218030 - improve XPI install confirm dialog

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Installer: XPInstall Engine, defect)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

improve XPI install confirm dialog

the source lives here
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/xpinstall/res/content/institems.xul

an issue with the current UI is that the layout is:

<xpi name> <cert name> <url>

this can cause problems when those values are long.  for example, see bug #214721

issues still remain, like a long value can force the other two to be hidden.

one idea, change the layout to be vertical:

<xpi name> 
<cert name> 
<url>

one warning, it looks like the current xpi install dialog can deal with multiple
xpis, which is one reason why it might be laid out horizontally.

Comment 1

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Thanks for filing this, Seth.

The URL is shown mostly as a validation that you're installing the package from
the site you expected. Since Doug added the signing feature the URL could
perhaps be reduced to a tooltip of the package name. The mere name of the
signer, however, is really not so hot. Ideally we need a mechanism to show cert
details (likely either a button or linkify the signer's name), and some way of
making unsigned packages stand out a little more (/!\ icon on the left side,
maybe blink the word UNSIGNED ;-) ).

Comment 2

[James Ross]

It seems the fix for bug 214721 has caused the cert column to become compressed
somewhat, e.g. I only see "Un...d" for unsigned scripts now. :)

I would say the cert column is quite important, and should not be squashed like
this (certainly not using crop="center" as it appears to). If it's horizontal
space that's lacking, I'm all for showing just package name and cert signer
name, and religating the URL to a tooltip of the package name.

Comment 3

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

james, you should get a tooltip for that signed column (and all columns)

dan, I noticed that the code is written in a way where we expect multiple tree
items.  does that ever happen?

see addTreeItem() in 
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/xpinstall/res/content/institems.js

If not, we could change the layout to be vertical, instead of horizontal.

Comment 4

[timeless]

seth: i've seen multiple items from xpinstall.

Comment 5

[James Ross]

Seth, of course there's a tooltip, I know - but it looks so stupid having
"Unsigned" squashed down to "Un...d".

And I install multiple things using XPI on an almost daily basis (re-installing
Firebird extensions w/ new nightly), please don't think about removing that.

Comment 6

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Seth: there's a method on the InstallTrigger object that lets web pages install
multiple xpi's in one command. When you're installing multiple things at once
this is far preferable to getting a bunch of individual confirmation dialogs. In
some cases you'd even end up with a mess if the user declined individual parts
of a mutually dependent install (extreme case: upgrading Mozilla itself) so the
ability to install a bunch at once can be a quality issue.

In other places it's merely a convenience, such as a page to click a bunch of
checkboxes on extensions you want.