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mozilla mail/news functionality
created by Lisa Chiang <lchiang@netscape.com
maintained by different owners of each functionality
Contents Overview
This document serves two purposes:
  • Communication of new functionality that is implemented and checked in.
  • Provides a "smoke test" of things to check to ensure that functionality did not regress.
After developers implement new functionality, unit test it, and check it in, they will update the list here. Developers should also run the smoke test outlined here before checking new functionality in to make sure that existing functionality did not break.

Preferences
Click here to see the latest information about what prefs you need to set to use Messenger 5.0.

Available Functionality
Functionality
Description of "Smoke Test"
Work on Platform
Owner
Linux
Windows
Mac
Start Mail Run apprunner and bring up the 3-pane mail window Yes Yes Yes chuang (Win32)
alecf (Linux)
ducarroz (Mac)
Get New Mail Download and display contents of local mail folders; POP Yes Yes No mscott
Handle SMTP SMTP protocol works; send a message (note: on send, the compose message window doesn't close) Yes Yes Yes mscott
Display Message Mail Mail: Go to the "demos" menu and select several messages from your Inbox.
The message content is displayed in the message pane (lower right pane).
Yes Yes Yes mscott
Display Folder List Local mail folders display in the folder pane (left hand pane). Yes Yes Yes putterman / warren
Delete Message Delete a message using the Delete toolbar button Yes Yes Yes putterman
Edit / Send Plain Text Message Bring up the compose window by clicking New Msg button, type some text, and send the message. Yes Yes Yes ducarroz
Sorting - Thread Pane Sort will work for Subject, Sender, Status, and Date Yes Yes Yes putterman
Move/Copy Messages You can move one message at a time Yes Yes No putterman
Read attachments in Msgs Attachments can be displayed in the message pane Yes Yes Yes rhp
Post message to newsgroup Using the compose window, post a message to a newsgroup. 

Currently, you can only post to newsgroups on the server specified by the "network.hosts.nntp_server" pref.  (the default is news://news.mozilla.org)

Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Cross posting workings on the "Newsgroup:" field of the compose window, you can post to multiple newsgroups at once.  use commas to separate the newsgroups to post to.
Try posting to "netscape.test,netscape.public.test"

Currently, you can only post to newsgroups on the server specified by the "network.hosts.nntp_server" pref.  (the default is news://news.mozilla.org)

Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Display news hosts and subscribed newsgroups Using the prefs and the newsrc files populate the folder pane with news hosts and subscribed newsgroups. Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Display News articles in thread pane When you click on a newsgroup, show the message subject, date, etc in the thread pane Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Display Message News Click on message in the thread pane and the message content is displayed in the message pane. Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Get News Select a newsgroup in the folder pane, and click on "Get Msg" and it downloads any new news articles Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Marking News message as read Use the menu "Message | Mark | As Read" to mark a news message as read.
Currently, the read status is getting saved, but not in the newsrc file.  This is a bug. (#8075)
Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Viewing News message automatically marks it read viewing a news message marks it read
Currently, the read status is getting saved, but not in the newsrc file.  This is a bug. (#8075)
Yes  Yes Yes  sspitzer
Cancel news message If you are the author of an article, then the delete button (or the Edit | Delete Message menu item) will cancel the article.
As with 4.x, you can only cancel one article at a time.

Due to several dialog / alert bugs, you won't get the confirmation dialog ("are you sure you want to do this?") or the
alert open cancellation.  ("message cancelled.").  For now, On Windows and UNIX, look for these messages in the console window.

Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Display Address books and ldap directories Address books and directories are displayed in the left pane according to prefs. No real data in right panes yet. Yes  Yes  Yes  chuang
Migrate 4.5 prefs to 5.0 prefs copy your prefs file from 4.5 ("preferences.js" on UNIX, "prefs.js" on Windows, "Netscape Preferences" on the Mac) to <profile>/prefs.js file, and then start up 5.0, your old identity and mail servers will get migrated.

See news://news.mozilla.org/37858A46.865119A9%40netscape.com for full details.

Update: News, IMAP, POP, and SMTP prefs are now migrating on all three platforms.

Yes Yes Yes sspitzer
Crude Autocomplete When you adress an email, it will autocomplete against your Personal Adressbook. Yes Yes Yes ducarroz

Postings to netscape.public.mozilla.mail-news about newly added functionality:
Recent feature additions 04/12/99 putterman@netscape.com

Additional Information

  • As of April 16, 1999:  We're following the Mozilla Editor convention of prepending a "." to menu items that aren't implemented.

Copyright © 1998-1999 The Mozilla Organization.