Mail preview - Don't mark message read

[HenningMalzahn]

Hi forum!

Is there any way to disable marking messages read once they are selected?

I would like messages to be marked as read after opening them (double click and viewing them in a new window) them only....

So long

Henning

[Martin Heiland]

Hi Henning,

you could use the list view.

Greetings

[HenningMalzahn]

Hi Martin.

Yes - I could use the list view messages are not marked as read when
switching between them - but I like the preview pane :-)

I guess your answer means that there is no way to do it right?

I often encounter a situation in which a mail arrives that I want to read later and that I want to drag and drop into a sub folder of my in box. In that case the message is marked as read which is annoying for that work flow scenario. To not forget to read it you got to drag and drop it into the desired folder, switch to the folder afterwards, select the message and mark it as unread.

Would it be possible to add that as feature request to the "Settings" option for a future release?

Take care

Henning

[Martin Heiland]

Hi Henning,

when opening a E-Mail by selecting it in a view where the message content is shown, the E-Mail gets marked as read. There are several options that might optimize your workflow:

1. Use color labels (tags) for E-Mails that you need to review
2. Disable the option "automatically select first e-mail" to avoid unintended marking of an email.

[HenningMalzahn]

Good morning Martin.

You really want to convince me that I don't need that configuration option, right? :-)

I've already set the option you've mentioned (Disable the option "automatically select first e-mail" to avoid unintended marking of an email) but that's not really doing it for me for the reason outlined above.

I still wold like to add that configuration option as a feature request - is that possible somewhere on your site?

All the best

Henning

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

well i just wanted to offer you an alternative. Adding functionality to the software is possible of course, but we also have to think about consequences to other users. In this case, you're proposing that an E-Mail is not marked as read even though its read by using the preview pane. We are able to read E-Mail without marking it as read, thats already done for hovers.

You might open an enhancement at Bugzilla and describe exactly you need and how it might be configured and controlled by a user.

Greetings

[HenningMalzahn]

Hi Martin.

Being a developer myself I can totally understand your statement about keeping needs of other users in mind. I also do understand that a feature request like that might be a way bigger thing to implement than I think.

I will open an enhancement bug like you've suggested.

I will just outline again what the idea is to close this post without leaving questions for others reading it. You said

>In this case, you're proposing that an E-Mail is not marked as read even >though its read by using the preview pane.
Well, yes - but only as configurable option. I've had a look at the online trial of Zimbra and they've included a nice feature in the preferences dialog for the eMail options that reads:

When I read a message in the reading pane:
- Mark it read immediately
- Mark it read after ___ seconds
- Do not mark it read

That's exactly what I would like to see in OpenXchange too (For my taste you could skip the "Mark read after xxx seconds" options but as Thunderbird also includes that option some users obviously like that.

As I've already said above being a devloper in the Java field myself I probably should just shut up and try to hack it up myself. However I'm switching Jobs right now and really have very little time available.
One thing talking of custom enhancements: I've just looked on the documentation site and I'm able to find API docs and an authentication plug in development description available. Do you guys have more tech docs for developers available? Would it be possible to develop something like that as plug in? Maybe I should open a different thread for those questions...

Take care

Henning

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

we publish all kinds of developer information at the wiki and software.open-xchange.com. The server-side plugin system is already mature, we're just planing a real plugin/component system for the user interface. Right now it is possible to modify, customize and add functionality but not the way you and we would like to. Since the user interface itself is not yet composed through plugins - plugins are just added on top of the user interface - its very hard to change existing functionality at the user interface. We should aim to change this, yes.

Greetings

[HenningMalzahn]

Hi Martin!

Thank you for the information! Looking forward to be able to participate in development.

Take care

Henning