History page needs a make over

[flynd]

I think a lot can be done for the history display.
Here are a list of what I think could be improved:

1) Change the layout of the history. The current layout wastes a lot of space per message resulting in a lot of scrolling when reading. The "default" layout would be more compact. Even better would be to make it possible to select layout as can be done with the chat messages.
2) Change the number of messages per page. Only 40 messages per page results in a lot of clicking on Prev and Next -buttons when reading. This should preferably be user configurable (from the history window) or at least a higher default (100).
3) Improve the load time for the history. (For me it takes 3 seconds per page making it frustrating to switch page while reading.)
4) Configure the timestamps for the history separate from the chat dialog timestamps. For me, in normal chat I only want the time but in the history I want the date as well.
5) Change the controls to easier go to any page/timestamp/searchstring in the history. Currently the history always starts at the end forcing the user to click the Prev-button until the correct page/message is displayed.
6) Change the search functionallity to makes it possible to see the messages adjacent to the found message. This could be done as part of no 5 above.
7) Save status of the reverse option when the window is closed. Should be saved like any control in the options dialog.
8) Update history window with new messages that are sent or received while it is open.
9) Remember the history window size and position. Possibly make the history a separate window as I feel the history benifits from having a large window size than the other user info tabs.

These are just my options, feel free to make additions or suggestions in this ticket.
I'm planning to implement at least some of these improvments myself.

[flynd]

Half fix for #1: This is a total change of the history style. No option to select style (yet).

[flynd]

Patch for improvments 1 and 4: Options to configure history separate from chat. Adds a new style (same as previous patch).

[flynd]

Note: licq-4782-history_newstyle.patch has a bug causing chat dialogs to sometimes not display any messages.

licq-4786-configurable_history.patch includes the same new history style but with this behavior corrected.

[flynd]

I looked around and found the several other open tickets that also cover the same or related improvments to the history.
The list of tickets below seem the address the same issues as listed in this ticket. Maybe this ticket should be closed as a duplicate(?)

#713 - history browsing: missing essential features
#821 - History length
#1429 - wish: same style in history as in chat
#1430 - history: next/previous
#1431 - wish: two-stage filtering in history by keyword and date

[flynd]

Same as previous but with some code improvments.

[erijo]

attachment:licq-4788-configurable_history.patch2 committed in r4791.

[flynd]

Current status:

1) History layout is as of r4791 selectable independantly of chat layout.
2) [qt4-gui only] Number of messages per page is as of r5446 configurable from 2-200. As of r6000 the new history dialog shows entries per date instead.
3) [qt4-gui only] Progress bar was removed in r5969 which improved load time.
4) History timestamps is as of r4791 configured independantly of chat timestamps.
5) [qt4-gui only] The new history dialog (r6000) can navigate directly to any date.
6) [qt4-gui only] The new history dialog (r6000) highlights search matches without hiding surrounding messages.
7) [qt4-gui only] Reverse setting is as of r5115 included in settings dialog and saved between sessions.
8) Not fixed yet
9) [qt4-gui only] The new history dialog (r6000) is no longer a part of user info dialog. Window position and size is not saved yet.

[flynd]

8) [qt4-gui only] With r6186, sent and received messages are added to the history dialog without the need to close and reopen the dialog.

With this fix all items in this ticket are either fixed in qt4-gui or no longer applicable due to the new history dialog.