Bug 228318

Summary: gnome filepicker practically unusable
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE 11.0 Reporter: Matthias Hopf <mhopf>
Component: GNOMEAssignee: Federico Mena Quintero <federico>
Status: RESOLVED INVALID QA Contact: E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity: Major    
Priority: P5 - None CC: eich, kontakt
Version: Alpha 2   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: Other   
OS: openSUSE 10.2   
Whiteboard:
Found By: Other Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---
Bug Depends on:    
Bug Blocks: 338003, 355503    

Description Matthias Hopf 2006-12-13 17:15:10 UTC 
I only noticed recently that the gnome filepicker changed, because the mechanism for selecting the firefox internal filechooser has changed with 2.0 (see bug #228252).

Now the new dialog is a usability nightmare. One example is that in the open dialog you have to explicitly enable the textarea in order to be able to just type in a file name. The buttons in the top of the screen representing the different path elements do not look like they represent a path, but rather a set of actions.

Even worse is the save dialog. It doesn't even show you the path where something is saved by default, let alone choose it! You have to *explicitly* enable the directory chooser (Browse for other folders) - but why? Is it really so unusual to save something outside the current directory? And why can't I select the save folder from the dropdown menu any longer if I open up the directory chooser? What does the icon next to the path (<) actually do?

Other than that I have my typical complaints like the dialog is wasting lots of space, default line distance is too high for the selection box, default font too large, important information like file sizes is hidden, missing icons like for "create folder", no delete or rename functionality (at least I can't find any), but I guess this is due to the minimalistic design issue and at least consistent.
Comment 1 JP Rosevear 2006-12-15 14:24:46 UTC 
Matthias, we know there are some usability issues here, but also:

1) it follows gnome hig and spacing
2) it remembers the state of the location box
3) there is a fate feature request regarding the save dialog default layout
Comment 2 Matthias Hopf 2006-12-18 14:01:03 UTC 
Yes, I understand. It's just I wanted to point at various issues I found annoying, because nothing will change if nobody complains :-]

It's good to know that there's a fate entry. I would suggest adding this bug report to the fate entry, and/or closing this as LATER.
Comment 3 Stefan Dirsch 2007-05-12 10:28:09 UTC 
Egbert, JFYI. Since Matthias or me is in Cc of this bugreport or the reported itself, it might be interesting for you as well.
Comment 4 Federico Mena Quintero 2007-05-14 18:25:04 UTC 
This is somewhat better in 10.3.
Comment 5 Federico Mena Quintero 2007-11-08 18:17:48 UTC 
Moving to 11.0; setting the Impact:OS to openSUSE 10.2 since that where the bug was filed originally.
Comment 6 Gary Ekker 2008-03-26 18:09:57 UTC 
Changing to component GNOME. Sorry for the spam.
Comment 7 Jakub Rusinek 2008-05-29 16:29:37 UTC 
Still actuall?
Comment 8 Federico Mena Quintero 2008-05-30 17:05:56 UTC 
Not really; this has been split apart into other bugs.  I'll close it as invalid.  If you find specific issues with the file chooser, please file them as separate bugs :)
Comment 9 Jakub Rusinek 2008-05-30 18:47:42 UTC 
I'm just digging through your list of bugs, 'cause many are outdated.
I hope you appreciate my "work" :) .
Comment 10 Federico Mena Quintero 2008-05-30 22:49:12 UTC 
Oh, yes, this is very much appreciated!  I'm terrible at managing my old bugs.  Thanks for going through my list and checking for updates.

By "If you find..." I meant a comment to Matthias :)

[Matthias, I'll be in the Nuremberg office on June 7-15 --- we can discuss file chooser bugs there.]
Comment 11 Matthias Hopf 2008-06-02 15:22:29 UTC 
(In reply to comment #10 from Federico Mena Quintero)
> Oh, yes, this is very much appreciated!  I'm terrible at managing my old bugs. 
> Thanks for going through my list and checking for updates.
> 
> By "If you find..." I meant a comment to Matthias :)

Verifying the current state:

- The worst usability issues are gone (pressing return on directories jumps to that directory, etc.)
- The "Places" bookmarks look like a nice easy-to-use feature
- The path Gadgets look more like a path now as they are closer together
- The rest of my issues remains.

So it's getting better, but IMHO we're still not completely there. Would be bad if we had nothing to do anymore anyways ;)

If you want me to comment on the split out bugs, please post the bug numbers.

> [Matthias, I'll be in the Nuremberg office on June 7-15 --- we can discuss file
> chooser bugs there.]

I'd love to.
Comment 12 Federico Mena Quintero 2008-06-03 00:21:29 UTC 
(In reply to comment #11 from Matthias Hopf)
> 
> If you want me to comment on the split out bugs, please post the bug numbers.

Sure.  Bug #338003 is the tracker bug for file chooser issues.