488894 - Checkboxes under custom history options and shutdown clearing dialog in preferences can conflict in confusing ways (should perhaps hide options to clear data which is not remembered in the first place)

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Data Sanitization, defect, P5)

Description

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090417 Minefield/3.6a1pre ID:20090417044042

repro:
Start Minefield
Go to [Tools]->[Options]and select the tab [Privacy]

-- case 1 --
set History -> [Use custom settings for History]
set:
[ ] Automatically start Minefield in a private browsing session
set:
[V] Remember my browsing history for at least [99] days

set:
[V] Clear history when Minefield closes and press [Settings]
a new pane pops up 
When I quit Minefield it should automatically clear all:
set:
[ ] History 
 is my browsing history older than 99 still cleared ?
set:
[V] History 
 is all my browsing history cleared despite the setting for 99 days.

I have no idea what to expect.


-- case 2 --
set History -> [Use custom settings for History]
set:
[ ] Automatically start Minefield in a private browsing session
set:
[V] Remember download history

set:
[V] Clear history when Minefield closes and press [Settings]
a new pane pops up 
When I quit Minefield it should automatically clear all:
set:
[ ] Download History 
 I don't understand this option , I already choose "[V] Remember download history" in the other pane
set:
[V] Download History 
 is my download history cleared despite the setting "[V] Remember download history"

I have no idea what to expect.


-- case 3 --
set History -> [Use custom settings for History]
set:
[ ] Automatically start Minefield in a private browsing session
set:
[ ] Remember download history

set:
[V] Clear history when Minefield closes and press [Settings]
a new pane pops up 
When I quit Minefield it should automatically clear all:
set:
[ ] Download History 
 I don't understand this option , I choose " [ ] Remember download history" in the other pane
set:
[V] Download History 
 I don't understand this option , I choose " [ ] Remember download history" in the other pane

[ ] Download History and [V] Download History make no sence in this case.

-- case 4 and 5 --

like case 3 and 4, but with
Remember Search and Form history


-- case 6 and 7 --

like case 3 and 4, but with 
Cookies


--------------------------------------
All in all impossible to understand.

I can if needed split this up in different bugs

Comment 1

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

This was introduced in 3.5, so this should probably be worked out in 3.5...

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Bug 462041 introduced this.

Comment 3

[Daniel C]

I think one bug (or part of this bug) can be summarised as "don't offer to clear X on exit if user has chosen not to remember X in the first place", where X is history, downloads etc.

As for choosing to remember downloads and then choosing to clear them on exit, I don't feel that that's particularly confusing. The downloads are remembered until they are cleared, either manually or on exit. The same can be said for the history case, except the number of days adds a bit of confusion. Perhaps "remember history for x days (or until it is cleared)." Or is that something that people should be able to work out?

Comment 4

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>I think one bug (or part of this bug) can be summarised as "don't offer to
>clear X on exit if user has chosen not to remember X in the first place", where
>X is history, downloads etc.

We could achieve this by disabling the checkboxes in the clear history dialog (click "settings" next to clear history on close) and adding the strings "(not collected)" next to items that are not being collected.  Of course we can only add that after the string freeze.  We would also need to switch to a single column list view instead of the current two column layout.

>As for choosing to remember downloads and then choosing to clear them on exit,
>I don't feel that that's particularly confusing. The downloads are remembered
>until they are cleared, either manually or on exit.

Yeah, this is initially pretty confusing, but makes sense if you imagine keeping your browser open for 91 days before closing it (in which case you lost 1 day automatically, and will lose the other 90 on close).

Initially the design was a lot simpler: Firefox either recorded history or it didn't.  We ended up adding back the "clear on close" functionality because a lot of these history features are actually pretty useful, and users wanted to be able to take advantage of them, but just one session at a time (where a session lasts for an undefined amount of time).

I'll keep giving this some thought, there has to be a better way of representing this.

Comment 5

[(no longer active)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> We could achieve this by disabling the checkboxes in the clear history dialog
> (click "settings" next to clear history on close) and adding the strings "(not
> collected)" next to items that are not being collected.

Couldn't we do this without the string for 3.5?

> Of course we can only
> add that after the string freeze.  We would also need to switch to a single
> column list view instead of the current two column layout.

Is there any bug filed on this layout change?

Comment 6

[heraldo]

See screenshot and my comment in Bug 505548 for example on the confusing "browsing history" term in the Privacy tab.

Comment 7

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

Cases 2 and 3 could be related or solved on bug 708595. A decision about what to do with the privacy panel options is still to happen.

Comment 8

[Andrei Purice]

Hey Peter,
Can you still reproduce this or should we close it?

Comment 9

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Redirect a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user to the triage owner.
:jaws, since the bug has high severity, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 10

[:Gijs (he/him)]

This doesn't seem particularly important, as contradictions go.