protz
sorting subfolders beyond top level folders
hi. i'm happily using MSF with TB 78.10.2 on macOS 10.14.6, and i'd like to ask, if it was possible to implement "free sorting" of subfolders beyond their parent top level folders?
i'm using TB at work for my imap account. the imap server's tree has looots of folders containing subfolders. some of the subfolders i have subscribed, and some of the subscribed subfolders i have marked as favorites. and i'd like to manually sort those favorites on top of all other folders in a row.
example:
a) given imap default tree
folder a subscr. subfolder a_a subscr. subfolder a_b marked as favorite
folder b subscr. subfolder b_a marked as favorite subscr. subfolder b_b
folder c subscr. subfolder c_a subscr. subfolder c_b marked as favorite
b) desired sorting
subscr. subfolder a_b marked as favorite subscr. subfolder b_a marked as favorite subscr. subfolder c_b marked as favorite
folder a subscr. subfolder a_a subscr. subfolder a_b marked as favorite
folder b subscr. subfolder b_a marked as favorite subscr. subfolder b_b
folder c subscr. subfolder c_a subscr. subfolder c_b marked as favorite
thx a lot for maybe considering :)
hi @itagagaki. it's been quite a while since my original post.
in this time i temporarily had switched to mail.app 14 on macos big sur because the (manual) sorting of favorites actually worked more comfortable there than the default in thunderbird (no manual sorting of favorites possible) or with "manually sort folders" (no manual sorting possible beyond folder hierarchies to achieve a favorite like sorting) - until i now had to switch to new apple hardware at work and upgrade to macos ventura with mail.app 16, and there the manual sorting of favorites still works but now newly arrived mails aren't indicated - probably because apple has radically changed their support for imap since mail.app 15 in macos monterey - which is bad.
so i'm back at thunderbird (currently 102.11.0); at least here new mails in favorites are indicated right away. i also tried the current version of "manually sort folders", but manual sorting beyond folder hierarchies still is not possible at the moment.
will this be achieved in the future; is that feature in development?
our imap server setup at hasn't changed since 2021, so my example from my original post would be still valid, but maybe it's easier to understand this way:
in our company we have lots of shared imap folders which - within their category - have the same name like e.g. "project1/team", "project2/team", "project3/team". the categories "project1", "...2", "...3" are shown as subfolders of (my) personal account, so after flagging their resp. "team" folders as favorites they are displayed in "favorite folders" in compact view with their name "team" only (without "project1", "...2", "...3" prefix), so i can't see, if one is "team" from "project1" or from "project2" etc., and currently in stable tb 102.11.0 the "favorite folders" view in compact view offers hierarchical sorting in a tree like this:
inbox hardware team google youtube team ads support team
i don't know by heart which "team" folder contains what, and i'd love to sort my favorites manually following my personal priority anyways - e.g. i'd like to move/sort in the second "team" folder right after "inbox" as it is a more important folder (for me) compared to the others, and "support" would be no. 3...
if it was finally possible to use "manually sort folders" to stay in tb's "all folders view" (not favorites view) and to manually sort the folders and subfolders there beyond the given folder hierarchy, i'd be happy again.
thx for considering :)
Hi @lyrabeetle , It is a bit of a complex issue..
First, in the current Thunderbird, Compact View arranges items in alphabetical order. I submitted a patch, arguing that it should be as the user had sorted it. And it was accepted. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1606116 This fix has been merged into the 109 Branch. So please try Thunderbird beta 109 or later.
The features you really want will be a little harder to get. The owner of this extension is @protz , so I would like to get his opinion, but he is a busy man...
Also, the Thunderbird team is currently planning a revamp of the folder UI. So we'll see where it goes.
hi @itagagaki. thx a lot for your reply. i just tried beta 114.0b3, but within favorite folders compact view i can't rearrange the sorting (still in alphabetical order) - probably because of my special "The features you really want will be a little harder to get." problem, so i'll just hope that maybe @protz will have a look at it some day. as 114.0b3 should have the main features of the revamp of the folder UI of new tb version "supernova" included already ( https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/111.0beta/releasenotes/ ) i guess my special problem will not have been addressed there; i'll just wait and see and hope :)
Thanks to both for the discussion.
@itagagaki do you know what's going to happen to this addon with the new folder pane? is it going to even continue to work?
I'm asking because with such big changes lined up in upstream Thunderbird, it might just be easier to lobby for the ability to manually sort folders built inside of Thunderbird, as part of the new UI revamp
we managed to get accounts sortable manually directly within Thunderbird (something for which you previously needed this addon), so maybe there's hope for folders!
On 5/21/23 11:28 PM, lyrabeetle wrote:
hi @itagagaki https://github.com/itagagaki. thx a lot for your reply. i just tried beta 114.0b3, but within favorite folders compact view i can't rearrange the sorting (still in alphabetical order) - probably because of my special "The features you really want will be a little harder to get." problem, so i'll just hope that maybe @protz https://github.com/protz will have a look at it some day. as 114.0b3 should have the main features of the revamp of the folder UI of new tb version "supernova" included already ( https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/111.0beta/releasenotes/ ) i guess my special problem will not have been addressed there; i'll just wait and see and hope :)
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I have learned from online news that Thunderbird team is planning to redesign the folder UI. I do not know the details. Looking at the discussions in the add-on developer community, I suspect that this add-on won't work in the latest beta version, although I haven't actually tried it yet. Therefore, if this add-on is still needed in the future, another major modification will be needed.
On the other hand, if the revamped folder UI allows for functionality within Thunderbird that this add-on supplement, then this add-on will no longer be needed. I agree that it would be a welcome addition.
I don't have any channel to lobby them, but I wrote a few words of hope while reporting bugs. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1803784
I guess the only other thing I can try to do is to discuss it with @jobisoft . @protz , I hope if you can do stronger lobbying.
hi there. just tested tb 115.0 with the revamped ui, and "manually sort folders" is defined as being "not compatible".
and in "out of the box" tb 115.0 within favorite folders compact view i can't rearrange the sorting; it's still in alphabetical order, so i guess that problem (or is it actually a feature request?) wasn't addressed.
so @protz i hope, too, that you maybe can do stronger lobbying for that "feature" :)