Closed Bug 1431453 Opened 6 years ago Closed 6 years ago

'Save As' download requests made from WebExtension add-ons do not default to last used download folder for the domain

Categories

(WebExtensions :: Untriaged, enhancement)

enhancement
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1395207

People

(Reporter: eavesdown, Unassigned)

Details

With legacy XUL add-ons, extensions could make effectively make a standard 'Save As' call on an element (e.g., an image or video), causing the browser to pop up the save dialog defaulting to the last folder a file was downloaded from on the target domain, exactly as it would if the user directly selected 'Save [element] as' via the context menu.

With WebExtensions, all such 'Save as' requests must default to the same folder, as opposed to defaulting to the cached last download folder for the domain that standard download requests rely upon. This significantly degrades the functionality of add-ons whose purpose is helping users quickly download files (e.g., drag add-ons like GlitterDrag or media download helper addons).

For example, with XUL extensions, one could have an add-on configured so that clicking and dragging an image in one of the cardinal directions would pop up a 'Save As' dialog, allowing the user to save a file to their traditional location for such files from a domain, skipping a click and some mouse hunting in the context menu. It wasn't a massive time saver, but it was incredibly convenient. Now, it's almost always quicker to just use the context menu to avoid having to navigate back to the appropriate download folder on every single file you pull, especially if you're downloading multiple from the same domain in quick succession.

If the behavior change was intentional, I imagine it was done for security reasons, but it's not clear to me what the negative security implications of allowing a standard file 'Save as' request to be invoked (or granting an extension access to the per-domain last download folder cache) would be, so long as the user had granted the extension appropriate download permissions.
Component: General → WebExtensions: Untriaged
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Product: Toolkit → WebExtensions
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