Moving mail across accounts - HTML Assistant creates new filter, deletes old one instead of merging

[RealRaven2000]

this was reported today by a user of Betterbird 140.4.0:

... when I try to move an email from one of my two email addresses to a sub-folder in the other email address, quickFilters creates a new Message Filter and erases the old one, so that there is no adding to the old Message Filter but rather the creation of a new one. So I have taken to adding the domain or the email address or the subject, etc., to the appropriate Message Filter manually.

[RealRaven2000]

As a starting point for testing, here is the latest build (it does include some improvements in the assistant to improve matching in the merged filters list, which can especially help when using Thunderbird's automatic Junk controls)

quickFilters-6.9pre35.zip

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To install version above download zip file and drag the file into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager (do not extract contents, it won't install like that)

[cherniack]

I am the person who reported this. I have been in private communication with Axel on this issue, but he has asked me to use GitHub. I downloaded the test version. Two out of three problems continued:

1. even though there was a pre-existing filter, and I have checked Automatically selected Merge AND Skip directly to template selection, I was still required to choose to merge;
2. There was no information about the email in the template selection, but I chose Domain name anyway. But the third problem seems to have been solved. The existing entries in the old Message Filter aren't erased and the domain name was entered into the already-existing Message Filter.

The two problems above disappear when I get out of HTML mode. Everything works properly.

[RealRaven2000]

Thanks for commenting. I have another version ready:

quickFilters-6.9pre36.zip

there were some problems properly reading the checkboxes on the first page of the assistant, a bad regression from writing the converted dialog. The possibility of such regressions was why I also did not enable the new (html) dialog as a default for existing users.

I will still need to do some testing with automatic Spam options enabled , just to see whether this might generate more problems.

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To install version above download zip file and drag the file into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager (do not extract contents, it won't install like that)

[RealRaven2000]

new version 6.9.2 was just released and is now in review - check out the changel list, it mainly affects filter assistant. Can you check the latest version whether it fixes your issues?

[RealRaven2000]

🔹 Related commits included in in 6.9.2:

• b162c59 - Fixes in the Filters API that are relevant to merging filters in the new HTML assistant.
• ec2f596 - Updates code that determines the selected filter during merge and adds the targeted filter name to the edit button. Relevant for reliability when the "automatically continue to template selection during merge" option is active.

[cherniack]

new version 6.9.2 <https://github.com/RealRaven2000/quickFilters/releases/tag/6.9.2> was just released and is now in review - check out the changel list, it mainly affects filter assistant. Can you check the latest version whether it fixes your issues?

In HTML user interface I have "Automatically select Merge" and "Skip directly to template selection" checked off. Yet when I move an email in my general Inbox to a specific sub-folder I am still provided with the box that asks me whether I want to merge into an existing filter or to create a new one. And when I click on the existing filter to select merge, I then get the template asking me whether to use sender, domain, subject, recipients, etc. -- BUT it is a blank template which does not include the information about the specific email which I have moved. So for me there is not much change, unfortunately. I will default to non-HTML for convenience sake. I hope you are able to fix this before HTML becomes necessary. Best, Lawrie

[RealRaven2000]

I then get the template asking me whether to use sender, domain, subject, recipients, etc. -- BUT it is a blank template which does not include the information about the specific email which I have moved.

Ok, as I currently cannot reproduce this here, we should probably look at your error console when this happens. I understand that the information for the email isn't shown in the "Email" field, so presumably there is no data for the template to work with. How do you move the email (drag to a folder in the tree, or with the move to right-click menu or through a QuickFolders action).

Another test version to see why HTML assistant doesn't get any data on your system:

qFi-background.js

I added some additional debug lines that can be activated via the settings wheel on quickFilters Settings >> advanced >> Debug:

best to enable:

extensions.quickfilters.debug = true
extensions.quickfilters.debug.FiltersAPI = true
extensions.quickfilters.debug.assistant = true
extensions.quickfilters.debug.assistant.msg = true
extensions.quickfilters.debug.createFilter = true

this is how to configure error console [with Ctrl+Shift+J]. disable timestamps and grouping, and show at least Errors, Warnings, Logs:

just before you copy the message, make sure to empty console

and then (as soon as the assistant shows) copy the debug output (right-click the log and select Copy all Messages), I am expecting something like below:

quickFilters 13:7:8.863  [37271 ms]   
 Drop event detected! qFilters-utils.js:785:13
quickFilters {MERGE,MERGE.DETAIL} 13:7:8.878  [15 ms]   
 ======================= MERGE MATCH  ===================
  Found filter [FiltaQuilla » _dump] merging match target folder. ADDING TO matchingFilters. qFilters-utils.js:857:13
quickFilters HTML Assistant Request Id: assistant_6909fa7c qFilters-utils.js:828:12
quickFilters 13:7:8.893  [15 ms]   
 displayAssistant()
context=onTreeviewDrop
requestId=assistant_6909fa7c qFilters-utils.js:785:13
quickFilters 13:7:8.893  [0 ms]   
 assistantURL=moz-extension://446730c4-60ef-4c35-bcd6-8475d4a08d76/html/filterAssistant.html qFilters-utils.js:785:13
quickFilters 13:7:8.894  [1 ms]   
 url=moz-extension://446730c4-60ef-4c35-bcd6-8475d4a08d76/html/filterAssistant.html qFilters-utils.js:785:13
WebExtensions: quickFilters - filtersAPI.getFilters() implementation.js:77
quickFilters 13:7:8.895  [1 ms]   
 FiltersAPI.getFilters(imap://thunderbirddaily%40gmail.com@imap.gmail.com/INBOX) qFilters-utils.js:785:13
WebExtensions: Checking filter 0 : FiltaQuilla » _dump ... implementation.js:113
WebExtensions: Checking filter 1 : Lawrie Cherniack » Transactions & Computers (pinterest) ... implementation.js:113
WebExtensions: Returning results. 
Array [ {…} ]
implementation.js:182
quickFilters 13:7:8.896  [1 ms]   
 found 2 filters for server[server3] thunderbirddaily@gmail.com. Iterating... qFilters-utils.js:785:13
Selected Mails from API: 
Array [ {…} ]
qFi-background.js:395:13
selectedFilters: undefined qFi-background.js:396:13
load event fired! filterAssistant.js:89:13
console.trace() loadAssistant called assistant-dlg.js:583:28
    loadAssistant moz-extension://446730c4-60ef-4c35-bcd6-8475d4a08d76/html/assistant-dlg.js:583
    <anonymous> moz-extension://446730c4-60ef-4c35-bcd6-8475d4a08d76/html/filterAssistant.js:90
    (Async: EventListener.handleEvent)
    <anonymous> moz-extension://446730c4-60ef-4c35-bcd6-8475d4a08d76/html/filterAssistant.js:86
quickFilters  loadAssistant()  
Context: fromMessageContext
ApiMessages: [{"messageId":84,"folder":{"accountId":"account3","path":"/INBOX"}}] assistant-util.js:63:15
quickFilters {ASSISTANT.MSG} [logTime init]
 previewFromApi() Loading message id: 84... assistant-util.js:50:13
quickFilters {ASSISTANT.MSG} 13:7:9.664 [4 ms]   
 initPreview() 
Object { preview: {…} }
assistant-util.js:50:13
quickFilters 13:7:9.679 [15 ms]   
 Merge filter: Selecting merge as default assistant-util.js:31:13
quickFilters 13:7:9.683 [4 ms]   
 selectTemplateFromListTimer() assistant-util.js:31:13

(captured on my test profile by copying mail from one IMAP account to another IMAP account).

there should be one line looking like this Selected Mails from API, which can be expanded to see the emails that were selected during the mail move, it should have one element with a messageId containing a number:

If its empty I will upload another test version which adds more debug info on the "worker" side.

[RealRaven2000]

I updated the instructions in my previous comment, please make sure you look at them in a web browser (as your notification emails won't update, and probably won't give you the screenshots I added either).
e.g. I added
extensions.quickfilters.debug.createFilter = true
as a valuable flag to get more info from the worker thread that passes message info to the background page (which then calls the html assistant). Sorry for the complication, but what the Add-on does is actually not easy...