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Roundcube Themes Gone?

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65 comments

  • Benito

    Eois MacRae 

    No, the image I shared is from the Larry theme, which is no longer in the cPanel Roundcube.

    What I meant is that it is not strictly necessary for them to put the Larry theme back if they consider it unsafe, if they let us put other themes without an update breaking it, it would be a good option. If we want to put Larry even if it does not have updates, it would be our problem.

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  • Clay

    @cPRex Adding my 2 cents to this thread.  Our hosting provider just updated the cPanel version which also updated the RoundCube version.  I would also like to add that the new user interface in RoundCube is absolutely terrible.

    I'm not advocating for the return of the an old theme but rather have "settings" to remove the large preview pane and offer the screen wide list of emails with individual columns.  I am an older user but NOT afraid of change.  I have dedicated a lifelong career is cutting edge tech in engineering and systems architecture.  No disrespect, however I feel like the designer(s) of the new UI were looking to solve a very narrow view of tasks without taking into account the big picture or all user experiences. They solved a problem that really didn't exist.  Some key problems in the new UX are:

    • Need a way to remove the preview pane.  Displaying unwanted emails such as spam and message receipt popups as users work through and delete daily emails is cumbersome.
    • Provide a "list" view of emails with individual columns. This allows easy sorting of individual columns such as size to make it easy to identify emails with large attachments.  Currently having to mouse over to see email size is not a good process.
    • The new email list with mixed font sizes and boldness is not ideal for visual representation.  As users and eyes get older, this type of clutter is very intrusive to proper visual intake.  Younger eyes may not have issues, but older eyes naturally degrade and have trouble visually taking this in.
    • The new UX makes it nearly impossible to visually determine what emails are new verses read.  The ever so slight font boldness is very difficult to pick up.
    • The "Send" button in th lower left corner...really?  Not sure who thought this was a wise idea but a big no no in the world of work flows.

    Again, I'm not trying to come off as a complainer and do like progress.  However, progress needs to be an actual step forward for the big picture and not a narrow visioned perceived problem.  

    2
  • mtindor

    https://docs.cpanel.net/release-notes/120-release-notes/

    Removed the Larry Roundcube theme

    In cPanel & WHM version 120, we removed the Larry theme from Roundcube. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan documentation.

    1
  • mhx

    The layout is the problem.  You cant remove the email preview window at all.  Your stuck with 3 sections.  You fix that me and my clients I think would be happy.  We miss the full screen Inbox list.  Its much preferred to see emails and more of a preview of the email in a giant list.  Gmail does this well in what they call COMPACT mode.  This is basically how LARRY theme worked.

    The only pro to this theme is it works on mobile way better.

    1
  • Zekeman

    Mhx, totally hit this on the head. I really like that style implemented back. This new theme is just a mess and sloppy IMHO.

    1
  • juan manuel

    loosing clients because of this, they do not like this theme, they just move away, they do not like to be push to something they do not want plain and simple, thank you for that cpanel.

    1
  • Zekeman

    @cPRex, I appreciate the response. Unfortunately customers do not like change and if they don't have to accept it, at least have some level of customization, which the only theme now we are stuck with has none that is useful.

    1
  • mhx

    With the feedback we are getting in tickets, our older age clients don't like that much change, especially since its email.  So this is view the dev should be taking into consideration too.  Simple is best.

    I looked at https://roundcubeplus.com/skins, but nothing there I tested was worth adding.  Plus I would rather not have a third party theme that CPANEL doesn't manage for security issues as the default webmail skin.

     

    Thanks everyone who is also chiming in to this thread.

    Thanks CPPex for sharing this with the cpanel devs!

    1
  • Donley Davidson

    Well it may be silly, but perhaps Cpanel doesn't manage 1200 users that are over the age of 65 and are all pissed off because they mail interface "changed".  They simply don't understand "progress" well.. progress for Cpanel.. they only understand what they've used for 10 years and now it is unusable for them.  So now here we are, migrating a ton of users to our other Icewarp mail server because nobody likes the cpanel roundcube interface.  I'm getting calls, not daily, but hourly by people on my service that are irritated by the sudden change that "we" made and demanding we make a change back, that apparently we can't make. Seems like it'd be simple to allow the option for the old skin for people to choose.. I get it that you want security upgrades.. but do you have to make it look like it was made for Windows "8"?  I use the interface myself as well and it's simply annoying and cumbersome to use.  So here we go again.. migrating back to Icewarp.. 

    1
  • dexus

    I really do not see any reason to remove that theme. Please cPanel revert this.

     

    1
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Benito - I'd encourage you to leave some feedback through our features site at features.cpanel.net.  We're tracking all that feedback internally as I also manage that area, so I'll be sure to see it!

    1
  • Benito

    Hi Rex, I'll do it.

    In reality, my customers didn't ask me for the old RoundCube theme, they just told me that they want the reading panel below the email list and not on the side.

    1
  • Eois MacRae

    Yes, Larry was usable. 

    Where is it written that because something's changed it continues to be usable?

    If people are having usage issues with something's use, it is unusable.

    This message thread indicates several people are having usage issues.

    Several people in this thread indicate they represent several more others who are not on this thread who also have usage issues.

    Is it cPanel's position to leave people unsatisfied and wanting? Doing so is excellent incentive for people to migrate to another platform, probably one they're already familiar with, perhaps one they use intermittantly but are none-the-less comfortable using.

    I see above someone gives instructions for how to reinstate Larry. I want to know how much they charge to do so.

    In lieu of that, I'll make some time to do it myself.

    That's how much I want something I know how to use back so I can use it.

    So stating to a dissatisfied user(s) "I get that there is a change, but besides change itself, is there an actual problem with the interface you're having that Larry solved?" is the equivalent of telling those user(s) "Hey, get use to the new interface. It's all we're going to do for you." which is equivalent of telling them to move on, a "my way or the highway" option, which brings us back to changing how to operate a car. I can't drive my vehicle your way, hence can't see to my necessities, hence my first stop on the highway will be to find a car I can drive.

    1
  • Eois MacRae

    Benito Thanks. Sorry for my confusion. Yes, I'm with you on this.

    1
  • Jerry Drescher

    I agree with a lot of the comments. I find the new design of RoundCube to be difficult to work with. My customers are also asking for a better solution. I think the easiest fix would be to give the ability to close the "preview pane" on the right and stretch the center message area across the whole screen. The other option would be move the preview pane below the messages and allow the emails to stretch across the whole screen. The major problem is the message area is too small (left to right width makes it hard to get a feel for what the email is). Does anybody know if I can install a different webmail program on cpanel? I might just be time to look for other software to access the mail. I can't believe the RoundCube developers didn't notice how bad the layout is and give some options. This is not 1990, there are lots of ways to fix this issue with current technology. The line about Larry being a security risk is laughable. Yeah, maybe it was but you could have developed a layout that looks like it using the current backend.

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  • Eois MacRae

    Yes, I understood it and could navigate without hesitation.

    How many existing larry users contacted you with "Dear God, please get rid of larry!"?

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  • mhx

    Is there a way to get the old larry theme back?

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    There is not a cPanel-supported way to get that restored, no.

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  • CM2020

    I had chosen Larry theme a while back because the default theme, now apparently the only option, I found visually confusing and a lot of work to deal with. This is very, very disappointing, and will cost me a lot in terms of working time to figure out.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Can you let me know what specifically you like better about Larry vs the default theme so I can give this feedback to our team?

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  • CM2020

    Specifically, having the Sender and Subject in their own distinct columns was a great benefit. I've looked in the settings, but I wasn't able to find this in any option set.

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  • mhx

    Two more issues:

    1. Light mode is better than Dark mode.  The contrast in dark mode in the inbox list is just poor on the eyes.

    2. When your in the Inbox and your just using the arrow keys to up/down and not even opening the email it marks it as "READ".  This is not normal webmail function.  There is no way to disable this in settings that I can find either.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Thanks so much!  I've sent this to our email team so they are aware of the pain points.

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  • Zekeman

    You're right and I doubt they will fix this.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Unfortunately this one was out of our hands as development of Larry had stopped sometime in 2022, so the theme was no longer secure.

    juan manuel - do you have specifics about what the users don't like?  It seems a bit silly to move services because someone doesn't like the layout of a webmail client.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Zekeman- unfortunately it's not something we're able to fix without making our own custom theme.

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  • juan manuel

    well for cpanel maybe the clients are stupid or do silly things, but in the end they are the ones that pay.

    in this case they just use webmail (larry theme -> they list the messages and open in new windows the messages they want to read, also in the list of messages they want to see the email address of the sender not silly or fake names).

    they never use or will not use any email desktop client in ms or linux, just k9 (mobile) and webmail, each account with 20 or 30 gb of messages.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Sorry for using the word "silly" - I definitely could have phrased that better.  It just seems odd that a client would be willing to go through the hassle of migrating their data to a non-cPanel system (as that would currently be required to get a different webmail interface), updating their DNS, and dealing with potential downtime, because of the webmail interface.

    I get that people are resistant to change though for sure!

    If you have specific feedback on what they liked so much about Larry that is no longer available I'd like to hear it.

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  • juan manuel

    hello, well with larry:

    - you had the option to select columns, and with the colums see the email address of the sender, not just the name.

    - with the columns you can see the size of the message, now you have to hover the message to see the size, stupid thing but if you have thousands of messages, the size column enabled save you time.

    - if you have thousands of messages is easy to quickly check them in a large (width and height) plain list. the small space now available that list the messages is not friendly.

    about this exclusive theme:

    - not every one have to like the design just because ms or others push that type of gui, even they offer options to change that.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Thanks for the feedback!  I've sent this over to our email team.

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