all mails sent from a specific email address marked as read automatically. I entered the email address but then instead of clicking "add to search" I proceeded to enter the mail action. It all looks good when clicking "add mail filter". BUT since I did not actually add the search term, the search term used is an empty string. As a result that now ALL emails are automatically marked as read.
- I think that it's a bug that an empty string causes the mail action to be applied to all emails. Should be none instead
- Suggestion to add a warning that no search was actually added, or make "add mail filter" automatically add the search term that I see in the edit field.
- Is there some way to either check the new filter (a preview...?) or have an undo action?
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Re: Mail actions: very easy to wreak havoc due to UI inconsistency
@gmg I have email filters working correctly in M3. I chose a folder with an existing filter and added an action. The action was to "remove labels". I updated filter. Items that had labels remained un-changed. My conclusion is that this function is not operative yet or it's a bug..???
Not to appear greedy, I hope other actions are added to this function. Thank you.
//MODEDIT: merged from the thread "Remove label action not working as anticipated"
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@wildente said in Mail actions: very easy to wreak havoc due to UI inconsistency:
VB-84664
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This should be possible, but we should just have a warning before.
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The search term should have been added automatically (need to take a look why this is not the case)
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I wanted to have the Actions and Filters as separate entities, but that was met with a bit of pushback. We might be able to add some sort of preview, but I need to add context to this too (as in what folder you're in so that you can limit things)
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@wildente Aha! That 'empty string applies to all' characteristic may explain part of why I have a un-named label which includes all emails. Right-click on that label in the panel and there is no 'Delete' option in the context menu. Right-click on any individual email and the context menu's 'Labels' sub-menu includes a blank line - but that is never ticked.
I couldn't figure out how I'd created this anonymous, all-inclusive label while playing with adding actions so as to auto-label emails.
There is no corresponding Filter in Settings or on the Panel and I can't see how to remove it so it won't be shown as a Label on the Panel (or listed as a Label in an email's sub-menu list).
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@Society nice one. easy to reproduce - just add a filter without a search term and add an action to apply a label without giving the label a name.
-> reported as VB-84767 Mail actions: do not allow undeletable empty labels applied to all emails by not adding search term and label name
(referencing you in the bug report. but there is no finders fee anyway
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@wildente Yes, it seems I'd unthinkingly interpreted 'Add to Search' as meaning 'add another (extra) criterion' (perhaps by analogy with '+' elsewhere) and somehow chose to Update without specifying a Label when I switched my focus elsewhere to check the exact name of an existing Label upon discovering that a list of Labels from which to select wasn't provided!
I should have just invoked the Mail Panel to see a list of Labels. I would have had to have been in the one window which had Mail active to do that. Although existing Filters aren't listed in the Mail Settings of other windows it is possible to create a new Filter/Action in a non-Mail window. Not sure that's 'a good thing'.
Thanks for confirming and reporting.
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Just closing the loop: the latest snapshot has the fix
[Mail] Easy to cause trouble with actions when forgetting to click “add to search” (VB-84664)
Yey!https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/lots-of-crash-fixes-vivaldi-browser-snapshot-2643-3/
EDIT: the implementation with the popup dialog sure works but I think it might be easier to just not activate the "add action" button until a search is defined, and to have the add mail filter button deactivated until both search filter and action are defined? Already now the add mail filter button is inactive until I have specified a name for the filter.