75378 - Take URL or filename in "File Open" dialog

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, enhancement)

Description

[Thomas Swan]

It would be useful and perhaps more friendly to allow a user to type in both
filenames and URL's in the "File Open" dialog (CTRL+SHFT+L is rather awkward.) 
 Perhaps, it might even lend itself to more of a universal "Open".

First see if the local filename exists.  If it doesn't then try the argument as
a URL, if that doesn't work then file or URL doesn't exist.

Feel free to throw this out if it doesn't make sense.

Comment 1

[timeless]

use ctrl-l.

ctrl-o is linked to the file picker.

Comment 2

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Reopening. This is an interesting idea, and one I've been thinking about for 
quite a while.

It wouldn't be possible on Windows or Mac OS, where we use native file dialogs. 
But for the XP filepicker (used on Linux etc), it would be interesting to see 
if we could allow opening of URLs in the same dialog as opening of files. One 
benefit of this would be that we wouldn't need to impose a distinction between 
local items and remote items in the UI for bookmarks and history in the 
dialog(s).

It's entirely possible that this idea won't work, but it's worth at least 
considering.

Comment 3

[Karl Ove Hufthammer]

It *is* possible on Windows. See the attached screen shot of the MP3 player FreeAmp.

It's possible to use extensions to the default file open dialog. (Note that the
main part of the dialog is localized (to Norwegian), while the extension is in
English (since FreeAmp is written in English, and not localizable).

Comment 4

[Karl Ove Hufthammer]

Attachment: Image showing the file/URL open dialog in FreeAmp (Norwegian Windows 98)

Comment 5

[Thomas Swan]

What I was thinking was to emulate the Start Button->Run behavior.

You type in a URL and it goes to the browser.   Type in a filename and it opens
a file.  You could do if (file not found) then (try it as a URL) before throwing
the file error unless the file not found errors are generated from the native
file open dialog box.  [Is it possible to override that behavoir and just return
to the program if the file wasn't found and then act on that information?]

It may not be feasible, but I thought autodetection from a one-line entry would
be nifty and slick.

Oh, well.. *sigh*

Comment 6

[timeless]

in w2k you can enter urls into the common dialogs [eg notepad] the result is 
that the os transparently handles them.  (a) we should not be breaking os 
functionality (b) we should not risk confusing os handling of urls with our 
handling of them -- if we pretend to handle urls and someone enters a chrome 
url and it gives an os error on windows but works on linux people will be 
confused and blame us.

Comment 7

[timeless]

um. was i unclear in stating that ctrl-l does what the reporter wants? you can 
enter a file path [c:\windows\bootlog.txt] or a url.

If you need to browse to a file then you type ctrl-o.

Comment 8

[Jesse Ruderman]

Timeless: don't forget that the file picker is used in many places in Mozilla, 
not just in File->Open for the browser window.

Comment 9

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 81193, "Two `Open' items in the `File' menu".

Comment 10

[Jonas Jørgensen]

.

Comment 11

[Blake Ross]

Reassigning obsolete bugs to their respective Seamonkey owners (i.e. nobody). 
If you want this fixed for Firefox, change the Product and Component accordingly
and reassign back to me.

Comment 12

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Filter "spam" on "guifeatures-nobody-20080610".

Comment 13

[Lisa Webb]

Attachment: same problem

Thanks from muzzrousrebe1986.