[Feature Request] Side-by-Side Interface for Email List and Email Details
no-operation opened this issue · comments
Currently, the Mailpit interface requires users to switch between different views to navigate emails and read their contents. While this works, it can be less efficient for users who need to manage and read multiple emails quickly.
I propose the following enhancements:
1. Sidebar Email List: A vertical list of received emails on the left side of the screen, displaying basic information such as sender, subject, and timestamp.
2. Detail View Pane: A detailed view of the selected email on the right side, allowing users to read the email content without leaving the email list view.
If there are any specific technical considerations or limitations that need to be taken into account for implementing this feature, please let me know. I am open to providing further details or assisting with testing and feedback.
Thank you for considering this feature request. I believe it will significantly improve the user experience for Mailpit users.
Thank you for your suggestions / feedback @no-operation. Whilst I think your proposal sounds like an improvement on larger desktop views, it unfortunately has significant limitations for mobile (or smaller screen) use, ie: it would not work, and would also mean less information in the overview on desktop which would also upset some users.
Mailpit is designed to cater for desktop, tablet and mobile viewing, and a lot of consideration was taken when choosing the current UI to handle all of them (as best as possible). The messages overview already has two columns - one for the mailbox & tags, and another the the message summaries. The message summaries include sender & recipients, subject, excerpt, size, relative received time, and message tags. Reducing this into a narrow column would mean we'd have to loose several of those fields, or it would either be extremely cramped or take up 4-6 lines per message.
The alternative is having two completely separate layouts (ie: selectable by the user) which sounds like a great idea until one realises just how much work goes into developing and maintaining two side-by-side interfaces (hint: a LOT).
Had Mailpit been originally written with this in mind then having a selectable interface may have been significantly easier, but that's not the case unfortunately. To now add support for this would take a significant amount of time, and is something I am not willing to spend my time on in the foreseeable future.
So I again thank you again for your suggestion, but I do not see this happening. I hope you understand?
I think this is a great tip. It should be like Mailtrap, working on both mobile and desktop. Currently, when we are inside an email, the left sidebar shows the “Message date” and “Size.” These can be moved to the message header, and the sidebar can display the list of messages. On mobile, this list can be hidden. This change will make it much easier to navigate between messages.
Many mail clients, such as Outlook or the Mac Mail app, work like this.
@axllent, adding this list to the current email detail page won’t be a big change and can improve the usability of Mailtip. You already have that sidebar, it’s just a matter of changing what is displayed there.
That's actually a very good suggestion/idea @fabiomlferreira, and not one that includes either dual interfaces. There is still a lot to consider and a fair bit of work to do in order to make that work, but I think that's feasible.
@no-operation What do you think of this idea?
@axllent I think it's a great solution, will be very useful