222883 - New Bookmark or new Folder in Manage Folder control allocated in the wrong place

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect, P3)

Description

[David A. Cobb]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20031002 Firebird/0.7+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20031002 Firebird/0.7+

The ManageFolder control does not allow to create the first subfolder.  When it
is initially empty, added subfolders are located somewhere else in the heierarchy.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Bookmarks=>ManageBookmarks;
2. Select an EMPTY folder into which you would like to add a subfolder;
3. Right-select ManageFolder: the ManageFolder dialog is displayed;
4. Click the control "New Folder": a dialog is displayed prompting for the name
of the new folder. enter a suitable name, click OK.
5. OBSERVE: the canvas of the ManageFolder control does NOT show the new folder. 
Browse around the bookmarks and you will find your new folder at the bottom of
one of the enclosing folders.

Actual Results:  
See point 5 above

Expected Results:  
The new folder should be created as a subfolder of the ManageFolder subject. 
The new folder should appear on the canvass of the ManageFolder dialog.

NOTE: If the ManageFolder subject is NOT initially empty, things work as they
should.

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

odd. confirmed on 10/26 nightly

Comment 2

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

This does also happen when you create a new bookmark. It is stored under the
root bookmark folder.

-> Fit summary

Comment 3

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

*** Bug 233690 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

This is extrememly confusing and we should try to resolve it for 1.0. Blake, any
chance you can take a look at this?

Comment 5

[Blake Ross]

-> vlad

Comment 6

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

Stil persists in Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.2)
Gecko/20040819 Firefox/0.9.1+

Comment 7

[Ger Teunis]

I think when a folder is selected in the Bookmark manager all "New" actions
should create items as a child of the currently selected folder not as sibbling.
(https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=251071)

Comment 8

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

*** Bug 261719 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

So, I'm going to minus this for 1.0; I think we decided that all New * items
will create siblings and never children.  While I sort of agree that for folders
it should create children, I'd rather not deal with the inconsistency right now.

Comment 10

[Leon Sha]

In bookmarksManager.js#64.
When the folder is empty, we should not select item 0 because there is no
selection there.

Comment 11

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> In bookmarksManager.js#64.
> When the folder is empty, we should not select item 0 because there is no
> selection there.

Tried that; I think that makes the situation worse, because if you click in the
empty region where the tree would go, all the New * items become grayed out, and
you can't do anything there.  I've been a longtime fan of just nuking "Manage
Folder", as I really don't see the value it adds.

Hmmm... so this bug is actually pretty bad, i'm going to renominate and see what
the Powers That Be think, and attempt to fix in the next day or two.

Comment 12

[Ger Teunis]

(In reply to comment #9)
> So, I'm going to minus this for 1.0; I think we decided that all New * items
> will create siblings and never children.  While I sort of agree that for folders
> it should create children, I'd rather not deal with the inconsistency right now.
> 

I agree, it would be better to create children for folders else it would not be
possible to create new items inside a new and empty folder via Boomarks manager.
(mentioned in my bug #251071 which is covered by this bug now)

Comment 13

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** Bug 277970 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** Bug 251071 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** Bug 279408 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[RickR]

I'm surprised more people do not find this bug very annoying? I'm trying to set 
up a tree of folders and subfolders and it is a real pain. To make a subfolder 
for an empty folder, I have to make the new folder then drag it into the empty 
folder. Then I can click on the subfolder and do "new folder" which makes the 
new folder at this level. This is not how typical file explorer trees work. When 
you have a folder selected and do "new folder" it should create the new folder 
as a subfolder of what is highlighted.

Comment 17

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

vlad's got this one, Manage Folder is just horribly broken, we're going to
remove it completely.

Comment 18

[RickR]

(In reply to comment #17)
> vlad's got this one, Manage Folder is just horribly broken, we're going to
> remove it completely.

When you say remove it, to you mean replace it? I love Firefox but really wish
you could add bookmarks easily right from the sidebar like you can in Opera. In
Opera, I can right click on any folder on the left sidebar of bookmarks and do
"add bookmark here." I use bookmarks a lot so usually have that side bar opened
and find this way of adding them very useful. (I'd settle though for just being
able to add a bookmark to a new folder from the manager without having to add it
outside the folder and then having to drag it inside.)

Comment 19

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

I'll figure something out for this on monday.

Comment 20

[Scott MacGregor]

this bug had an ETA of 8/23 on it. Any updates on this? This bug could be at
risk to fall of the blocker list.

Comment 21

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

Attachment: remove-manage-folders.patch

This is one of those 1-line patches that I kept forgetting to get to.  Ugh. 
Anyway, this just removes the "Manage Folder" menu item; I left the commands
and the like still in there, because if there are some people that really like
it, they can add it back via a small extension that does an overlay of the
menu.

Comment 22

[RickR]

Not sure if this is related or not, but has anyone ever noticed that sometimes
the folders do not stay expanded (in left panel) when you click on a folder.
What happens is I sometimes can not click on the + or - icon and I need to click
on the actual folder icon in oder to open the folder, which in turn, closes any
other folders that might have been expanded. I can't really figure out what
causes this to sometimes happen but it seems to happen quite often.

Comment 23

[Drew D. Saur]

This is a really dumb fix - it makes it difficult to quickly manage a folder in
the bookmarks toolbar, which is the way I tend to manage bookmarks most often.
*Please* don't consider this a total fix just yet.....

Comment 24

[RickR]

I was really hoping that the bookmark side bar would eventually become as nice
as Opera's. I'd love the abiblity to just right click on folder on the left bar
and say "add bookmark here." 

Comment 25

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Its a total fix as far as 1.5 is concerned, 2.0 is a whole new ballgame since
bookmarks is radically changing.

This has nothing to do with Add Bookmark Here, but there's an extension for that
floating around.

Comment 26

[Drew D. Saur]

I don't understand why removing this from the bookmarks *toolbar* based folders
is at all a benefit. These are the most frequently managed bookmarks, and now it
requires several clicks to manage them, making for a usability nightmare where
no nightmare previously existed. In the name of common sense, this is like
cutting off the nose to spite one's face.....

Drew

(In reply to comment #25)
> Its a total fix as far as 1.5 is concerned, 2.0 is a whole new ballgame since
> bookmarks is radically changing.
> 
> This has nothing to do with Add Bookmark Here, but there's an extension for that
> floating around.

Comment 27

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Because it didn't really work in the first place, and hasn't since at least
October 2003.

Comment 28

[Ken Krebs]

(In reply to comment #27)
> Because it didn't really work in the first place, and hasn't since at least
> October 2003.

If it didn't really work then why are so many people upset that it was removed?
 Obviously they were using it, as was I.

Comment 29

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

As I wrote in the patch comment, an extension can put this menu item back using
a 5-line overlay.  The feature worked for some people, who were used to its
quirks.  For the majority of new users, it was just confusing and broken.  I
wish we were able to fix it correctly, but the time spent wasn't worth it --
we'll be throwing all this away and redoing bookmarks after 1.5 (which doesn't
help for 1.5, I know).

Comment 30

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

*** Bug 291680 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 31

[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

Comment 32

[Maarten Brouwers]

In Firefox 2.0 this behaviour is still present (interpreted as: add new folder/bookmark using right click on a folder does not add a child to that folder, but a 'brother/sister'), or being reintroduced...