Bugzilla

Here's a proposal for implementing the re-ordering functionality:

Currently, it's a bit tedious to pin browser actions to the toolbar from the unified extensions panel, because the only option it allows you is to click the gear icon > pin to toolbar. That just appends it to the toolbar. After you've done that, you still need to go to customize mode and move the button around.

This is also compounded by the fact that the unified extensions panel does not open in customize mode. The button appears and is not disabled, but clicking it has no effect (a bug in its own right). That eliminates one of the possible mitigations — being able to do this while in customize mode would significantly speed things up. Though it's still not perfect, since users really shouldn't need to open a panel to customize widgets.

So, the unified extensions button adds an extra step by removing these buttons from the customization palette. This issue would be resolved by creating a fake panel in the customization palette area, similar to the one that already exists for the regular widget overflow list. We could show two fake panels in the palette area. That would allow users to modify placements in the unified extensions panel, and it would also allow users to move widgets from the unified extensions panel to the toolbar without the tedious extra step of interacting with the panel outside of customize mode. I wasn't around for this, but I imagine the problem I'm detailing here was exactly the rationale that motivated the creation of the fake overflow panel shown in customize mode. It seems like we're just running into a new instance of the very same UX issue.

Of course, some styles would need to be adjusted, and the dragging behavior would need to visually convey that extension widgets are illegal in the palette and overflow menu, and regular widgets are illegal in the unified extensions panel. (This could be done with the 'not allowed' cursor we already use when trying to move non-removable widgets like the urlbar)

Here's a proposal for implementing the re-ordering functionality:

Currently, it's a bit tedious to pin browser actions to the toolbar from the unified extensions panel, because the only option it allows you is to click the gear icon > pin to toolbar. That just appends it to the toolbar. After you've done that, you still need to go to customize mode and move the button around.

This is also compounded by the fact that the unified extensions panel does not open in customize mode. The button appears and is not disabled, but clicking it has no effect (a bug in its own right). That eliminates one of the possible mitigations — being able to do this while in customize mode would significantly speed things up. Though it's still not perfect, since users really shouldn't need to open a panel to customize widgets.

So, the unified extensions button adds an extra step by removing these buttons from the customization palette. This issue would be resolved by creating a fake panel in the customization palette area, similar to the one that already exists for the regular widget overflow list. We could show two fake panels in the palette area. That would allow users to modify placements in the unified extensions panel, and it would also allow users to move widgets from the unified extensions panel to the toolbar without the tedious extra step of interacting with the panel outside of customize mode. I wasn't around for this, but I imagine the problem I'm detailing here was exactly the rationale that motivated the creation of the fake overflow panel shown in customize mode. It seems like we're just running into a new instance of the very same UX issue.

Of course, some styles would need to be adjusted, and the dragging behavior would need to visually convey that extension widgets are illegal in the palette and overflow menu, and regular widgets are illegal in the unified extensions panel. (This could be done with the 'not allowed' cursor we already use when trying to move non-removable widgets like the urlbar)

Edit: I think the buttons could be represented in a smaller way in the pseudo panel. They're very large in the unified extensions panel, but in customize mode we could shrink them down into little square icons, and make the panel a grid just like the palette. So don't show the icon labels and allow them to layout horizontally and wrap vertically, instead of laying out vertically. This would help alleviate the issue of finding room to show all these buttons in customize mode with two pseudo panels instead of one.