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rfc:rfc7842

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) R. Sparks Request for Comments: 7842 Oracle Category: Informational April 2016 ISSN: 2070-1721

  Requirements for Improvements to the IETF Email List Archiving,
                Web-Based Browsing, and Search Tool

Abstract

 The web-based IETF email archive search tool based on the
 requirements captured in RFC 6778 was deployed in January 2014.  This
 memo captures the requirements for a set of improvements that have
 been identified during its initial years of community use.

Status of This Memo

 This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
 published for informational purposes.
 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
 approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
 Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7842.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
 document authors.  All rights reserved.
 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document.  Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
 described in the Simplified BSD License.

Sparks Informational [Page 1] RFC 7842 List Archiving and Search Requirements April 2016

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
 2.  List Search and Archive Tool Improvement Requirements . . . .   2
   2.1.  Viewing by Thread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.2.  Navigation from the Message List View . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.3.  Navigation from a Single Message  . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.4.  Message List UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.5.  Improve Support for Mobile Devices  . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   2.6.  Improve Use of Display Space  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   2.7.  Use without JavaScript  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   2.8.  Administration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
 3.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
 4.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
 Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1. Introduction

 The IETF email archive search tool, as specified in [RFC6778]) and
 available at [mailarch], has been in use for nearly two years.
 During that time, there have been repeated requests for several
 improvements.  This memo captures the requirements for a concerted
 development effort to provide those improvements.

2. List Search and Archive Tool Improvement Requirements

2.1. Viewing by Thread

 Currently, when the "Group by Thread" button is selected, the
 resulting list of messages is flat.  It is very hard to tell where a
 thread starts and stops.  This flat view interacts badly with sorting
 (triggered by clicking on the column headers), leading to results
 that are confusing and sometimes incorrect.
 This effort will:
 o  Modify the message list display, when grouped by thread, to show
    each thread hierarchically.
 o  Modify the sort performed by the clicking on the column headers to
    sort the overall list first by the parameters in the first message
    in the thread, and then sort within the thread (ensuring the
    thread grouping doesn't change based on these sorts).  When
    viewing threads sorted this way, the hierarchy will be flattened,
    but the thread boundaries will remain visibly distinct.

Sparks Informational [Page 2] RFC 7842 List Archiving and Search Requirements April 2016

2.2. Navigation from the Message List View

 This effort will add navigation to the message list view, whether
 viewing flat search results or viewing by thread, making it simple
 to:
 o  Navigate to the previous/next message by date in the set of listed
    messages.
 o  Navigate to the previous/next message in a thread, to the first
    message in a thread, and to the previous/next thread displayed.
 o  Navigate to any References or Replies (displayed as Follow-Ups in
    MHonArc) for the currently selected message.  These are derived
    from the References header field in the displayed message, and the
    In-Reply-To header field or the last value in the References
    header field of all other messages in the archive).
 The UI will make it possible to hide these navigation elements.

2.3. Navigation from a Single Message

 Currently, when viewing a single message, the only option for
 navigating to related messages is to return to the message list view
 (either by date or by thread).  This is implemented with a new search
 based only on the details present in the message itself.  No
 information about any search that led to the message is retained.
 This effort will:
 o  Add navigation to the single message view, enabling transition to
    previous/next in list and previous/next in thread.
 o  Add navigation enabling transition to previous/next in search, if
    the message page being displayed was arrived at by navigating from
    the message list view of a search result.
 o  Add navigation to any References or Replies (displayed as Follow-
    Ups in MHonArc).  These are derived from the References header
    field in the displayed message, and the In-Reply-To header field
    or the last value in the References header field of all other
    messages in the archive.
 o  Make it possible to hide these navigation elements.

Sparks Informational [Page 3] RFC 7842 List Archiving and Search Requirements April 2016

2.4. Message List UI

 It is not sufficiently obvious that the message list panel can be
 resized.  The current handle is not visually distinct enough to
 signal the capability to the user, leaving many users believing they
 are restricted to the very short default list, even when viewing on
 large monitors.
 Additionally, there is a flaw in the code that fetches additional
 messages when scrolling to the bottom of what's currently displayed.
 If the message window is large enough that the default number of
 results does not fill it, no scrollbar appears, and scrolling to the
 bottom does not fetch additional results.
 The filter by list and filter by from sections to the left of the
 message list have no values in many circumstances, but it is not
 obvious why they are missing.  One notable condition is when the
 search result is very large -- computing the values to put in these
 filters becomes prohibitively expensive.  Without foreknowledge of
 the decisions captured in the code, the behavior seems arbitrary and
 unintuitive.
 The current view truncates fields, leaving trailing ellipses, when it
 doesn't need to.  This leaves space underutilized on large displays
 and may make selection (particularly of long email addresses in the
 filters) much more difficult than it should be.  On small displays,
 the column of filters dominates the display, leaving only a small
 amount of space for the actual message content.
 The current view requires the user to select each message in the
 message list to get the URI to that message.  This makes it difficult
 to open several messages in different windows, or to build a list of
 URIs for use in a message or other applications.  It is also not
 obvious that double-clicking a row in the list will open the message
 in a separate window.
 This effort will:
 o  Make the ability to resize the panels on the message list display
    easier to find.
 o  Account for the size of the message list panel when choosing how
    many messages to fetch, filling the panel whenever there are
    enough results to do so.
 o  Provide a message explaining any condition leading to filter
    values not being populated (such as "Refine search to enable
    'From' filtering").

Sparks Informational [Page 4] RFC 7842 List Archiving and Search Requirements April 2016

 o  Allow subjects to fill the column on large displays.  Show fully
    expanded list and email addresses in the pop-ups for the filters.
 o  Provide a link on each row of the list to the URL for that row's
    message.
 o  Add an export type that produces a file containing a list of URIs
    to each message in the list.
 o  Add a hint to the UI that double-clicking on a row in the list
    will open a single-message view of the associated message in a
    separate view.

2.5. Improve Support for Mobile Devices

 The current view becomes difficult to use on small displays,
 particularly phone displays in portrait mode.  This effort will:
 o  Add a responsive interface, presenting a useful interface on both
    small and large displays.

2.6. Improve Use of Display Space

 The current view underutilizes the available display space.  This
 effort will:
 o  Make the message content the primary point of each view.
 o  Reduce the unused space on the display.
 o  Remove the filter column responsively when the display width is
    small.

2.7. Use without JavaScript

 The current web-based archive search tool requires JavaScript to
 function.  This effort will extend the tool to allow users that have
 disabled JavaScript in their browser to retrieve and navigate through
 search results using the message list and single message views.
 This effort will not attempt to preserve all of the functionality
 provided with JavaScript enabled.  In particular, when running with
 JavaScript disabled, these features will not be available:
 o  Resizing of the message list panels.
 o  Dynamically filtering by time, list, or from.  (The filter column
    will not appear).

Sparks Informational [Page 5] RFC 7842 List Archiving and Search Requirements April 2016

2.8. Administration

 This project will:
 o  Add a link from the message view to the admin page for the message
    when logged in as an administrator.
 o  Add correction of the appropriate thread indices to the handling
    of administrative imports of messages.
 o  Implement a redirection handler mapping legacy archive URLs to the
    appropriate mailarch page.
 o  Make the underlying template consistent across all views presented
    by the tool.  In particular, ensure that the correct logo as
    designated by the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC)
    appears consistently on all views.

3. Security Considerations

 The requirements for improvement to the mailarch tool captured in
 this document do not introduce any exceptional security
 considerations.  They add additional navigation points, and the
 implementers should consider the impact of rapid navigation using
 these new mechanisms (see the security considerations of [RFC6778]).

4. References

4.1. Normative References

 [RFC6778]  Sparks, R., "Requirements for Archiving IETF Email Lists
            and for Providing Web-Based Browsing and Searching",
            RFC 6778, DOI 10.17487/RFC6778, October 2012,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6778>.

4.2. Informative References

 [mailarch]
            IETF, "Mail Archive", <https://mailarchive.ietf.org>.

Acknowledgments

 The following people have provided particularly useful input for this
 document: Lou Berger, Chris Bowers, Brian Carpenter, Russ Housley,
 Pete Resnick, and Dale Worley.

Sparks Informational [Page 6] RFC 7842 List Archiving and Search Requirements April 2016

Author's Address

 Robert Sparks
 Oracle
 7460 Warren Parkway
 Suite 300
 Frisco, Texas  75034
 United States
 Email: rjsparks@nostrum.com

Sparks Informational [Page 7]

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