1809378 - Display unified extensions list in the customization palette, to allow one-step customization

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1805924

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, enhancement)

Description

[Shane Hughes [:aminomancer]]

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. If they were still displayed in the customization palette this wouldn't be a problem. But there's potentially an opportunity here. Both this issue and bug 1805924 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)

Comment 1

[William Durand [:willdurand]]

This is very likely a duplicate of Bug 1805924 (which, while not super descriptive, says to do "something like the overflow menu").

:aminomancer can we mark this bug as a dup of Bug 1805924?

Comment 2

[Shane Hughes [:aminomancer]]

Yeah that's fine, I'll just post my suggestions in a comment in bug 1805924.