19437 - Move, delete, and edit bookmarks inline (in menu)

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 50504

(SeaMonkey :: Bookmarks & History, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

OK, I've heard this idea kicking around a bit, and I think German said it would
be done, but I don't know of another report on it specifically, so I've put this
here for tracking.

Basically, you should be able to edit the bookmarks menu without going to "edit
bookmarks".  So you could right click on a bookmark and get a context menu to
allow you to remove it (or edit it for that matter).  I also think right drag is
the best way to allow moving, since Win98 uses left drag for it's start menu and
I find it very annoying.

Comment 1

[Sean Richardson]

There is one justification for this that really matters: there are all
too many sites out there that have all of their documents titled with
the same title, or with something like "Welcome to Company XYZ - meaningful
part of title," and then there are text/plain and other files that won't have a
title at all unless given one. It would be so very handy to be able to do that
immediately without having to go to the full edit Bookmarks UI first.

Hmm. This one has cross-platform implications. With WinNT, in Nav 4.7 one can
left click once on a bookmarks folder and it stays open until a click is made
elsewhere in the UI or outside the UI. Folders can be opened one click at a
time. IIRC, on a Mac, the mouse button must be held down throughout, and
the pointer dragged through an accurate path until the final selection is made
(from the Apple menu, for instance).

The net effect is that on a Mac the only way to make this work would be to
use a keyboard modifier along with the (only) mouse button from the start
to get to the final bookmark, at which point the context menu would open.

For consistency, it would be best if the folder tree could be opened using only
the right mouse button from the beginning on other platforms as well.

If this is done, it should work from the "Bookmarks" menu, from the "Bookmarks"
toolbar drop-down, from any part of the "Personal Toolbar Folder," from
the "Bookmarks" tab of the sidebar, and anywhere else they may appear equally,
for consistency.

Personally, I'd keep this as simple as possible. Rather than showing the
complete context menu that appears in Communicator 4.7 when right-clicking
on an entry in the Bookmarks window, I'd reduce it to:


      +------------------------+
      | Open in New Window     |
      | Open Link in Composer  |
      +------------------------+
      | Edit Bookmarks...      |
      +------------------------+
      | Cut                    |
      | Copy                   |
      | Copy Link Location     |
      | (Paste)                |
      | Delete Bookmark        |
      | Create Shortcut        |
      | Make Alias             |
      +------------------------+
      | Bookmark Properties... |
      +------------------------+

...leaving out "New Bookmark", "New Folder" and "New Seperator" entirely
   and replacing them with "Edit Bookmarks" which would bring up that UI.
   That way, if the user navigates the bookmark folders and then realizes
   that something more involved may be needed, it would be possible to jump
   directly to the UI for that.

If "Edit bookmarks" were added to the context menu, this could substitute
for drag and drop of bookmarks in the main UI, if that is as problematic and
difficult to handle in the general case as I suspect it could be, at least for
the Mac - especially if the tree was opened to the correct point when the
Bookmarks window appeared.

I heartily second Matty's proposal - if this existed in Communicator, I'd
be using it every day!

Comment 2

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

Not really worried about the Mac, since this is just shortcut access ...

This is what I think should be on the menu

Open Bookmark
Open Bookmark In New Window
Open Link In Composer
Delete
Rename
Add Current Page Above This
Bookmark Properties...

Maybe put the others as well, but I don't know whether it needs to be complex.

Comment 3

[Sean Richardson]

Agree that this would be better kept simple and focussed.

Matty's list of items for the context menu looks good to me.
All of his additions look good, and the menu looks focussed
that way. "Rename" in particular - 95% of the time this is all
that gets changed at the Bookmark Properties dialog - and the
dialog for "Rename" could always have a button to go there for the
other 5% of the time.

I'd still put "Edit Bookmarks..." on the list, though.

Comment 4

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

If it stays as just a bookmarks menu then yeah, but if it is like 4.x it will
already be on the main menu.

Comment 5

[Eugene Savitsky]

*** Bug 19475 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Jesse Ruderman]

IMO the context menu for a bookmark folder should include "new folder", but the 
menu for a bookmark shouldn't.

Comment 7

[:deanis74]

But then how would you say "Make a new folder below this bookmark" ?

Comment 8

[Jesse Ruderman]

I think most people will want to keep their bookmarks sorted alphabetically 
with folders first, or by date with folders first.

More useful than "make a new folder below this one" would be "make a new folder 
and toss this bookmark into it", although that's a little wordy for a context 
menu.

Comment 9

[Brian Bintz]

Why not simplify the problem of needing to rename bookmarks by making a popup
come up when you add a bookmark where you can rename the link if necessary and
select the folder to put it into. The way netscape does it now with no
confirmation that the bookmark has been added is confusing to new users. Also
having a "New Bookmark" or "New Folder" added is going to be confusing without a
confirmation because they'll be unsure of whether it was added and have to look
around for it in order to change the name. Could you have something like a link
bar at the top of bookmark managing where you could type in a url or
bookmark/folder name to add at selected location. It'd be nice too if you don't
have to remember the name of the pg if you know the url have it auto lookup the
name.

Comment 10

[Sean Richardson]

[e-mail], what you suggest is really a distinct Request for 
Enhancement, unrelated to creating a context menu for the bookmarks menu
items. Having occasionally used IE, where there is always a confirm/edit
dialog after adding to Favorites, I find it annoying to need another step
each time. I'd probably start hitting [Enter] without looking since most
sites I bookmark don't *need* their titles adjusted, and then need to go
back and fix the title in those cases where it does need attention. To
put it another way, what is proposed here would still get used even if
there was a facility to edit the title while filing the bookmark -- especially
if the dialog to do so was mandatory.

There is already bug 19922, "RFE: a [non-mandatory] way to add/edit page title 
*while* filing bookmark"; if you wish to propose that such a dialog be made
mandatory, please file a new RFE. Your other ideas should also be filed in
distinct RFEs if you wish them to be considered. 

Comment 11

[don]

Move to "Future" milestone.

Comment 12

[Stefan Vassall]

*** Bug 38749 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

*** Bug 50502 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Just for the record: None of what Sean said about Mac menus on 1999-11-23 is true 
for any version of Mac OS which Mozilla supports. As of Mac OS 8.0, menus do not 
require a single drag; and in no version of Mac OS can menu items have their own 
context menus. I'm not sure if it's even possible in XPToolkit, come to that.

Comment 15

[Viswanath Ramachandran]

Since Don has left, Vishy is taking his bugs in bulk, pending reassignment.
thanks,
	Vishy

Comment 16

[Paul Chen]

nav triage team:

As mpt says, context menu for a menu item is not possible on the mac 
(well, not without lots of OS hacking). Not doing this for beta1, though we are 
trying to fix bookmarks management for beta1 in other ways.

Comment 17

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> context menu for a menu item is not possible on the mac

no reason not to do it on other platforms.

Comment 18

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

over to bookmarks...

Comment 19

[mozilla]

How about drag and drop instead of (or as well as) context menus?  Drag a
bookmark onto the trash to delete, drag it around the menus to put it elsewhere.
 One possibility is a "customize" state or the like where *all* menu items are
movable, deletable, etc., and when in that state a drag'n'drop source with
additional/previously deleted menu items would likewise be available for adding
to the interface.  (Likewise buttons could be editable, draggable, etc. in this
mode.)  By making it a separate mode, one could implement the menus via
simulation, so OS restrictions on menu handling would be irrelevant.  Tricky,
though.

Comment 20

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Andrewb, see the blocking bugs.

Comment 21

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 80290 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 22

[Eugene Savitsky]

Now we can edit bookmarks/folders an the personal toolbar (right click opens a
menu), but only which are on the toolbar itself. If the bookmark is inside a
folder we still cannot edit it/move it location itside the folder etc.

Comment 23

[Chris Lyon]

*** Bug 86626 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 24

[Alfonso Martinez]

*** Bug 93803 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 25

[Blake Ross]

--> me

Comment 26

[C. Hodsdon]

*** Bug 114962 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 27

[Max Gilead]

I think it's similar RFE so I won't submit a new bug for it.

The problem is that when I bookmark a local directory a folder is created in
Bookmarks. It is fine and helps navigating local directories a lot except the
fact that this folder isn't updated when disk directory changes. However it gets
updated when Mozilla is restarted.

It is very important that there would be a 'Refresh folder' option in the pop-up
menu for a bookmark/folder.

And my 2c: I'd like plain popup menus, not D&D or something. Menu containing:
      +------------------------+
      | Open in New Window     |
      | Open in New Tab        | <- this is missing from toolbar popup
      | Refresh Folder         |
      +------------------------+
      | Rename Bookmark        |
      | Delete Bookmark        |
      | Bookmark Properties... |
      +------------------------+

would suffice IMHO. All other things can be done from within bookmark editor .

And no, please don't add another window appearing each time a bookmark is
created. It was very annoying in IE.

Max

Comment 28

[Chris Lyon]

*** Bug 120242 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 29

[Blake Ross]

-> default owner

Comment 30

[CoL]

From personal toolbar, opened the folder in New Window, the bookmarks can not be
deleted. And the move won't delete it too, it just makes a new copy. But the
'copy' of a bookmark, copy and paste somewhere in subdir or just there, could be
deleted. 

Comment 31

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

*** Bug 140595 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 32

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 143544 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 33

[Dimitrios]

*** Bug 155653 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 34

[shadytrees]

Here's my version of a context menu which is a shortened version IE's (Sort By
Name is a feature which I really want to see in Mozilla):
      +---------------------+
      | Open                |
      | Open in Composer    | 
      | Open in New Tab     |
      | Open in New Windows |
      +---------------------+
      | Copy                |
      | Copy Link Location  |
      | Cut                 |
      +---------------------+      
      | Delete              |
      | Rename              |
      +---------------------+
      | Properties          |
      | Sort By Name        | <----------- Please include this!
      +---------------------+

Comment 35

[Tarmo Järvalt]

IMHO "Sort By Name" should be before "Properties" like in MSIE and accelerator
should be "Sort &By Name".

Comment 36

[shadytrees]

I thought that Properties would be used more often than Sort By Name.

Comment 37

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

As long as nobody shows a sign of having interest to fix this bug, it makes no
sense to discuss about the menu structure.

Comment 38

[Alfonso Martinez]

*** Bug 163377 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 39

[andrea m]

I think this is an important useability bug to be fixed asap

Comment 40

[Peter Lairo]

Dupes?  Depency?
bug 176880 (No right-click menu in personal toolbar folders.)
bug 50504  (Context menu for bookmarks menus)

Comment 41

[André Dahlqvist]

*** Bug 173830 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 42

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** Bug 182412 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 43

[flii (cj)]

i'm speaking from a phoenix-user's standpoint, so if my comments exclude a few
things, it's because i've never used, for example, composer, and i don't know
anything about it.

i agree that right-clicking on a favorite link/folder in the bookmarks menu
should produce something similar to hao lian's suggestion.  i would put sort by
name back on top of properties, because typically, all property options are at
the bottom (at least in windows) and people expect to see it there.  also,
copying the link should copy the link location anyway, so i don't see a need for
a separate option for that.  my suggested right-click options would then be:

      +---------------------+
      | Open                |
      | Open in New Tab     |
      | Open in New Window  |
      +---------------------+
      | Copy                |
      | Cut                 |
      +---------------------+
      | Delete              |
      | Rename              |
      +---------------------+
      | Sort By Name        |
      | Properties          |
      +---------------------+

sort by name should sort 1 folder by name and then allow you to change the order
yourself.  the current sort-by-name feature in the bookmark manager wants to
sort your entire bookmarks and not allow you to change the order of them at all.
 being able to have a folder sorted alphabetically and then put my commonly used
links on the top is a big usability feature i would love to have back.

same with renaming the link.  i think it's very taxing to open up the bookmark
manager to change the name of a link that is several folders down and that i had
just had my mouse over 2 seconds ago and could have just right-clicked.

i see that the date on this bug is 1999, which is, quite literally, depressing.
 not being able to right click on bookmark links was one of the main reasons i
held off switching from ie for so long.  it's also one of the main reasons i
might go back.

Comment 44

[Robert Hinn]

Regarding the "Properties" menu entry: it makes sense putting it at the bottom,
*because* it is more often used than "Sort...". Things at the beginning and the
end of a menu are much more easily detected and clicked than in the middle (from
my opinion).

Regarding Drag & Drop: If you implement Drag & Drop features to customize
favorites or anything else, *please* provide an option (in a menu or in the
property sheets), where you can switch this on and off. When using the browser,
I don't want to accidently drag a bookmark out of the list and have it disappear
or move, when I just wanted to click (activate) it. Many beginners often have
trouble clicking while keeping the mouse steady... Providing an option to switch
Drag & Drop on or off (a bit like that new option in InternetExplorer, where you
can fix the "Links" toolbar) would thus make everyone happy.

Comment 45

[:deanis74]

No options.  Internet Explorer doesn't have an option to switch off dragging in
the Favorites menu and I haven't heard any large complaints.

Try this functionality in Phoenix, where it's been implemented for a little
while now, and you'll find that it's not that obtrusive.

Comment 46

[Keith Lea]

I've always wished it was an option in IE. :/ I think maybe it should only be
activated if I press Ctrl.

Comment 47

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 197412 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 48

[shadytrees]

OK, Phoenix now supports this. I'm guessing it is much more complicated to
implement this in Mozilla than it is in Phoenix if this bug has been open for
almost four years now.

Comment 49

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 208836 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 50

[Greg]

Attachment: patch for version 1.5b

To add the context menu, some small changes are needed to navigatorOverlay.xul
But that introduces the problem seen in bug 210910, so bookmarksMenu.js also
needs to change.

For developers the patch should add a context menu to the bookmarks menu.

For non developers, this is how to make the change to an installed
Mozilla(v1.5b)

1. jar -xvf (or unzip) chrome/comm.jar

2. Edit content/navigator/navigatorOverlay.xul

3. Change this line
      <menupopup
onpopupshowing="updateGroupmarkMenuitem('bookmarks_groupmark');">
To
      <menupopup context="bookmarks-context-menu"
onpopupshowing="updateGroupmarkMenuitem('bookmarks_groupmark');">

4. Add context="" to each of the four menu items just below this, ie change
	<menuitem key="addBookmarkKb"	observes="Browser:AddBookmark"/>
	<menuitem key="addBookmarkAsKb" observes="Browser:AddBookmarkAs"/>
	<menuitem id="bookmarks_groupmark" observes="Browser:AddGroupmarkAs"/>
	<menuitem key="manBookmarkKb"	observes="Browser:ManageBookmark"/>
To
	<menuitem key="addBookmarkKb"	observes="Browser:AddBookmark"
context=""/>
	<menuitem key="addBookmarkAsKb" observes="Browser:AddBookmarkAs"
context=""/>
	<menuitem id="bookmarks_groupmark" observes="Browser:AddGroupmarkAs"
context=""/>
	<menuitem key="manBookmarkKb"	observes="Browser:ManageBookmark"
context=""/>

5. Find the  <!-- bookmarks template -->  section, and look for the line

	<rule iscontainer="true">

Inside this rule there is a "menupopup" node, inside that there is a "menu"
node, inside that there is an empty "menupopup" node, i.e.

	<menupopup />

Change this to be

	<menupopup context="bookmarks-context-menu"/>

6. Edit content/communicator/bookmarks/bookmarksMenu.js

Add a new function (closeAllBookmarks) and call it at the end of
destroyContextMenu(), i.e.

  destroyContextMenu: function (aEvent)
  {
    if (content)
      content.focus()
    BookmarksMenuDNDObserver.onDragRemoveFeedBack(document.popupNode); //
needed on cancel
    aEvent.target.removeEventListener("mousemove",
BookmarksMenuController.onMouseMove, false)
   
BookmarksMenu.closeAllBookmarks(document.getElementById("BookmarksMenu").firstChild);

  },

  /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

  // Ensure all bookmark popups are closed
  closeAllBookmarks: function (item)
  {
    while (item)
    {
      BookmarksMenu.closeAllBookmarks(item.firstChild);
      if (item.localName == "menupopup")
	item.hidePopup();
      item = item.nextSibling;
    }
  },

7. jar -cv0f (or zip) the content directory back into chrome/comm.jar

Comment 51

[Stefan Borggraefe]

Greg: I have applied your patch and don't get any context menu on the
Bookmarks-menu.

Comment 52

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

Mass reassign of my non-Firefox bugs to [e-mail]

Comment 53

[Nigel López]

I vote for this bug, it is already working in FireFox 0.9

Comment 54

[Federico Tello Gentile]

Candidate for closing with wontfix, since no new features will appear on seamonkey?

Comment 55

[Adam Hauner]

Federico: See http://wiki.mozilla.org/SeaMonkey:Home_Page and please stop
spamming bugs this way.
-> default owner

Comment 56

[Worcester12345]

Not sure if it applies here, but in today's nightly Firefox and the 1.0.2, it
can't delete bookmarks at all. Neither from the side panel nor from the manage
bookmarks area.

Comment 57

[Chris Thomas (CTho) [formerly [e-mail] [e-mail]]]

As far as I can tell, the "move" part of this works.  Gavin Sharp told me you can even drag folders if you hold the shift key.

Comment 58

[Ray Booysen]

Reassigning as per Bug #32644

Comment 59

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Stefan's comment #51:
> Greg: I have applied your patch and don't get any context menu on the
> Bookmarks-menu.

See also Bug 50504 comment 108

Comment 60

[James B. Higgs]

(In reply to comment #57)
> As far as I can tell, the "move" part of this works.  Gavin Sharp told me you
> can even drag folders if you hold the shift key.
> 

(Sigh!) Now if we could just drag folders *without* holding down the shift key,
we'd be getting somewhere.

Jim H. (aka CuriousJ)

Comment 61

[Ian Neal]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 50504 ***

Comment 62

[Chris Thomas (CTho) [formerly [e-mail] [e-mail]]]

Verified.  The reasonable scope of this bug is now working.