bkirsch and I sat down to review the Accounts dialog in light of the
Email functionality we're adding for Preview in Alpha5.
Below is a summary of the changes we're making and a new workflow
we're implementing. Please review and respond with any questions and/
or comments.
Mock-ups available at: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/
AccountSetupWorkflow
I have also updated the email spec with this proposal: http://
svn.osafoundation.org/docs/trunk/docs/specs/rel0_7/Email-0.7.html
=====
PROPOSAL
Simple simplifications of the Account Dialog
Simplify the 'Create new account...' pulldown to only list the
following 3 options:
1. Incoming mail
2. Outgoing mail
3. Cosmo Sharing Service
The corresponding 'Account types' are:
1. Incoming mail
2. Outgoing mail
3. Sharing
Add in Grant's handy-dandy 'Auto-configure' tool to try and guess the
following settings for Incoming and Outgoing accounts:
1. Account type: POP versus IMAP
2. Secure connection: None versus TLS versus SSL
3. Port:
4. Authentication required?
Move the ability to download email from the user's Inbox to the
'Experimental' menu. For ease of implementation, email will be pulled
down, starting with the oldest email.
Remove the "Use as default 'from' account" radio button and "Outgoing
mail server (SMTP): pulldown from the Incoming mail account form.
(From dogfood feedback, we've found that the default 'from' account
radio button has been confusing users. While this feature will
certainly be useful in the future, it will require quite a bit more
design work to get right and it's value in the Preview timeframe is
questionable.)
Remove the 'Use as default account for sharing' radio button from the
Sharing account pulldown. Instead, the 'Sharing account' pulldown in
the 'Share' dialog should always display the first Sharing account as
the default.
Change the 'Sign up for an account' button in the Sharing account
form to text with a hyperlink.
Workflow steps: Adding a new Incoming mail account
1. Go to File>>Accounts...
2. Select 'Incoming email...' from 'Create new account...' pulldown
3. Fill out Email address, Full name, Incoming mail server, User
name, and Password fields
4. User clicks the 'Auto-configure...' button
(Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-
waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)
1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
2. Configuring account settings...
3. Configuration complete... (Protocol, Secure connection and
Port fields are automatically configured.)
{Auto-configuration fails...} (Display error message:)
1. Error: Unable to auto-configure account. Please enter settings
manually.
{If Protocol = IMAP...} ([ ] Set up special IMAP folders...' checkbox
option appears)
1. User checks: 'Set up special IMAP folders...' ('Learn more'
link takes you to Preview end-user documentation.)
2. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
tested.)
(Display progress information:)
1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Checking xxx...
{IMAP folder creation fails...}
1. Error: Unable to add special Chandler IMAP folders to your
account. ([ ] Set up sepcial IMAP folders... checkbox is
automatically unchecked.)
1. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
tested.)
(Progress information:)
1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Checking xxx...
{No errors.} (Done button appears.)
1. User clicks Done.
Workflow steps: Adding a new Outgoing mail account:
1. Go to File>>Accounts...
2. Select 'Outgoing email...' from 'Create new account...' pulldown
3. Fill out Email address and Outgoing mail server
4. User clicks the 'Auto-configure...' button.
(Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-
waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)
1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
2. Configuring account settings...
3. Configuration complete... (Protocol, Secure connection and
Port fields are automatically configured.)
{Auto-configuration fails...} (Display error message:)
1. Error: Unable to auto-configure account. Please enter settings
manually.
{Server requires Authentication...}
1. xxx requires authentication. Please enter your User name and
Password above.
1. User enters User name and password.
2. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
tested.)
(Progress information:)
1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Verifying...
{No errors.} (Done button appears.)
1. User clicks Done.
Workflow steps: Adding a new Sharing account:
1. Go to File>>Accounts...
2. Select 'Outgoing email...' from 'Create new account...' pulldown
3. Fill out fields
4. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
tested.)
(Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-
waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)
1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
2. Verifying account settings.
{Account test fails...} (Display error message:)
1. Error: Unable to verify account. Please check settings and try
again.
2. User fixes settings.
3. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
tested.)
(Progress information:)
1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Verifying...
{No errors.} (Done button appears.)
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