You are currently viewing a snapshot of www.mozilla.org taken on April 21, 2008. Most of this content is highly out of date (some pages haven't been updated since the project began in 1998) and exists for historical purposes only. If there are any pages on this archive site that you think should be added back to www.mozilla.org, please file a bug.

Skip to main content

 
Communicator Seamonkey cross components
UI Specification

Communicator status bar

send feedback to the component specific newsgroup
Last Modification: 11 Mar 1999
Author German W. Bauer 
Initial Creation Date:  31 January 1998 		 Status: Specification based on feedback from Navigator and Messenger folks as well as Security Engineering (NS Server group).
Quicklinks: 
Design Overview
Design Cheatsheet
Design Details 

 

Feature Team
 
 

Older spec, will be updated

 

Summary/Overview

The status bar will be the place in Communicator Seamonkey where users look for overall status of their online experience such as download progress, on-offline status, security information for the current connection (in Navigator and in Messenger if we support SSL mail there), but also message specific information for Messenger

Goals

Give end-users one place where to look for overall status. Use the same locations throughout all applications for the specific items in the status bar especially for items used across components

Target Audience

The target user for this feature are Communicator Seamonkey users as described in the Seamonkey PRD

User Tasks

 
Fundamental Tasks Intermediate Tasks Advanced Tasks
  • Recognize notifcations waiting and be able to act on these
  • See whether on or offline
  • Change from online to offline and vv
  • Recognize secure connection in Navigator
  • Recognize download in progress
  • Recognize whether mail messages have been encrypted or digitally signed
    		•
  • Recognize how long download will take (rate of progress)
  • Sign/encrypt mail messages
  • Get more info on security

    •  
  • Read exact kB value of downloaded items so far as well as still to download
  • Find about xxx-bit security being used
    		•

    Design Cheatsheet

    Default status bar in Navigator


    Default status bar in Messenger



     

    Design Details

    Overview of components in the status bar
    Component
    Notification Component
    On/Offline Indicator
    Download Progress/ Javascript target area 
    Sign. Msg
    (Mess. only)
    Security Indicator
    (only shows up when inside SSL connection)
    Encr. Msg.
    (Mess. only)
    Purpose see notifcation specification (coming up) Indicate that the user is in on- or offline mode
  • Show download progress bar, plus text overlaid
  • Also double as JavaScript target area for text messages (aka self.status = "foo";)
  • Also double as mouse over link text
    		•  Indicate to end user that the message being read has been digitally signed by the sender
    This needs to be non-spoofable    		  indicate that the browser (possibly mail if we support SSL there) has entered a secure SSL connection
    terminology shown might be extended to show level of encryption in layman's terms: low/medium/high grade. This needs to be non-spoofable    		 Indicate to end user that the message being read has been encrypted
    This needs to be non-spoofable
    Rec. Width
  • Use last known width of sidebar for that application (in order left-align with the content area)
  • If we have to have a fixed width, than we recommend 200px
    		•  100 px resize to remaining available width 100px 120px, 
    2 px yellow line goes all the way through to the right border of the content area (see above)    		 100px
    Mouseover behavior
  • show button up outline when moused over plus cursor
  • tooltip: "click here to see notifications"
    		•
  • show button up outline when moused over plus cursor
  • tooltip: "currently online, click to go offline" or "currently offline, click to go back online"
    		•
  • tooltip: may have more information and full text if truncated due to not wide enough
    		•
  • show button up outline when moused over plus cursor
  • tooltip: will provide additional information in tooltip, such as who the signer and the verifying agency is "signed by Joe Sender, verified by VeriSign Inc", also encourage to click to get more info
  • in message composer: tooltip: "click here to sign your message"
    		•
  • show button up outline when moused over plus cursor
  • tooltip: will provide additional information in tooltip, such as 128-bit high-grade encryption, also encourage to click to get more info
    		•
  • show button up outline when moused over plus cursor
  • tooltip: will provide additional information in tooltip, such as what encryption type had been used also encourage to click to get more info
  • in message composer: tooltip: "click here to use encryption with your message"
    		•
    click behavior
  • opens the sidebar if closed
  • brings the notifcations panel into view if hidden
    		•  toggle on/offline mode
  • reading message: will bring up screen where the certificate of the signer can be seen.
  • composing message: will use digital signing of the message or info about digital signing if user cert is not available
    		•  brings up screen with additional security info and help
  • brings up screen with additional information and help about message encryption and security in general
  • composing message: will encrypt the message if available
    		•
     

    Menus & Preferences

     

    Context Menus


    TBD

    Preferences

    No specific prefs are expected except for the Notification area.
    Error Messages and Dialogs
     
    Condition
    Message
    User Choices
         
         
         

    Archived Documents

    Examples of special formatting:

    Revisions

    Rev 1: first stab, based on usability testing, UI design docs and FE eng and tech specs

    Rev 1.1 moved security inidcator to the right for consistency with Messenger.