Since we have our own toolbar now, we could add the search widget to the toolbar. The unifinder would open if its not already there and we could consider closing it again in certain situations, using Esc. If you like history, see bug 198494. If you like the future, see bug 461032.

Do you think this should integrate with the task view? We could have one search widget that could filter the results in the unifinder, task view, and today pane task list. On the other hand, I think as we expand the filtering options for the task view we should try to stay consistent with the mail quick-filter bar. I was thinking we could remove the Add Task button from the task view since we have a similar button in the toolbar now, and move the quick-add widget to the bottom of the task list like it is in the Today Pane task list. This would create space for a task filter toolbar that would be visible only on the task view. We could do this in the general calendar toolbar instead, but I'm not sure it makes sense to show task specific filtering options when the calendar tab is active.

If possible the task tab should have a search widget too, yes. I agree we can remove the add task button and am also fine with moving the quick-add widget. For the latter, you might want to talk to bwinton or andreasn, given the quick-add would then be between the list and the task preview. I'm not quite sure what you mean with task filter toolbar? Are you proposing another toolbar? I would rather like to see the search widget inside the calendar/task tab toolbar like it is for mail. I don't think we should show task-specific filtering options in the calendar tab since this might lead users to think they can filter how tasks are shown in the calendar view. This shouldn't be a problem though since the toolbar is a different one in each tab type. It would be good if this could be fixed until the next release so we can push it to aurora and target Thunderbird 12 / Lightning 1.4. Thats of course different if this needs extra strings, but then we should aim for Lightning 1.5. Matthew, do I read correctly, are you interested in fixing this bug? :))

I'd suggest to keep the add task button but maybe make it optionally by removing it from the default set. Reason: It is convenient to move the buttons in a location that is same on all toolbars. But this is off-topic for this bug report. When moving the search consider the following use case: The search field is removed from the toolar to save screen estate but should be available on demand, i.e. similar to the current behavior. Maybe just add a button to open/close the unifinder, similar to the Thunderbird search?

(In reply to Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] from comment #2) > I'm not quite sure what you mean with task filter toolbar? Are you proposing > another toolbar? I would rather like to see the search widget inside the > calendar/task tab toolbar like it is for mail. Mail has two separate search widgets that do different things - the "Search all messages" widget in the mail toolbar opens a faceted search in a new tab, while the "Filter these messages" widget in the Quick Filter bar underneath it does an in-place text filter on the messages in the list. Both the unifinder search and the task search widgets behave more like the mail Quick Filter bar, and they're already in the same relative location. I think it would actually be more consistent with the mail tab if we keep the unifinder search where it is now, and make it behave like the mail Quick Filter search, using the same keyboard shortcut the way we did for the task search in Bug 316916. Maybe we could add a toolbar button like Stefan suggested that would toggle the open state of the unifinder on the calendar tab and a corresponding toolbar button for the task tab - this would be somewhat consistent with the mail tab button to show/hide the Quick Filter bar. This would require string changes and could reasonably target Lightning 1.5. In future versions we could expand the functionality of the unifinder and task search widgets to specify the set of properties searched (Title / Location / Category / Description), the same way the mail Quick Filter search does (Sender / Recipients / Subject / Body). I think if we add a search widget to the calendar toolbar, it should behave like the corresponding mail toolbar's search and open a faceted search results page in a separate tab, maybe hooking into GLODA. I think that is going to be more work than could be reasonably done in the 1.4 or 1.5 time frame.

Here's a quick mock-up of what I mean

Comment on attachment 598928 [details] Proposal Mock-up In this proposal the task and calendar tab's version of the Quick Filter bar would be customizable toolbars, with the various filtering options being toolbar items. This way the filtering process could be simple by default with a few pre-defined filters, similar to how the task view filter is now, but the user could access more detailed filtering options if desired.

Ok, back-pedaling a bit on this. I agree to what you say, if we put the unifinder search into the toolbar it wouldn't be right since the unifinder acts as a filter and this is inconsistent with how it works for Thunderbird. Gloda integration is planned, and if we move the unifinder search to the toolbar now, that would likely confuse the users. Its also not going to be available so soon, so don't worry about the target milestone. I'm open to adding a quick-filter type bar for calendar/tasks tab, I think the UI details should be discussed with bwinton/andreasn. I know its just a mockup, but the dropdown buttons need some tweaking. As an alternative short term, we could add a find events button to the toolbar, as we have had before in Tb2 days. I'll file a new bug+patch for that. Not sure how to continue with this bug. We have bug 461032 for the toolbar integration, we could use this bug to implement the quick-filter type bar or create a new bug with a summary. What do you think?

Sorry, the summary shouldn't have changed pending input. Since I've changed it anyway, I'll use the one possibility for keeping this bug open vs. creating a new one.

(In reply to Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] from comment #7) > Not sure how to continue with this bug. We have bug 461032 for the toolbar > integration, we could use this bug to implement the quick-filter type bar or > create a new bug with a summary. > > What do you think? I think it would be better if we do this in a few parts, and use this bug as a tracker for the search and filtering changes.

I doubt I'll have time to work on this any time soon, but if anyone else wants to look into it and needs help feel free to ping me.