bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Zachary Kanfer]

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This fell out of a conversation with Eli Zaretskii on reddit.

report-emacs-bug has methods to attempt to send the bug via email, but
this does not work well for users who do have not configured either
Emacs or an installed email client on their computer. Accessing email
via webmail has become very popular, and users who do so probably have
never even looked for their server settings, so they'd have problems
setting it up.

I think we could provide these users a better user
experience. Currently, when trying to send the bug, if email is not set
up, Emacs presents three options: mail client, transport, and smtp. We
could add a fourth option, "send manually", where this option copies the
body of the text to the system clipboard, so the user could switch to
their browser and paste it. The command could even allow the user to
come back, press RET, then copy the subject, and a third time for the
address to send to.

It's not quite as nice as being able to directly send the email, but I
think this or something like it would be a better experience for people
who do not have their system configured to send email.

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bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Zachary Kanfer <zkanfer@gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2017 00:45:40 -0400
> 
> I think we could provide these users a better user
> experience. Currently, when trying to send the bug, if email is not set
> up, Emacs presents three options: mail client, transport, and smtp. We
> could add a fourth option, "send manually", where this option copies the
> body of the text to the system clipboard, so the user could switch to
> their browser and paste it. The command could even allow the user to
> come back, press RET, then copy the subject, and a third time for the
> address to send to.

Would someone like to work on adding such a feature to emacsbug.el?

bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > Currently, when trying to send the bug, if email is not set
  > up, Emacs presents three options: mail client, transport, and smtp. We
  > could add a fourth option, "send manually", where this option copies the
  > body of the text to the system clipboard, so the user could switch to
  > their browser and paste it. The command could even allow the user to
  > come back, press RET, then copy the subject, and a third time for the
  > address to send to.

I think it is good, and I see no possible loss.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.

bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2017 00:45:40 -0400 Zachary Kanfer <zkanfer@gmail.com> wrote: 
ZK> I think we could provide these users a better user
ZK> experience. Currently, when trying to send the bug, if email is not set
ZK> up, Emacs presents three options: mail client, transport, and smtp. We
ZK> could add a fourth option, "send manually", where this option copies the
ZK> body of the text to the system clipboard, so the user could switch to
ZK> their browser and paste it. The command could even allow the user to
ZK> come back, press RET, then copy the subject, and a third time for the
ZK> address to send to.

mailto URLs generally support some options; a short body and subject
could be specified like this:

<a href=”mailto:emacs@gnu.org?subject=Bug%20Report&body=Hi%0Athere%20″>

Which would DTRT on many users' desktops. So maybe that would be an option?

Ted

bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Zachary Kanfer]

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> Would someone like to work on adding such a feature to emacsbug.el?

I wouldn't mind coding something up for this, if we can agree on what the
flow should be.

On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 10:20 AM, Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> wrote:

>
> mailto URLs generally support some options; a short body and subject
> could be specified like this:
>
> <a href=”mailto:emacs@gnu.org?subject=Bug%20Report&body=Hi%0Athere%20″>
>
> Which would DTRT on many users' desktops. So maybe that would be an option?
>

I'm not sure how much that functionality overlaps with the existing
behavior that's already there. It certainly wouldn't help webmail users.

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bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Zachary Kanfer <zkanfer@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:14:37 -0400
> Cc: 28154@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> I wouldn't mind coding something up for this, if we can agree on what the flow should be.

Thanks.  I think what you described sounds fine.  If you have more
detailed questions, please go ahead and ask them.

bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:14:37 -0400 Zachary Kanfer <zkanfer@gmail.com> wrote: 

>> Would someone like to work on adding such a feature to emacsbug.el?
ZK> I wouldn't mind coding something up for this, if we can agree on what the
ZK> flow should be.

There are many possible flows. Please feel free to propose and
implement; if you put your work in a branch we'll be happy to review it.

ZK> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 10:20 AM, Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> wrote:

>> mailto URLs generally support some options; a short body and subject
>> could be specified like this:
>> 
>> <a href=”mailto:emacs@gnu.org?subject=Bug%20Report&body=Hi%0Athere%20″>
>> 
>> Which would DTRT on many users' desktops. So maybe that would be an option?

ZK> I'm not sure how much that functionality overlaps with the existing
ZK> behavior that's already there. It certainly wouldn't help webmail users.

Maybe it will help others :)

Ted

bug#28154: 26.0.50; suggestion to improve bug reporting interface for users who use webmail

[Zachary Kanfer]

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Eli,

Cool. I'll code that flow up.

Ted,

I'll code up the flow above, but I'm not going to write the mailto
suggestion; I don't have email set up on a program on my machine, so I
wouldn't be able to properly test it, or even see how it differs from the
existing options.

On Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 3:31 PM, Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:14:37 -0400 Zachary Kanfer <zkanfer@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >> Would someone like to work on adding such a feature to emacsbug.el?
> ZK> I wouldn't mind coding something up for this, if we can agree on what
> the
> ZK> flow should be.
>
> There are many possible flows. Please feel free to propose and
> implement; if you put your work in a branch we'll be happy to review it.
>
> ZK> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 10:20 AM, Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>
> wrote:
>
> >> mailto URLs generally support some options; a short body and subject
> >> could be specified like this:
> >>
> >> <a href=”mailto:emacs@gnu.org?subject=Bug%20Report&body=Hi%0Athere%20″>
> >>
> >> Which would DTRT on many users' desktops. So maybe that would be an
> option?
>
> ZK> I'm not sure how much that functionality overlaps with the existing
> ZK> behavior that's already there. It certainly wouldn't help webmail
> users.
>
> Maybe it will help others :)
>
> Ted
>

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