158648 - Add Bookmark dialog needs way of selecting root folder

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Jason Bassford]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.1b) Gecko/20020719
BuildID:    2002071911

When first seeing the Add Bookmark dialogue (Bookmarks -> File Bookmark... or
proxy icon click), none of the folders are selected and it is defaulted to
creating the new bookmark at the "root" of the bookmark tree (e.g. not in any of
the folders but as a "naked" entry at the bottom of the folder list).

However, there is a problem.  Once you click on a folder there is no way to
"deselect" it if you decide that you want to create your bookmark at the root
level after all.  Even though Ctrl-Click de-highlights the folder, it still puts
the bookmark in that folder if you click OK.  The only way to recover from
clicking a folder is to cancel the process and start it over again.  There
should be a "Deselect Folder" button - or, at least, Ctrl-Click's deselection of
a folder in the UI should actually be linked to deselecting the folder in execution.

Further, assuming that there *is* a way to deselect a folder, the default action
of the Add Bookmark dialogue should be to create the bookmark in your default
folder.  After all, if you've gone to the trouble of setting a default folder
that should be what you want to use most of the time.  When the Add Bookmark
dialogue appears, the folder you've set should be shown selected and in the
middle of the folder list.  Only if you *don't* want to have it created in your
default folder would you click on a different folder or on the "Deselect Folder"
button (if you want it created at the root of your bookmark list as a "stand
alone" bookmark).

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Bookmarks -> File Bookmark...
2. Click on a folder.
3. Now, try to get the bookmark created not in a folder but at the root level.

Actual Results:  The bookmark will be created in a folder.

Expected Results:  You should be able to deselect your folder selection so that,
once you've clicked on a folder, there is some way to "un-click" on it and have
the bookmark created at the root level after all.

Comment 1

[Tuukka Tolvanen (sp3000)]

How about "Use Root" or somesuch rather... "Deselect Folder" doesn't really say
much about where th bookmark is going to go as there's no visual indication of
root being selected as target, besides no folder being selected -- which isn't
terribly informative. Then again "Root" isn't perhaps quite universally
understandable? :\

Comment 2

[Jason Bassford]

> Then again "Root" isn't perhaps quite universally understandable? :\

Hence my problem.  I was trying to come up with something that "Aunt Betty"
would understand.  "Deselect Folder" isn't better "Use Root" for "us" but I
think it is *slightly* better English (as opposed to Geek-Speak). <grin>

How about "Outside Of Folder," "Don't Use Folder," or even "On Its Own"?  (I
don't really like any of those either, but you get the point.)

As an alternative: Instead of a button, append a blank entry or "(No Folder)" at
the bottom of the folder list.  Selecting this entry would indicate that you're
putting it at the bottom of the list on its own.

Comment 3

[Blake Ross]

The fix is to have all of the folders contained in a root folder.  Ben already
has a bug for that...

Comment 4

[Jason Bassford]

Any idea of the bug?

Comment 5

[Tuukka Tolvanen (sp3000)]

bug 36339 apparently (bug 68625)

Comment 6

[Jason Bassford]

I'm not sure if they address the same thing, exactly.  I don't want a root level
folder.  I just want a way of saying, "Don't use a bookmark".  I'm not ready to
mark this as a dupe of that yet.

Comment 7

[timeless]

sending to UID to be wontfixed

the real bug is that we don't currently have a bookmarks root, and that will be
fixed

Comment 8

[Jason Bassford]

I don't have a problem with this bug being closed so long as the other bug is
definitely checked in.  On principle, however, it should be marked INVALID *and*
this should be done only AFTER the other bug is resolved.  Closing one bug in
anticipation of another one (which is still open) is technically not the right
thing to do. I also don't think that there's anything wrong with multiple bugs
that each invalidate the other(s) so long as resolving any one of them is better
than the current behaviour.  I would be happier with a root level folder than
the current situation.

That said, I'm still more in favour of a non-root folder / UI way of
representing the creation of "naked" bookmarks outside of any folder.  I think
adding a top-level folder is just confusing.  There is surely some method of
indicating the creation of bookmarks outside of any folder that's understandable
- even if it takes more thought in communicating it.  I've already made a few
suggestions in comment 2 here, any one of which I would prefer to an "actual"
folder.  Comment 6 should have read "I just want a way of saying, 'don't use a
folder'." (Although, again, if the majority do want a real folder, I'll abide by
that as being much better than the messed up UI situation we have at the moment.)

Comment 9

[timeless]

uid is being phased out.

Comment 10

[Jason Bassford]

Fixed by bug 36339.  (While I'd said I didn't want a "real" root folder, that
was just a preference - and the original problem reported in this bug is fixed
by it.)

Comment 11

[Jason Bassford]

.