478849 - The same file is listed many times in the Downloads window.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, defect)

Description

[christoph gille]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011912 Firefox/3.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011912 Firefox/3.0.6

Java Provides a mechanism, to control running instances of Java
applications by HTML links. An Event occurs in the running instance
when the user clicks a Web link in Firefox.

The file suffix is ".jnlp" and is opened with javaws. The information
in this file is passed to the already running application. The name of
the file is always the same. One click takes typically 250 ms.

Here an example for testing
http://www.charite.de/bioinf/strap/strap_script.html

The problem since Firefox 3 is that with each click a new entry is
added to the Downloads window. This makes Firefox very slow after some
time.  This is even though the file name is always the same
"file.jnlp". It results in a Downloads dialog with multiple
entries "file.jnlp".  Firefox 2 and all other browsers exhibit the
correct behavior: The file "file.jnlp" is listed only once.

The major problem with the Firefox 3 behavior is that the Firefox
becomes very slow with increasing number of items in Downloads.

Workaround: From time to time the user should open the Downloads
Window to press "Clear List".

The reason why this  bug has not been noticed before is because  users download
files only once and not several times.  But regarding those kind of
Java applications, it is fatal.  There is a similar Java independent
method for controlling applications via Web links where the
applications are listening to a certain port which is also affected.

---------------------------------------------------

Can I ask on this occasion:

The Downloads Window is an essential GUI element.  But in this special
situation it is superfluous and rather annoying.  Would it be possible
to avoid de-iconification of the Downloads window for certain files?

I suggest a possible solution: A control String in the URL that tells
to keep the Downloads window iconified. Something like 

http:// ....script.php?DO_NOT_OPEN_DOWNLOADS_WINDOW



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Take new Firefox version 3
Download a file and delete it.
Download it again.

Actual Results:  
The file occurs twice in the Downloads window

Expected Results:  
Each file only once in the list

The software project
http://3d-alignment.eu/
depends on this feature.
Please give the problem a high priority

Comment 1

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

As written, this bug is WONTFIX.  Firefox 3 actually fixed a bug where downloads of the same file name used just one entry.  This used to happen because the file name was the unique key in the RDF file that stored downloads.  Since we don't use RDF anymore, we could actually fix that issue.

It'd be a very bad idea to allow content to specify if the download manager's window gets to come up or not.  Sites could then download files for the user without the user being aware.

As for the issue about too many downloads in the list, you are looking for bug 478742

Comment 2

[christoph gille]

Thanks Shawn, true, the security issue is an argument.

Currently, the user can deactivate the opening of the Downloads-Window in
Preferences but I do not think that many users would bother to find
this check-box.

I would suggest in addition a respective check-box within the Download-window. I
would suggest not to save the state of the check-box over sessions.




With the technology described above the user easily ends up with
hundreds or thousands of identical list elements. Each button click adds an item. 
As the file is deleted by my program programatically after usage, the property "Containing folder" in the Context menu is deactivated.

The list cannot be sorted. So how to get rid of these particular items while keeping all other items. 
Suggestions:
  Button: Delete download events of files that do not exist any more on HD
  	

Here a minor point: 

Context menu in Downloads window: The former
item "Properties" with a textural summary on time URL and containig
folder etc. is missing. 


Many thanks

Christoph