1331181 - Delete multiple history items at a time

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox for iOS :: Home screen, defect, P3)

Description

[Maurya Talisetti]

Currently, the History Panel lets us remove history in two ways. Either slide to the left on a history item to remove that specific item, or clear private data from the Settings Menu.

While this is great, What would be a nice feature is "removing multiple history items at the same time". Something like the Message or the Mail app do. "Edit" button somewhere on the top left corner, which once tapped, let's the user select (check) the list items to be deleted, and finally a "Delete" button on the bottom in a toolbar. The "Edit" button can be morphed into a "Cancel" button while this feature is being used.

From the time I started using Firefox for iOS, I always felt that this feature was missing as it's a very common use case (at least for me). Somehow I just never reported it. This feature can also be applied to the other home panels (bookmarks, reading list). If iOS provides a template for such a layout, that would be better since the navigation style will forever be synced with the iOS UX.

Of course, I guess an area of concern is screen space esp given that the home panels already have too much going on. Also something to consider is browser bloat. How many people would actually want it? On a mobile browser, people don't have time for complex power actions. So, simplicity seems the preferred way??

Comment 1

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

This is something I'd use.

The usual idiom on iOS, absent an "Edit" button -- which I don't think we have room for -- is for a long press on a list item to cause round checkboxes to slide in from the left, with the list turning into a modal move/delete/etc. interface.

Outlook for iOS presents a good example for this.

At some point we'll be adding the ability to organize and delete multiple bookmarks, probably with this mechanism, so I expect it would also extend to history.

Comment 2

[Maurya Talisetti]

Bug 1159439 will make long press to invoke context menu actions on all home panel items. 

One option would be to add something like "Edit All" to the context menu, which could then result in the round checkboxes to slide in from the left.

Comment 3

[Stephan Leroux [:sleroux]]

Moving to the backlog. We have a story to improve the UI for managing bookmarks/history items but haven't scheduled it yet.

Comment 4

[alessio.brozzi]

Hi, I'd like to take up this bug.
I see that there are multiple options suggested for the implementation. I would go for adding an "Edit All" which would produce round checkboxes to slide in from the left, as Maurya suggested. Otherwise, would you provide any other suggestions or pointers I should consider?

Comment 5

[Maurya Talisetti]

Alessio, I'm a contributor myself. So, I don't know if a UI approach has been thought of by the Firefox-iOS team. May be Stephan would have an idea.

Comment 6

[Stephan Leroux [:sleroux]]

Hey Alessio,

Thanks for showing interest in this bug! It's definitely something we'd like to add to the app. I think the approach you mentioned makes sense. I'm going to needinfo Robin who's on our design team to see if she has any input for how this feature should look.

If you're looking to start working on this bug in the meantime, we can start with with your UI and make tweaks later.

I've assigned myself as a mentor on the bug so if you have any questions feel free to reach out.

Comment 7

[Robin Andersen [:tecgirl]]

The functionality to remove multiple History items should follow what has yet to be implemented for Bookmarks management, https://trello.com/c/aey69DZT/109-improve-bookmarks-management