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Apply Rules isn't enabled when it should be

#689

I have a Rule associated with a particular IMAP account. If I choose that (top-level) account in 'SOURCES', I see Mailbox->Apply Rules enabled.

However, if I go to the INBOX of that account and select a message, Mailbox->Apply Rules is disabled. This wasn't what I expected.

At a minimum I'd think selecting any message in an IMAP account which has rules associated with it would enable Apply Rules.

You could argue Apply Rules should be enabled when any message is selected -- if there are no rules associated with that account selecting Apply Rules would do nothing. I haven't thought through the implications of this one, so it may be a bad idea.

Bug? Bad user expectations?

Thanks!
nall.

Reported by nall · March 29th, 2014 @ 04:40 PM

State: fixreleased
Milestone: none
Assigned to: benny benny

Activity

  1. nall
    nall

    FYI I'm running 4025.

    March 29th, 2014 @ 06:59 PM

  2. benny
    benny
    • State changed from new to closed

    A rule added to the account is triggered by any message arriving in any mailbox within the account (I didn't really know I allowed this, but I can see that it could be misinterpreted). A rule on the INBOX is only triggered for message added to that mailbox (most often new messages arriving to the account). The “Apply Rules” menu item is only enabled if the currently selected mailbox has any rules defined. Note that smart mailboxes can have rules as well.

    This distribution of rules is very flexible, but I know it can also be quite confusing. I'm still considering how I can make it more clear how it works.

    (One option would be to change the “Apply Rules” menu item to let the user apply the rules of any other mailbox to the currently selected messages. At the same time this could be used to show the user which mailboxes have rules defined.)

    March 31st, 2014 @ 07:55 AM

  3. nall
    nall

    Benny,
    One comment -- I moved the rules from the account to the INBOX folder. If I click on SOURCES -> [account] -> INBOX, I see Apply Rules enabled. However, if I right click on MAILBOXES -> Inbox -> account I don't see Apply Rules enabled. Aren't these basically the same mailbox? I'd expect the rules to be available there.

    March 31st, 2014 @ 06:28 PM

  4. benny
    benny
    • State changed from closed to accepted

    That is correct. I'll reopen the ticket to indicate that this is a “bug” that should be fixed.

    March 31st, 2014 @ 06:45 PM

  5. benny
    benny
    • State changed from accepted to fixcommitted

    I'm not sure when I fixed this, but it appears to work as expected. The next update also allows explicitly applying rules to the entire mailbox or only the selected messages. (There's still no easy way to see which mailboxes have rules.)

    September 21st, 2017 @ 07:40 AM

  6. benny
    benny
    • State changed from fixcommitted to fixreleased

    September 22nd, 2017 @ 12:54 PM

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