Webmail Upgraded

[drew.phillips]

Webmail has been upgraded! In order to improve your experience we've upgraded the webmail client to the latest version available, adding several new features, bug fixes and added a new and improved interface for tablets and mobile phones.

We've tried hard to keep things the same but you may notice some small changes (improvements we hope). Please get in touch if you encounter any problems, have questions or find something that isn't working the way it used to.

Here is a brief list of the major changes:

- Brand new layout for mobile phones and tablets
- Drag and drop attachments into new emails
- Download multiple attachments in a single zip file
- Improved interface for composing messages
- New rich text editor for composing HTML emails with inline images, custom fonts, colors, emoticons and more
- Option to automatically add addresses you send email to into your address book (disabled by default)
- Keyboard shortcut: Press 'm' to quickly mark one or more messages read or unread
- Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl+Enter to send message
- Numerous bug fixes and improvements

Thank you,

Sonic.com Operations

Updates: Here are a few issues we've fixed so far. We apologize for the inconveniences caused.

- Having to press "Delete" twice when viewing a message in it's own window
- The "Move To" menu at the bottom of the screen not working (note: messages can also be dragged and dropped into folders on the left side of the screen to move them in addition to the menus).
- Dates were not appearing correctly immediately after the update
- We'll work on making it easier to delete multiple messages in the mobile interface. These screenshots show how to Delete multiple messages on phones and tablets for now.
- When composing a message on smaller screens, the size of the attachments pane is decreased so it takes up less space.
- Notifications appear for 2 seconds instead of 5, and are slightly offset from the far right of the screen to not cover the scroll bar.

Updates 4/20/16:

- Upgraded from Roundcube 1.1.4 to 1.1.5
- Fixed issue with selecting, deselecting, and re-selecting messages.
- Made the click target area for checkboxes slightly larger so the mouse can hit slightly outside the checkbox and still multi-select. We still recommend using control and/or shift to select messages more easily.
- Fixed issue where right-clicking on a message other than the one selected would then apply the action to the previously selected message as well as the clicked message.
- When replying to a message, the default behaviour is once again to start the reply above the message, rather than below it.

[sundial]

There are still quirks with the Inbox list view. If I double-click a message, read it, and then go back to the list view of the Inbox, the message I just read is highlighted with a checkmark. That seems wrong, it should be unselected. I can click on another message, and then both are highlighted and have checkmarks.

Also, is it not possible to give us a single-click on message, away from the checkbox, to open it? Like SquirrelMail provides?

[sundial]

Another issue with Inbox list view, if I delete a selected message, then the next message is selected. I think the selection marker should be cleared, not applied to another message.

[Guest]

Another issue with Inbox list view, if I delete a selected message, then the next message is selected. I think the selection marker should be cleared, not applied to another message.

I second this comment. This behavior is disconcerting.

[drew.phillips]

I hope I can address your concerns completely.

There are still quirks with the Inbox list view. If I double-click a message, read it, and then go back to the list view of the Inbox, the message I just read is highlighted with a checkmark. That seems wrong, it should be unselected. I can click on another message, and then both are highlighted and have checkmarks.

This is indeed changed behaviour between versions, as implemented by the upstream software provider. I tested in multiple browsers and platforms, and as long as the next message I click is not on a checkbox, the initially highlighted message is deselected and then I can continue to click checkboxes to select multiple messages. Are you experiencing something different?

Also, is it not possible to give us a single-click on message, away from the checkbox, to open it? Like SquirrelMail provides?

Out of the box, single click to open a message is not possible unless you enable the preview pane (Settings >> Mailbox View >> Main Options >> Show preview pane). The previous version did not support single click to open a message either.

We could perhaps create a plugin that makes available a small column that would open a message on single-click if the preview pane is not something you want to use.

Another issue with Inbox list view, if I delete a selected message, then the next message is selected. I think the selection marker should be cleared, not applied to another message.

This is new behaviour as well. Most desktop mail clients (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird) work this way. Currently, there is no way to disable this but we could certainly make it an option.

Here is my argument for it (I also use the preview pane so without it the argument may have less ground): When I open my webmail in the morning, I have a bunch of messages to go through, some I want to read quickly, others which will get deleted, and others which will be read and kept.

In the old version, if I select a message (and peek at it in the preview pane) and then delete it, the only way I can do anything to see another message is to use the mouse and click another message. Now there's a lot of back and forth keyboard and mouse interaction which really slows down reading emails.

In the new version, I can press delete, have the next message selected automatically without having to use the mouse. I can then arrow down to the next message, press 'm' to mark it as read/unread or delete it and again have the next message selected and and continue to read through all my messages using only the keyboard.

Beyond that, I understand the arguments against it, accidentally pressing delete twice or performing some other action on the message accidentally because it was automatically selected. And on slower connections, or distant WiFi, these types of problems can be exacerbated because of delayed response time in the interface.

We can definitely look into making this behaviour optional if you'd like. I also can't make any promises regarding this next statement, but we may be able to have the old version of webmail running aside the new version so you can go back and use the one you're used to if desired. I don't know that the new version is so radically different that it would be necessary to do something like that though. Our goal is to work with customers to ensure the new version is satisfactory and functionally useful (there were *a lot* of bugs in the old version that affected a large number of users).

Thank you for your feedback. I welcome any responses you have to my suggestions.

[mrpasini]

There is some intermittent notification that doesn't display for two seconds (it just flashes). Seems to be in a black background rather than gray. No user action prompts it. But I see it in the Compose window if I just wait a while. Auto saving?

[drew.phillips]

There is some intermittent notification that doesn't display for two seconds (it just flashes). Seems to be in a black background rather than gray. No user action prompts it. But I see it in the Compose window if I just wait a while. Auto saving?

We have the default "Refresh Interval" set to 60 seconds, which when you're on the message list, checks for new messages, updates read/unread status of messages, updates folder message counts etc. Since it happens so fast, a notification that says "Refreshing..." appears and then disappears after a split second.

Turns out when you are composing message it is performing this request every 60 seconds as well but has little to no effect on the user interface as you aren't notified of new messages when composing. About all the good it does when composing is keep your session alive so you don't get logged out if you're writing a long message and/or leave your computer for a while while drafting.

The interval can be controlled from Settings >> User Interface >> Main Options >> "Refresh (check for new messages, etc.)". The default is "every 1 minute(s)". If you change this, you may not be notified of new messages right away and can refresh manually.

The default draft save time is 3 minutes, but this action will show a notification that reads "Message saved to Drafts." for 2 seconds.

[yfio]

Another issue with Inbox list view, if I delete a selected message, then the next message is selected. I think the selection marker should be cleared, not applied to another message.

I agree that this is a problem, and a changed behavior.

I right-clicked on an email, and selected delete. The next email got checked. I right-clicked on another email, and selected delete, and they were both deleted, the one I requested and the one with the auto-check. This is not an improvement, this is a defect. I should not have to be this careful to avoid unrequested actions, especially deletions.

[mrpasini]

Since it happens so fast, a notification that says "Refreshing..." appears and then disappears after a split second.

I think that must be what I'm seeing in List view. Something like that is going on in Compose, too, though.

But why is a "notification" the user can't read happening at all?

In List view, the results of the refresh would be immediately apparent if there are any new messages. No need for a notification. No need for a notification if there are _not_ any new messages either.

And, as you point out, they should be suppressed in Compose all together.

It just looked to me like it was a using monitoring device during debugging that should have been disabled on release.

[yfio]

In the previous webmail, as well as the current "upgrade", I sometimes get an extra/duplicate (slightly garbled) line displayed after deleting a message, giving for instance 21 lines in a display labelled "Messages 1 to 20".

I am not sure it is the simplest case, but I do now have a series of actions that for me consistently demonstrate the problem. These steps are, starting from the top of my inbox:
1) double-click an entry (in lines 1-19) to display it
2) select "back" to return to the list display, there is now a check on that line
3) right-click another line (in lines 1-19) and select "delete"
4) both those lines (one checked and one explicitly selected) go away, moved to "trash"
5) the previous line 20 is now on both lines 18 and 19; lower entries have moved up to lines 20 and 21 (of 20)
6) clicking on "refresh" does not fix this
7) click on "inbox" to force a re-display and the duplicated lines are now correctly shown just once as line 18, with the two below moved up and only 20 lines shown

I don't think this problem is new, but it is worse for me with the new auto-check defect.