206618 - Visual feedback when clicking "Set Default Browser" button

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Description

[Bill Mason]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030519 Mozilla Firebird/0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030519 Mozilla Firebird/0.6

When clicking "Set Default Browser" in Options, there is no visual feedback that
anything has happened.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to Tools/Options and click on "Set Default Browser".
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
The function works fine but there is nothing to indicate anything has changed.

Expected Results:  
Suggested result as in the Mozilla suite: gray out/inactivate the button (it
should also be inactive if Mozilla Firebird is already the default).

Comment 1

[Pham]

or a checkbox

Comment 2

[Pham]

or a checkbox
(like thunderbird)

Comment 3

[José Jeria]

Yes, a checkbox is more clearer in my opinion (like IE, Thunderbird, Opera). For
example if I want to undo the "Set Default Browser" I just unclick the checkbox.
Now I have no clue how to do this (dimmed or not dimmed).

Comment 4

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

taking QA contact, sorry about the bugspam

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

The checkbox is required in Thunderbird for another reason.  Setting another
browser as the default is basically done however they do it via prefs.

However, the visual feedback is good, not sure why its not in Firebird yet.

-> taking

Comment 6

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

might as well link these bugs into what I want to do, if we're going to do one
thing during the Set Default, we might as well do it all.

bug 216432 Firebird takes the MNG association even though it isn't capable of
displaying MNG
bug 216501 Ability to pick and choose file associations when setting as default
browser

Comment 7

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

the work in bug 216501 is how I'd like to fix this, otherwise I can write an
alternate patch if ben rejects the UI change

Comment 8

[Matthew van Eerde]

Sort of a stupid question re: checkbox.

Suppose (as is normal) a Windows (say) user has IE as their default browser

Then they install Firebird.

They like it so much that they want to set it as their default browser.  No
problem - they check the box.  Firebird does the necessary magic to make it
their default browser.

Suppose after a while they need to have it no longer be their default browser,
for whatever reason.  They uncheck the box.
What does Firebird do???  That is to say, what becomes the default browser???
The obvious answer is, "Restore IE as the default browser"... but does this work?

What if someone had Opera as their default browser beforehand, then made
Firebird the default browser?  Would unchecking the box make Opera the default
browser again?

I don't think a checkbox works as there doesn't seem to be a meaningful action
for Firebird to take when unchecking the box.  To make another browser the
default, the user should need to go to that browser and press the "make XYZ
browser your default browser" button in *that* browser.

Also, a button seems to be the appropriate element to use because checkboxes are
not typically expected to take immediate action.  Only buttons do.  For a task
like this, immediate action is appropriate.

Comment 9

[Sam Katz]

What does Mozilla do upon uninstaling? It seems to be able to restore previous
browser choices. Could we store the http/html association somewhere from the
Windows registry? This bug has some additional dependencies:
* in order to do this, we need to *not* take over graphics file types.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=16929

Describes various different ways to determine what the default browser is on a
Windows system

Comment 10

[Bill Mason]

*** Bug 234481 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Jean-Marc]

(In reply to comment #9)
> What does Mozilla do upon uninstaling? It seems to be able to restore previous
> browser choices. Could we store the http/html association somewhere from the
> Windows registry? 

Sam, it would be overkill. And the association you had, say last month, maybe
doesn't please you anymore. So the button solution, as Matthew explained, is so
logical, obvious. Changing the default browser for another is simply done the
1st time you're using the other one. There's even appwiz.cpl (Set Program Access
Defaults) to do it with Win XP (maybe 2000 as well).

Comment 12

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

This is now invalid, since the button now means/reads "Check Now" 

Comment 13

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs,
filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change