docs/features.md

[En español](features.es.md) • [Русский](features.ru.md)

# Features
The TW Power Tools extension offers the following features/options:

[TOC]

## Infinite scroll
### Thread lists
> **Option name:** _Enable infinite scrolling in thread lists_.

Enables infinite scroll in thread lists in TW. This feature has already been
added to the Community Console by Google.

### Inside threads
> **Option names:** _Automatically load batches of messages inside threads when
scrolling down_, _Automatically load all messages at once inside threads when
scrolling down_.

Enables infinite scroll inside threads, both in TW and the Community Console.
Both options are mutually exclusive, and depending on which one you choose, the
feature will behave differently:

- **Load batches of messages**: when scrolling to the bottom, some more messages
will be loaded. If you scroll to the bottom again, more messages will be loaded,
and so on.
- **Load all messages at once**: when scrolling to the bottom, all the remaining
messages will be loaded at once.

## Additional enhancements
### Community Console toolbar
> **Option name:** _Fix the toolbar in thread lists in the Community Console_.

Fixes the toolbar of thread lists in the Community Console so it doesn't
disappear when scrolling down.

![GIF showing the feature](resources/fix_toolbar.gif)

### Redirect to the Community Console
> **Option name:** _Redirect all threads opened in TW to the Community Console_.

This feature is useful if you want the threads you open from the email
notification link directly in the Community Console.

### Profile history
> **Option name:** _Show a "previous posts" link in user profiles_.

Both in TW and the Community Console, show 2 links in user profiles, which link
to the list of threads that the user has created/replied to in the current
forum, and in all the forums.

![Image showing the links](resources/previous_posts.jpg)

### Draft messages
> **Option name:** _Activate the `enableLoadingDraftMessages` Community Console
flag_.

Enables a Community Console flag which, when opening the reply dialog in a
thread in the Community Console, if a draft message was saved in the Google
servers, it is loaded in the editor.

Draft messages are saved regularly into Google Servers **even if the flag is not
enabled**, so this flag can help you recover your work from a crash, for
example.

### Contrast between read/unread threads
> **Option name:** _Increase contrast between read and unread threads in the
Community Console_.

In thread lists in the Community Console, the backgrounds for read and unread
threads are very similar. This option increases this contrast.

### Sticky drawer headers
> **Option name_** _Make the headers in the Community Console sidebar stick at
the top_.

![GIF showing the feature](resources/sticky_headers.gif)

### Dark mode
> **Option name:** _Enable the dark theme in the Community Console_.

This setting lets you load a custom-built dark theme for the Community Console.
In the options page there is a selector which lets you choose how the dark theme
gets enabled:

- **Switch in the Community Console**: a button appears at the top of the
Community Console, which lets you switch between the light and dark themes.
- **OS dark mode settings**: when you enable the OS wide dark mode setting (not
available in all Operating Systems), the dark theme is enabled in the Community
Console. Note that after you change the OS setting, you should reload the
Community Console in order to load the corresponding theme.

### Hide the Community Console drawer
> **Option name:** _Always hide the drawer (left column) in the Community
Console_.

When opening the Community Console, the sidebar which shows the forums, filters,
etc. will be hidden/closed by default. Useful if your screen is small.

### Drag and drop bookmarks to the text editor (Chrome-only)
> **Option name:** _Allow to drag and drop bookmarks to the Community Console
text editor_.

In Chrome, when drag and dropping bookmarks or Omnibox links to the Community
Console rich text editor, the bookmark/link title gets replaced by the URL.
This option reverses this so the text gets preserved.

![Demo of the feature](resources/drag_and_drop_fix.gif)

### Batch lock
> **Option name:** _Add the option to lock multiple threads from the Community
Console thread list_.

![GIF showing how the feature works](resources/batch_lock.gif)

### More prominent announcements dot
> **Option name:** _Show the announcements notification dot more prominently in
the Community Console_.

When this option is enabled, the "Alpha" banner in the upper-left corner of the
Community Console is removed, and the notification dot which appears in the
hamburger menu when there's a new announcement is enlarged and animated so you
don't miss it.

![GIF showing the improved notification dot](resources/announcement_dot.gif)

### Reposition the expand thread button
> **Option name:** _Place the "expand thread" button all the way to the left in
the Community Console thread lists_.

![Picture showing the feature](resources/reposition_expand_thread.jpg)

### Go back to the old profile view
> **Option name:** _Force disable the `SMEI_UNIFIED_PROFILES` experiment in the
Community Console._

This option disables the `SMEI_UNIFIED_PROFILES` experiment, which when enabled
introduces a redesign of the profile view which also unifies all forum profiles
into a single one.

This means that independently of whether your account is part of this
experiment, when enabling this option the experiment will be forced disabled
and you'll continue to see the old/regular profile view, which shows user
profiles in a per-forum basis.

Note that this only applies to the Community Console.

### Automatically mark threads as read (temporary option)
> **Option name:** _Each time you open a thread in the Community Console,
automatically send a request to mark it as read. This is a temporary option used
to work around
[this bug](https://support.google.com/s/community/forum/51488989/thread/114559215)._

*** promo
**Note:** When this issue is fixed by Google, an update to the extension will
remove this option and its underlying functionality.
***

Currently there's an issue in the Community Console: when opening threads, they
are not being marked as read automatically. This is in the process of being
fixed by Google, but until the fix is out, this option serves as a workaround.

When this option is enabled, each time you open a thread in the Community
Console, the following will happen:

1. The extension will send an authenticated request to the API to get the
contents of the thread being viewed. This is used to retrieve the ID of the last
message.
2. The extension will send an authenticated request to the API to change the
read status of the thread. In order to mark a thread as read, the API requires
the caller to pass the forum ID, thread ID, and the ID of the last message which
has loaded, and this last value is retrieved from the previous call to the API.

*** promo
**Note:** Due to the nature of the API, the first request will also load many
unnecessary details such as the contents of the first messages. This means that
this call is not very efficient. For this reason, I recommend turning this
feature off once we are notified that the issue has been fixed by Google, so we
don't put extra load on Google servers.
***

## Indicator dot
> **Option names:** _Show whether the OP has participated in other threads_,
_Show the number of questions and replies written by the OP within the last `n`
months next to their username_.

This section includes options which are useful to determine whether an OP is a
newcomer or has posted in the forums before. A full description of what each
option does can be found at [docs/op\_indicator.md](op_indicator.md).

These are the possible combinations of both options:

- 1st option enabled, 2nd option disabled.

![Picture showing a colored dot next to the username](resources/op_indicator_1.gif)

- 1st option disabled, 2nd option enabled.

![Picture showing a monochrome badge](resources/op_indicator_2.gif)

- Both options enabled.

![Picture showing a colored badge](resources/op_indicator_3.gif)