left_sidebar: Add option to hide summary unread counters. #29257

akarsh-jain-790 · 2024-03-10T18:18:09Z

Adds a user-configurable option to hide unread counters in the left sidebar. Users now have the flexibility to choose whether they want these counters displayed or hidden, reducing distraction for those who find them disruptive.

Fixes: #28759

Screenshots and screen captures:

Show/Hide Unread Counter Option:

Added a "Show unread counter" / "Hide unread counter" option as the second item in the home view menu.

Preferences Setting:

Added a "Show unread message totals on home view and streams" checkbox under SETTINGS / PREFERENCES > Advanced, just below the "Show unread counts for" setting.

When "Show Unread Counter" is selected for "No streams":

more Screenshots

Unread counters will not be visible in the left sidebar for streams.

When "Hide Unread Counter" is selected:

The counter will be displayed as a dot on both the home view and the STREAMS line.
The actual number will be revealed on hover.

Adjusted the logic to ensure consistency in displaying summary counters in the default left sidebar view and in "more topics"/"more conversations" views.
When "Show unread message totals on home view and streams" is enable:
More Conversations View:

More Topics View:

Self-review checklist

Self-reviewed the changes for clarity and maintainability
(variable names, code reuse, readability, etc.).

Communicate decisions, questions, and potential concerns.

Explains differences from previous plans (e.g., issue description).
Highlights technical choices and bugs encountered.
Calls out remaining decisions and concerns.
Automated tests verify logic where appropriate.

Individual commits are ready for review (see commit discipline).

Each commit is a coherent idea.
Commit message(s) explain reasoning and motivation for changes.

Completed manual review and testing of the following:

Visual appearance of the changes.
Responsiveness and internationalization.
Strings and tooltips.
End-to-end functionality of buttons, interactions and flows.
Corner cases, error conditions, and easily imagined bugs.

alya · 2024-03-13T00:06:00Z

@akarsh-jain-790 Has this PR been updated with the latest #design suggestions? If so, please update the screenshots in the PR description, and post a summary comment here about the PR's status.

akarsh-jain-790 · 2024-03-13T19:05:29Z

@alya Yeah, I have update the PR description and is now ready for the initial review.

alya · 2024-03-14T07:10:16Z

Things go wrong when views are collapsed:

Please try to test your changes more thoroughly; https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/code-reviewing.html#manual-testing has some tips.

akarsh-jain-790 · 2024-03-16T20:03:44Z

@alya I have updated the PR and description, can you please re-review.

api_docs/changelog.md

timabbott · 2024-03-27T20:53:19Z

web/src/left_sidebar_navigation_area_popovers.js

+    const {instance} = event.data;
+    const data = {};
+    const home_view_unread_msg_count = user_settings.web_left_sidebar_unreads_count_summary;
+    data.web_left_sidebar_unreads_count_summary = JSON.stringify(!home_view_unread_msg_count);


This is a weird way to construct data; and worse than the similar blocks just above; can you follow those better conventions?

Thank you for your review. I appreciate your feedback. Regarding the construction of data I took reference from a similar block below:

$popper.one("click", "#toggle_display_starred_msg_count", () => { const data = {}; const starred_msg_counts = user_settings.starred_message_counts; data.starred_message_counts = JSON.stringify(!starred_msg_counts); channel.patch({ url: "/json/settings", data, }); instance.hide(); });

Hmm, maybe the right plan is to refactor those as well; the ones above this seem more sensible.

web/src/left_sidebar_navigation_area_popovers.js

web/src/sidebar_ui.ts

zerver/openapi/zulip.yaml

timabbott · 2024-03-27T20:59:06Z

web/styles/left_sidebar.css

+                display: none;
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }


This CSS refactoring is quite hard to understand; can you use some preparatory commits with proper commit messages to explain it?

akarsh-jain-790 · 2024-04-09T18:54:31Z

@timabbott Thanks for the detailed feedback! I've addressed your comments and made the necessary updates to the PR. Let me know if you have any further suggestions.

alya · 2024-04-10T19:35:45Z

@timabbott Marking for integration review, since you seem to be reviewing this one? Please feel free to re-delegate.

This commit adds a user-configurable option to hide unread counters in the left sidebar. Users now have the flexibility to choose whether they want these counters displayed or hidden, reducing distraction for those who find them disruptive. Fixes: zulip#28759

Moved the CSS rules from .input-append related to hiding and showing unread counts into a common container style.

In this commit, the .hide-unread-count-summary class is introduced to manage the visibility of unread counts within the selected-home-view section of the left-sidebar-navigation-list.

zulipbot added size: XL area: left sidebar (features) New left sidebar functionality area: left sidebar (popovers) Left sidebar popovers and tooltips priority: high labels Mar 10, 2024

akarsh-jain-790 marked this pull request as draft March 10, 2024 18:20

akarsh-jain-790 force-pushed the issue-28759 branch 5 times, most recently from 6c51305 to 520a6c7 Compare March 12, 2024 18:39

akarsh-jain-790 marked this pull request as ready for review March 12, 2024 19:05

akarsh-jain-790 force-pushed the issue-28759 branch from 520a6c7 to 6b855ed Compare March 12, 2024 19:19

timabbott added the maintainer review PR is ready for review by Zulip maintainers. label Mar 14, 2024

akarsh-jain-790 force-pushed the issue-28759 branch 3 times, most recently from f41b23d to c9bf798 Compare March 16, 2024 20:03