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Feature Test Spec: Mail and News Component

Mail and News Component: View Messages

Written by Laurel Carlson

Description

This testplan outlines functional testcases for message views under menu item View|Messages within Mail and News. Some scenarios regarding Threading may overlap with or be found in the Sort testplan.

The outline first covers generic cases to test in all views, then later has sections for each view specifically to cover specific cases, known issues or previously encountered issues having to do with that particular view.

References

Mailnews testplans on mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/tests/index.html
Mailnews UI specs on mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/mailnews/specs/

Cases should be run against Mail and again for News.

View|Messages menu item basics:
1. Views menu should be enabled when in any view setting
2. Checkmark should indicate which view is set
3. Views menu should be enabled when:
  1. in an empty thread pane view
  2. populated thread pane
  3. message pane open
  4. message pane closed
4. View|Messages menu should be available with focus in main mail window:
  1. folder/ group selected in folder pane
  2. thread pane
  3. message pane
  4. should be disabled on server/account level
5. Menu should be accessible via mouse, keyboard mnemonics
6. View|Messages menu should not be available from standalone message window
General -- Window items to check in all views
1. Verify each view contains all thread window columns
2. Verify column operations in all views
  1. Column widget to add/remove columns from display
  2. Resizing columns
  3. Reordering columns (placement in display as opposed to sort order of contents)
  4. Clicking column header for column's content sort and ascending/descending order (Sorting covered in detail in Sort testplan)
3. Expand and collapse threads in any view (of course, only available when in threaded mode), checking column info in both states:
  1. do this via menu item Expand All/Collapse All within View|Messages menu
  2. Expand All/Collapse All menu item should only be enabled when in threaded mode
  3. expand/collapse by using keyboard shortcuts ("*" and "/")
  4. expand/collapse by using mouse on the twisty in thread pane
  5. expand thread by using Enter when on selected collapsed thread
  6. by using arrow keys
  7. Bug 123074: Expanded (All or some) thread state not preserved switching views.
4. Message Pane can be displayed or hidden with the pane widget or menu item.
5. Resize/minimize/maximize window
General -- Eyeball the different Views: Do a brief check of each View using folders/newsgroups with mix of read, unread, watched (news only), ignored (news only). Verify view appears to contain only messages in appropriate state for the view. (separate sections below for each view will contain more view-specific cases)
1. View All
  1. Ignored toggle ON (displays ignored threads)
  2. Ignored toggle OFF (ignored threads hidden)
2. View Unread
3. View Threads with Unread
4. View Watched Threads with New
5. Switch among all views
General -- Selection in Views:
1. Verify thread pane scrolls to selection in any view
2. Verify message selection is preserved switching views if the selected message is appropriate to the next view.
3. Verify no selection carried forward if message isn't appropriate to the next view
4. Verify no selection when switching from an empty view to a populated one.
5. Verify selection point is preserved after Get Msg in views where that message may no longer be appropriate
6. Catch-all: In general, make sure you're not completely lost when switching between views... the rules have/will change on appropriate selection points, but make sure it's reasonable.
General -- Get Messages in Views
1. For each view, verify you can get messages. Only new messages appropriate to the selected view should display.
2. Get Messages in each view. Switch to other views to make sure all new messages are merged in appropriate views. (For example, get messages in Watched view, switch to All and verify all new messages are displayed.)
3. Get Messages in an empty view, where none of the new messages will apply to the selected/empty view (View should remain empty).
4. In each view, get messages in threaded sort. Verify threading is appropriate.
5. In each view, get messages in flat sort. Verify newly received messages are merged appropriately in the sort.
6. Open folder/group to each type of view (instead of switching view type after group is opened), verify newly retrieved messages on opening group are properly merged into the view.
General -- Sort Views
1. Verify you're able to sort by various methods in each view.
2. Switch sorts. Verify view criteria is maintained.
3. Threaded sort: verify threading is correct switching among views
General -- Verify general composition capabilities in all views:
1. New message
2. Reply/Reply All
3. Forward
General -- Verify navigation generally works in all views:
1. next message
2. next unread
3. previous message
4. previous unread
5. cross-folder/account navigation engages
General -- Verify basic Mark Messages commands in all views:
1. mark as read/unread single selection
2. mark as read/unread multiple selection
3. mark folder/group read
4. do the above with message pane open
5. do the above when mesage pane closed
General -- Verify File/delete in all views:
1. Move/copy message
  1. single selection
  2. multiple selection
  3. Undo move/copy:
    - undo while still in the view
    - undo after switching to another view
2. Delete message
  1. single selection
  2. multiple selection
  3. Undo delete
    - undo while still in the view
    - undo after switching to another view
General -- Verify view is preserved per folder/newsgroup
1. Close group and reopen
2. Through exit and reopen
3. Switch to another group and back
Specifics -- View All Messages
Specifics -- View Unread Messages
1. Bug 102997: Switching between Unread and Threads with Unread causes display problems
2. Set folder or group which has unread messages to view Unread. Read all current unread messages then go to another folder/group and back to verify the view is now empty (no new unread items have come in and all previous read items do not appear in the view).
3. Set folder or group to view Unread. Read all current unread messages thenexit and return having no new messages. Verify view is still empty.
4. Set folder or group to view Unread. Read all current unread messages and exit. From another machine, send some new messages which will be routed to said folder/group. Launch and go to the folder/group. Verify only new/unread messages appear in the view on opening the folder/group.
5. Use Get Msg button/command to get new messages while in an Unread view, but you've read some messages. When the new/unread messages arrive, verify they're inserted appropriately into the view (consider chosen sort). Also verify the read messages are still present; they should not disappear from the display until you switch views or close/reopen the folder/group. Make sure selection is preserved through the Get Msg.
6. Repeat the above case using Biff/automatic download instead of using Get Msg.
7. An Exception to the above would be an AOL account New Mail folder where on Get Msg the read messages may be moved to the Old Mail folder.
8. Perform operations from standalone window on messages which appear in Unread thread view. Verify the thread pane view is affected appropriately and that nothing drastic happens:
  1. Mark read/unread -- thread pane view should still show message and show show the newly changed state
  2. Delete or Cancel (news) Msg -- thread pane view should no longer show the message
  3. Delete or Cancel (news) Msg -- thread pane view is in flat sort.
  4. Delete or Cancel (news) Msg -- thread pane view is in threaded mode.
    - delete a parent message
    - delete a child/reply message
  5. Move message (mail only) -- thread pane view should no longer show the message
Specifics -- View Threads with Unread
1. Bug 64476 and bug 108906: read items showing in newsgroup when opened in Threads with Unread (after a time, not a one time verification)
2. Bug 123858: duplicate messages when reading unread threads in Threads with Unread
3. Bug 102997: Switching between Unread and Threads with Unread causes display problems
4. Set folder or group having unread messages spanning multiple threads to view Thread with Unread. Read all current unread messages then go to another folder/group and back to verify the view is now empty (no new unread items have come in and all previous read items do not appear in the view).
5. Set folder or group to view Theads with Unread. Read all current unread messages thenexit and return having no new messages. Verify view is still empty.
6. Set folder or group to view Theads with Unread. Read all current unread messages and exit. From another machine, send some new messages and replies to messages spanning different threads (which will be routed to said folder/group). Launch and go to the folder/group. Verify only threads containing at least one new/unread messages appear in the view on opening the folder/group.
7. Use Get Msg button/command to get new messages while in Threads with Unread view, but you've read some messages and some entire threads. When the new/unread messages arrive, verify they're inserted appropriately into the view (consider chosen sort). Also verify the read messages are still present; they should not disappear from the display until you switch views or close/reopen the folder/group. Make sure selection is preserved through the Get Msg.
8. Repeat the above case using Biff/automatic download instead of using Get Msg.
9. An Exception to the above would be an AOL account New Mail folder where on Get Msg the read messages may be moved to the Old Mail folder. Ref: bugscape (internal to Netscape) bug 17953.
10. Perform operations from standalone window on messages which appear in Unread thread view. Verify the thread pane view is affected appropriately and that nothing drastic happens:
  1. Mark read/unread -- thread pane view should still show message and show show the newly changed state
  2. Delete or Cancel (news) Msg -- thread pane view should no longer show the message
  3. Delete or Cancel (news) Msg -- thread pane view is in flat sort.
  4. Delete or Cancel (news) Msg -- thread pane view is in threaded mode.
    - delete a parent message
    - delete a child/reply message
  5. Move message (mail only) -- thread pane view should no longer show the message
Specifics --View Watched Threads (see testplan for Watch Threads)
1. Should be available in News only (see bug 74432)
2. Bug 156930: Handle Next Unread case when no more unread in (Watched) view, but still unread in full folder view.
Toggle for showing Ignored Threads (see testplan for Ignore Threads)
1. Should be available in News only (see bug 74432)
2. Should be available only as a toggle on/off in All message view only (ignored threads have should never have unread items, so it makes no sense to have ignored threads shown in other views since they're all oriented to having unread messages)
3. Verify switching Ignored toggle OFF and ON does nothing unhealthy in an empty view.
Other:
1. Bug 148001: Switch views when in quicksearch results causes problems.