216743 - Make Cookies UI not suck

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Networking: Cookies, defect)

Description

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

This bug is to propose a short, useful set of options including both blacklist
and whitelist support (The fix for bug 184059 allows cookperm.txt entries to
override pref settings, allowing cookie settings to be implemented in this way.
 A small change would be needed to allow the second option below to function as
needed, but dwitte described it as a bit of hackage in nsCookiePermission to get
this to work (and obviously some XUL changes!).

Thanks to Jesse Ruderman for his feedback on wording and functionality.

The second part of the bug is all Jesse's idea.  Essentially, it is to handle
blocked cookies in a similar fashion to blocked popups, via a status bar icon. 
This would let people whitelist sites they want to enable cookies for without
going into the whitelist.  Its a big usability win for people who want to
disable persistent or all cookies, but still enable for sites they need them for.

The text below the three options would work to clarify what each option does.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

(x) Allow all cookies except from the following sites   [Blocked Sites]
( ) Disable persistent cookies except for these sites   [Allowed Sites]
( ) Disable all cookies except for allowed sites

You have chosen to allow all cookies.  You have the option of choosing 
to block cookies from certain sites by clicking on Blocked Sites.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

( ) Allow all cookies except from the following sites   [Blocked Sites]
(x) Disable persistent cookies except for these sites   [Allowed Sites]
( ) Disable all cookies except for allowed sites

You have chosen to disable persistent cookies while allowing temporary
cookies to be set for the current session.  You have the option of allowing
certain sites to set permanent cookies by clicking on Allowed Sites.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

( ) Allow all cookies except from the following sites   [Blocked Sites]
( ) Disable persistent cookies except for these sites   [Allowed Sites]
(x) Disable all cookies except for allowed sites

You have chosen to deny all cookies except for specified sites.  Some 
sites require cookies to function properly, and may fail to work using 
this setting.  If you have problems after making this change, you should 
choose a different option.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

These should be below the above options

[x] Allow cookies from third party sites
[ ] Ask before accepting

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The blocked and allowed sites would appear as a simple dialog, similar to how
the allowed popup sites are listed (including add site, remove site, and remove
all sites buttons)

If wanted, I could do an XUL mockup of the options, but I figured this was clear
 enough to be reviewed.

Comment 1

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 217199, "Status bar indicator for blocked cookies".

Comment 2

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

-> me, dwitte now has a patch in bug 217286 for this functionality.

Morphing into a Cookies bug, will be implementing this or something similar in
Seamonkey first, then we can revisit this for Firebird.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

plan of attack (possibly to be spun off into independent, more digestible bugs)

1) Cookie Manager rewrite (add whitelist tab, make the Manage Sites tab more useful)
2) Pref panel rewrite (http://members.rogers.com/mpconnor/cookies.html is a work
in progress towards this goal, needs backend changes to be feasible)
3) statusbar notification stuff (bug 192176 is the closest thing to this for
Seamonkey, bug 217199 for Firebird, also waiting on backend stuff)

Comment 4

[alanjstr]

Is number 1 like bug 157044 ?  Or were you thinking of a seperate tab to the
current dialog.  The advantage to my proposal is that Whitelist, Blacklist, and
Undecided are easily swappable.

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

morphing to a meta bug to keep track of this crap

Comment 6

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

bug 221185 is the blocker for 192176, removing from this list

Comment 7

[HJ]

[x] Allow cookies from third party sites

'third party' will be way to confusing for a lot of end users.

Oh, and ask yourself this question: "How many cookies can we store?"

"Essentially, it is to handle blocked cookies in a similar fashion to blocked
popups, via a status bar icon."

Does that includes the 'Play a sound:' option?

Comment 8

[alanjstr]

As I told mconnor, I'm actually pretty happy with the Firebird set of
checkboxes.  It just needs to be clearer that the Exceptions List overrides
those settings.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/alanjstr1/mozilla/cookies.html

Comment 9

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Not going to be working on any Seamonkey UI bugs for the foreseeable future. 
You can filter on "danlikesgoats" to delete this spam.

Comment 10

[[e-mail]]

afaict, this bug isn't relevant anymore.