Open Bug 245100 Opened 20 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Allow searching/filtering in cookies exceptions dialog

Categories

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Settings UI
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

()

People

(Reporter: lduperval, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug,
URL
)

Details

Attachments

(2 files)

Mock-up of the permissions dialog with a search box below the listbox.
29.52 KB, image/png
Details
Mock-up of the permissions dialog with a filter-style search box below the listbox.
31.46 KB, image/png
Details 
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040415 Firefox/0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040415 Firefox/0.8

I would like to be able to filter the cookie sites to find a particular site.
Most of the time I refuse cookies from sites. Later on, I may find out that
cookies are nessessary. This means I have to go back to the exception list and
scan it one by one until I find the one I need.

It would be much better if I could enter part of the name of the site, then the
list would be filtered to show only the sites that have that string in it.
Conceptually, this is similar to the way you can filter messages on the fly with
Thunderbird (by default it filters on subject or author).

L

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
*** Bug 249711 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Sounds good to me :)

Marking as new and OS -> All
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
OS: Linux → All
considering I wontfixed this for seamonkey, I don't think we'd do it for Firefox
either.
Summary: Allow filtering on cookies exceptions → Allow searching/filtering in cookies exceptions dialog
See also bug 252896, same bug for stored cookies dialog.
(In reply to comment #3)
> considering I wontfixed this for seamonkey, I don't think we'd do it for Firefox
> either.

Why not?  It's a significant usability issue for people who actually care about
their cookies.
Who the bug won't be fixed ? I have about 200 sites in my cookie exception list.
If I want one site to enable cookie, although I initially refused, I have to go
through the 200 items. Very annoying.

A simple search edit box would solve this easily and without hassle.
adding ugly UI because our sorting sucks is a bad solution.  End of story. 
Making the sorting better is a better solution, overall.

Post-1.0, you'll be able to control site permissions for most things from the
status bar, so if you need to unblock a specific site, you won't need to use the
Exceptions list.
OK, per-site control is definately a good thing, and I look forward to that
feature.  But filtered listboxes are a very common and standard UI element that
I've seen in many other applications -- I don't see why it's "ugly"?
I think this could be easily solved with "better sorting" like Mike suggests. I
suffer the same pain as the OP, and long for an elegant and simple solution.

For quite some time I've felt that the cookies exceptions list should be sorted
differently. Right now it is alphanumerically from start to end of the domain.
So you get an order like:

ads.apple.com
ads.hp.com
ads.microsoft.com
support.apple.com
support.hp.com
support.microsoft.com
x.apple.com
x.hp.com
x.microsoft.com

This makes scrolling through the list looking for a particular saved exception
painful. Mine (like many others') is hundreds long.

Instead, in order to make finding all the cookie exceptions stored for a
particular domain, it should be modified so they are lumped together by (sub)domain:

ads.apple.com
support.apple.com
x.apple.com
ads.hp.com
support.hp.com
x.hp.com
ads.microsoft.com
support.microsoft.com
x.microsoft.com

Maybe even some sort of separator to make all the cookies for a domain visually
clear... such as an alternating background shade (light-tone and white) kind of
like greenbar paper, or just a blank whitespace line between domains.

A real gung-ho UI solution would be an expanding/collapsing tree, but that'd
probably involve some signficant programming (then again, maybe not?). This
would allow easy management... quickly dig down to find the exact cookie you
want, delete all the cookies for an entire site, etc.

+ apple.com
- hp.com
  |- ads.hp.com
  |- support.hp.com
  |  |-b01.support.hp.com
  |  |-g12.support.hp.com
  |- x.hp.com
+ microsoft.com

Hypothetically, although this might be displayed in a structured tree format, it
could require no changes to the file format. The code could simply parse the
same file and display it differently. If when it's rewritten out, the cookies
are in a new order as a result... so what.

A lot of this comes from initially blocking a cookie (as is my practice... block
it unless I know I need it), only to discover much later that I want/need a
cookie after all, but unable to locate the cookie due to some obscure name
(gst.x233.somesite.com) even though I know the domain. Sure, I can whip out grep
each time, but this should be easier for end-users. ;)

Finally... is bug 262221 at all related to this one?
*** Bug 262221 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
searching/filtering would clutter up the dialog, IMO.

As I've stated before, the idea is a) make it easier to unblock sites from the
browser UI (expected in Fx 1.5) and b) make the list more sortable (also hoping
for 1.5 here, and Seamonkey too, if its still around).

The alternate view with the hierarchial tree is a possible option, but I'm not
sure we necessarily want to go that route.  The current display uses a tree
widget, so it wouldn't be that far off.

morphing and taking, already on my radar for post-1.0, this would apply to
image/popup/software install site permissions too.
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Priority: -- → P3
Summary: Allow searching/filtering in cookies exceptions dialog → better site management for site permission dialogs
Target Milestone: --- → After Firefox 1.0
Could the simple alternate sort method replace the current one as a bandaid fix
before 1.5? I can understand it not making it for 1.0 but 1.5 is a long wait. :(

I'm not suggesting any additional buttons/knobs/etc. Just have the list be
displayed using a sort method that lumps by domain (still alphanumerically)
instead of the way it's sorted now. So no UI modifications to the dialog box
would be necessary. 

It would go a long way to making the exceptions list more managable until the
broader changes land.

I agree that additional searching/filtering stuff would add to clutter and the
problems those things are trying to address could be better and more-simply
handled by alternate default sorting.


it might make earlier milestones on the way to 1.5, but there's nothing
determined there.
*** Bug 273308 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 276735 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 159035 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Unlike Mr Remick's remark, I don't see that 'additional search capabilities' are
needed.  What about something like about:config?  You type the search criteria
in 'Address of web site:' and the matching sites in the permissionsTree which
match the search criteria are shown in the permissionsTree.  Unfortunately,
you'll have to deal with bug #305856, but for someone like me (with 500+ cookie
exceptions), it'd help if I need to get rid of a site which I inadvertently blocked.
*** Bug 328973 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 334382 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 346117 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It sure would be great if somebody much more knowledgeable than I could write an extension to better handle cookies, ie, block all cookies and selectively allow them while surfing if a site is inaccessible without them.  The current extensions I have tried don't do a good job on this.  Do the Bugzilla coordinators have any way to encourage an extension to be written?  That would be a great improvement to Firefox.  Thanks.
Assignee: bross2 → nobody
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
Priority: P3 → --
QA Contact: mconnor → preferences
Hardware: PC → All
Target Milestone: Future → ---
Version: unspecified → Trunk
*** Bug 351016 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
First, I apologize for posting a duplicate Bug 351016 (somehow I never come up with quite the right search keywords).

Second, seeing as this thread is over two years old, and I just downloaded 2.0b and see the behavior is unchanged, where does this issue stand?  Please see my comments about UI consistency in the duplicate bug referenced above.  If we can have search facility for existing cookies, why not for cookie exceptions?

And, I don't mean to be crass or naive, but how many people actually set cookie exceptions by typing in the URL?  Might it not make sense to just dispense with this feature entirely and replace it with a search field?  That would avoid UI clutter and bring a sense of consistency to the whole cookie preferences scheme.
Indeed, 2.0 release still does not have it.  Earlier comments indicated it was scheduled for 1.5, but I guess since then it has just been forgotten about?
This is a mock-up of the permissions.xul dialog with a label and textbox below the listbox.

There is no "clear" button, because the search would not *filter* the listbox contents, but instead simply select the first match for the search value.

If the intented behaviour should be filtering, i.e. only displaying the results matching the search value, then a "clear" button would be justified.

Contact me if you would like me to implement this.
> simply select the first match for the search value.

If that's the case, next/previous buttons would be nice.
Andreas=hopefully, your search function would jump to the URL if the inputted text string falls anywhere within the URL name.  In other words, typing "moz" will jump to, say, www.mozilla.org and not just to mozilla.org

I agree with the last poster that next/previous buttons are essential in part to cover the fact that Firefox, unlike IE, does not drop the www., so that, say, mozilla.org could be found either as www.mozilla.org or mozilla.org or both.  This cumbersome feature of Firefox could be partially mitigated by next/previous buttons.  

Without these buttons, your Search box is little better than highlighting the first Site in the Exception list and typing (really fast) the text string you think will jump to the URL name you are looking for.  The cursor jumps to the first URL containing the text you typed (fast!)  You can already do this now in FF, but it's a real nuisance.

The ultimate solution is to put the cookies Exception management capability right near the tabs themselves, available to use when the "offending" web page is opened and you want to change the treatment of the cookie exception.  This would avoid having to even open Tools-Options-Exceptions, which takes mine about 15 seconds even to get to the Exceptions list plus additional time for searching.  

It would be great for a kind soul more knowledgeable than I to write an Extension to accomplish this.  This assumes that it is technically feasible to use an Extension to change this disagreeable behavior of FF, which I suspect it is.


MAKE IT A FILTER. DONE.

This has been argued about for years now. Please see my comment above and end this vicious cycle.
This is a mock-up of the permissions.xul dialog with a label, textbox and "clear" button below the listbox.

The intent of the "clear" button is to easily restore the complete view of all cookie exceptions, since we would do filtering.

But frankly, I won't do anything until somebody gives the "go" and decides if we should do searching or filtering.
(In reply to comment #29)
> Created an attachment (id=250625) [details]
> Mock-up of the permissions dialog with a filter-style search box below the
> listbox.
> This is a mock-up of the permissions.xul dialog with a label, textbox and
> "clear" button below the listbox.
> The intent of the "clear" button is to easily restore the complete view of all
> cookie exceptions, since we would do filtering.
> But frankly, I won't do anything until somebody gives the "go" and decides if
> we should do searching or filtering.

BY ALL MEANS, MAKE IT SO #1!!!! Seriously. This is long overdue and has been severly over-discussed. Thank you for taking the first steps.

(In reply to comment #29)
> Created an attachment (id=250625) [details]
> Mock-up of the permissions dialog with a filter-style search box below the
> listbox.
> 
> This is a mock-up of the permissions.xul dialog with a label, textbox and
> "clear" button below the listbox.
> 
> The intent of the "clear" button is to easily restore the complete view of all
> cookie exceptions, since we would do filtering.
> 
> But frankly, I won't do anything until somebody gives the "go" and decides if
> we should do searching or filtering.
> 
Andreas

Please include Next/Previous buttons or the utility will be severely diminished, unless I'm missing something.  

Also, after you do this one, would you consider writing an extension which would duplicate some of the cookies Exception management capability
right near the tabs themselves on the main interface, available to use when the "offending" web page is opened and you want to change the treatment of the cookie exception right on the spot. 

Thanks for your efforts.  They are appreciated I'm sure by many users.
Restoring the original summary since we now have better site management in the Page Info dialog, "Permissions" section, but the specific cookie exceptions dialog from options, "Privacy" section is still not filterable/searchable, and every duplicate is asking for that specific feature.
Summary: better site management for site permission dialogs → Allow searching/filtering in cookies exceptions dialog
Is this https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookieexfilter
what you're looking for?
I was looking for this feature for ages as well. Found the solution in bug 142179 :

Just type about:permissions into the URL bar, and you've got a nice filterable list of site permissions, which included cookie permissions.

No extensions needed!
Blocks: 449801
Severity: normal → S3
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