1805924 - Allow to re-order the list of extensions in the unified extensions panel

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(WebExtensions :: General, enhancement, P2)

Description

[William Durand [:willdurand]]

Currently, we cannot re-order the list of extensions in the panel. We should be able to, e.g. when entering the customization mode (similar to what we have for the overflow menu).

Comment 2

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

We will also explore hiding some extensions from the panel that users don't need to interact with (original request from bug 1806266).

Comment 3

[BelFox]

Coming from a power user using FF non-stop for 15 years now and having 30+ add-ons installed, I think the MVP (as seen in 109 beta) of this unified extensions panel is good, but UI refinements are much needed in future releases.
My number one concern now is the inability to reorder items. I hope this can be implemented in the Customize panel, as was done for the Overflow menu.

Regarding the order of pinned extensions, some great suggestions including mock-ups were posted on Connect:
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/unified-add-ons-ui-improvements/idi-p/20964
Can you guys have a look at it? I think the proposal makes much sense. Thanks!

Comment 4

[newsguy]

The order should be automatically grabbed from the order of the items in the overflow items when the user enables the huge icon menu.

Comment 5

[Claude Gohier]

I think by default extensions should be in alphabetic order. Maybe in 2 sections, with actionable extensions above and non-interactive ones below, or hidden.

Comment 9

[Shane Hughes [:aminomancer]]

Here's a proposal for implementing the re-ordering functionality:

Currently, it's a bit tedious to pin browser actions to the toolbar from the unified extensions panel, because the only option it allows you is to click the gear icon > pin to toolbar. That just appends it to the toolbar. After you've done that, you still need to go to customize mode and move the button around.

This is also compounded by the fact that the unified extensions panel does not open in customize mode. The button appears and is not disabled, but clicking it has no effect (a bug in its own right). That eliminates one of the possible mitigations — being able to do this while in customize mode would significantly speed things up. Though it's still not perfect, since users really shouldn't need to open a panel to customize widgets.

So, the unified extensions button adds an extra step by removing these buttons from the customization palette. This issue would be resolved by creating a fake panel in the customization palette area, similar to the one that already exists for the regular widget overflow list. We could show two fake panels in the palette area. That would allow users to modify placements in the unified extensions panel, and it would also allow users to move widgets from the unified extensions panel to the toolbar without the tedious extra step of interacting with the panel outside of customize mode. I wasn't around for this, but I imagine the problem I'm detailing here was exactly the rationale that motivated the creation of the fake overflow panel shown in customize mode. It seems like we're just running into a new instance of the very same UX issue.

Of course, some styles would need to be adjusted, and the dragging behavior would need to visually convey that extension widgets are illegal in the palette and overflow menu, and regular widgets are illegal in the unified extensions panel. (This could be done with the 'not allowed' cursor we already use when trying to move non-removable widgets like the urlbar)

Edit: I think the buttons could be represented in a smaller way in the pseudo panel. They're very large in the unified extensions panel, but in customize mode we could shrink them down into little square icons, and make the panel a grid just like the palette. So don't show the icon labels and allow them to layout horizontally and wrap vertically, instead of laying out vertically. This would help alleviate the issue of finding room to show all these buttons in customize mode with two pseudo panels instead of one.

Comment 10

[arbitrarytrajectory]

(In reply to Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie from comment #2)

We will also explore hiding some extensions from the panel that users don't need to interact with (original request from bug 1806266).

Bug 1800883 should also be brought in.

Comment 11

[y2kdman97]

How hard is it to understand that users DO NOT want shit added randomly that cannot be removed? How moronic do you have to be to release this crap without customization features? Do you not pay attention to your users? Have you not read any feedback from the last 12 updates? This is why your users are starting to hate your dev policies.

"Why replace a perfectly functional user experience with one that is lacking options that the old one had? The new button in Firefox is clearly a work-in-progress feature, that should not have been made the default user experience in the stable channel of the browser." (https://www.ghacks.net/2023/01/18/how-to-remove-the-firefox-unified-extensions-button-and-restore-the-overflow-menu/)

Comment 14

[flying sheep]

@willdurand can you please elaborate why Bug 1805565 is supposedly a duplicate?

Bug 1805565 is about moving the “puzzle piece” button in the Customize Toolbar UI like all other toolbar buttons.
This bug is about re-shuffling the contents of the menu that appears when clicking that button.

That seems to be two completely separate proposals to me. Is there any underlying technical reason why the two are linked or did you just misread Bug 1805565?

Comment 15

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to flying sheep from comment #14)

@willdurand can you please elaborate why Bug 1805565 is supposedly a duplicate?

Bug 1805565 is about moving the “puzzle piece” button in the Customize Toolbar UI like all other toolbar buttons.

I've marked it a dupe of bug 1795235 instead.

Comment 18

[William Durand [:willdurand]]

Attachment: Bug 1805924 - Allow to re-order the list of extensions in the unified extensions panel. r?rpl!

Comment 19

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/f15619d42800
Allow to re-order the list of extensions in the unified extensions panel. r=rpl,bolsson

Comment 20

[Norisz Fay [:noriszfay]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/f15619d42800

Comment 21

[William Durand [:willdurand]]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]:

This is a feature some users will like to know about.

[Affects Firefox for Android]:

No.

[Suggested wording]:

It is now possible to reorder the extensions listed in the extensions panel.

[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:

SUMO page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-button (which will be updated accordingly)

Comment 22

[TGOS]

I have 28 extensions in that list. You know how long it takes to re-order 28 extensions as desired when you need to right click and select move-up/down to just move an extension by one location? Moving a single extension form bottom to top (or the other way round) means I have to perform that 28 times and then I have one extension sorted and 27 more to go.

I still fail to see the point why extensions cannot be added to the overflow menu as was possible not so long ago, where you could just sort them with drag'n drop in seconds and only had the extensions in the menu you actually wanted to have there. There was nothing broken about that and nobody has an advantage by forcing them into a new menu. Just stop breaking things that were not broken in the first place.

Comment 23

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Note added to 114 beta, thanks.