Hi
guys -
I'm
new to the list as I only stumbled across Roundcube the other day, and can't
find any mailing list archives (are there any?); so forgive me if I repeat any
feedback/questions. First off - awesome webmail client. Been waiting for a
good open source Ajax webmail, and was certainly not disappointed. Found Zimbra
at around the same time, and definitely very cool. but obviously on the heavy
side.
This
latest version seems to address some of the previous version issues that I
spotted, however there's a few things I'll note here which are
wishlists/feedback:
HIERARCHICAL FOLDERS
Great
to see in the new version, but the current presentation isn't as ideal when you
have lots of folders. I think would be boosted substantially by having
sub-folders initially hidden and expandable, although possibly saving the
"expanded" view in a cookie or prefs or something. It also truncates
the name of long (or deeply nested folders).
NAVIGATION / UI
I
watched about 5 people initially try to use Roundcube for the first time, and
everyone seemed to initially struggle with working out the navigation options.
Ajax is new to most, so not everyone's used to the way things can work yet. Some
suggestions:
- Make
the cursor change to an hourglass when you double-click on a message, or put a
progress bar/icon somewhere - so that people know something should be
happening. It wasn't very obvious to double-click (based on the way the
cursor/selection stuff happened) - so maybe make the clicking title
automatically open the message, or provide a location on the line where a single
click will definitely work.
- Two
nav bars: The nav at the top and bottom is a bit confusing to users, so I'd
suggest putting them all in the one location. Feedback from my initial test
users is that some of the icons aren't obvious as to what they do (the inbox at
the bottom, "logout" -- could be confused with delete -- so maybe make delete a
trash can? This is obviously changeable through the skins, but
feedback provided in case you think it's worthy updating the default
skin.
- Use
of alt-tags, window.status messages, etc: For a first-time user there's no real
clue as to what buttons do except their icon. The mouseover URL doesn't provide
much insight, as it's all JavaScript references, etc.
-
Drag-and-drop targets: I noticed Zimbra changed the dragged item to green when
over a valid drop-target. A helpful UI clue to assist users if easy to
implement.
-
Speed with large mailboxes: The first time I logged in (with 380 messages,
but about 40 subscribed folders) took an age. I realise the cache needs to be
built up, but this first-time hit (our imap server is currently quite slow,
which may be contributing to it) is quite unbearable for users. Perhaps a
message could be displayed like "Updating message listing" so that it moves off
the initial login screen more quickly? Ditto for loading up an un-cached
mailbox, although the "loading" at the top helps.
-
Mysql max_allowed_packet: Encountered a user (with about 3000 messages in inbox)
exceeding the default max_allowed_packet of 1M. Worked by boosting it, but there
may be some issues with really large mailboxes under the single-cache-entry for
per mailbox. Certainly a read-me note would help for this. When it did
encounter the issue, the error was plastered behind the message list;
although I think the changelogs indicates a possible fix in the latest
version for this.
-
Livegrid: You've probably already seen it, but check out http://openrico.org/rico/livegrid.page.
This concept would be great for dealing with large imap mailboxes. Removes the
need for pagination, and may be possible to reduce loading time by caching
on-demand.
ATTACHMENTS
I seem
to be having issues with Windows XP service pack 2 (and IE 6) with attachments.
The new window loads but then says files are being blocked from downloaded (PDF
doc). when I accept the download file it then asks me to save it rather than
view it inline. I think this is something to do with the iframe, and may not be
affecting other users (could be a mime setting on my webserver I
guess). If sticking with the embedded attachment approach, I'd put
some instructions to trust the website or something (but then again, not
necessarily a good idea for webmail where any sort of attachment could be
presented).
DELETING
- Bug?
When viewing a message and clicking "Delete" up the top the current build
displays progress then reverts back to message listing and doesn't appear t
delete the message. When you highlight the message in the listing and do delete,
it does quickly disappear though.
Well
that's it for my first post. Thanks for the great work so far. Shaping up to be
a kick-arse webmail client. Let me know if you like the feedback, and I'll
continue to assist with more usability comments.
Regards,
Mark
Mackay.