Add alternative Folder-like system

Also unsure about autocomplete vs. filter widget.

I think automatic "inbox" tag makes sense, then replace it when doing a Gmail style move.

Also add separate permissions for both systems to allow each site administrator to chose which system he wants to enable.. both, one or none (none would basically allow to still use the filter widget for search and so on, but without tags, folders whatever.. afaik we already had feature requests for that...)

Realistically, we can't have both tagging and folder metaphor at the same time - both metaphors will show the same data in different ways.

Now since the tags will show as both folders and tags, what if you delete the "tag" but not the corresponding "folder"? the system will not know how to differentiate between the two.

The widget should be an option so that in the case of there not being too many tags, both the tagging view and the folder view can use the autocomplete or the select boxes/dropdown.

I am offering €200 euros to the brave guy or girl who creates a folder-like system for managing private messages.

The bounty also applies to the issues #509228: Privatemsg Roadmap and Direction Issue (€200 bounty), whoever does it first wins.

Note that #442102: Replace tag checkboxes with autocomplete textfield needs to be commited first to start on this one.

To anyone that wishes to pick up on this bounty: There are a number of very important technical details to keep in mind and adhere to when creating this folder-like emulation. This feature is very much watend but it is important its done correctly. Please come speak with me on our irc channel on irc.freenode.net in room #drupal-games. I or other people involved with this project maintenance will be able to consult you on technical details so you may better construct your battle plan and we are best reachable on IRC.

Something linked to this that you may want to merge into the same patch: #444264: Add tagging actions to message listing

tagging

a comment to set some expectations: Considering that are we working on UX in this patch, i think it would be great to see both tag-like system and folder-like system reach feature-complete state.

This is a tall order to ask in a single patch but i think we should give it a go.

I think both should be feature-complete with good UX with an admin option making one of the methods default as well as user facing option to chose adefault for themselves (similar to how we do pm email notify).

We can study much from how gmail handle's their tags/folders, though i would not clasify gmail's method as the one we must implement... it just gives us some ideas.

Folders are like tags whereas any message may have only 1 tag at any given time... Should we consider using privatemsg_quota patch to offer a 'one tag per message' limit? considering that quota patch is all about setting limits...

This is a tall order to ask in a single patch but i think we should give it a go.

Maybe we could split it into two patches, but just leave the issue open in the meantime? Remember how hard it was to review berdir's list view as a form patch, I don't want to go through that again! :)

Should we consider using privatemsg_quota patch to offer a 'one tag per message' limit?

Did you mean one tag per thread?

It would be cool if the tagging/foldering options were just a bunch of preset variables for privatemsg_quota. Where admins could either select a preset or tweak the privatemsg_quota settings, for a more granular approach. A bit like offering an advanced and easy view of the settings.

For example: privatemsg_quota's limit of one message per-thread, and one tag per message could provide a 'classic' style of Privatemsg management. Similar to vBulletin's.

This is just a thought though, may not even be feasible.

Overall, I do not think that this is undoable, or even too hard for someone who is actually willing to do it.

There is one caveat though: There has to be a choice made between either tags or folders. You cannot be somewhere in the middle as in the backend folders and tags are the same.

In the UI the main difference is that a message conversation cannot be in more than one folder, and that has an impact on the tagging - in the message view conversation, instead of a autocomplete as we have for tagging, it should be replaced with a drop down.

On the thread listings page with the other issue where threads can be tagged, in the case of folders, it would not be simple adding a tag, but also removing previous tags to turning it into a "move to" situation.