230130 - Show online/offline status in statusbar

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, enhancement)

Description

[alanjstr]

Now that offline mode works, we should have a statusbar icon that displays the
state.  Even if we don't show Online, that should be a theming issue and the xul
should still be there.  Might as well have the same icon work for switching the
proxy like bug 223908, too.

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

I'm not entirely sure I agree with this, but maybe in the bottom right corner it
wouldn't interfere with the notifications area.

Comment 2

[alanjstr]

The security lock, popup indicator, and style switcher are all in the bottom
left.  I think that is a good place to put any other statusbar icons.  I think
the default theme should only show it when Offline, but the backend should allow
for Online too.

Comment 3

[alanjstr]

Someone has made an extension
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=45991

Comment 4

[Brendan Eich [:brendan]]

Try assigning this to the person who implemented offline, who is actually
working daily on Firebird.

/be

Comment 5

[Oliver Giesen]

Concerning "I think the default theme should only show it when Offline, but the
backend should allow for Online too.",

IMO this shouldn't just be an indicator. It should be possible to switch between
online/offline by clicking it (like Moz/NS used to do and as does the Motohiko
extension), thus it _must_ be visible even in Online mode.

Comment 6

[Aleksandar Radulovic]

In addition to this feature, when browsing offline and click to link which is
not in cache, browser SHOULD ask user if he want go online or stay offline (like
Opera does).
Instead of clicking to alert's 'OK' and selectiong in menu File/Work Offline

Comment 7

[José Jeria]

(In reply to comment #6)
> In addition to this feature, when browsing offline and click to link which is
> not in cache, browser SHOULD ask user if he want go online or stay offline

This was fixed in Mozilla suite, see bug 113591

Comment 8

[Kai de Leeuw]

José, what the Alexandar stated was that the offline alert today is just a
message. What he wanted was that the alert should give the user the possibility
to stay offline or go online depending on what he chooses, and not as today
where you just get an explanation how to go offline and online via the File >
Work Offline menu item.

Comment 9

[José Jeria]

(In reply to comment #8)
Yes Kai, you are right, that would be Bug 189696.

Comment 10

[Christoph Grether]

(In reply to comment #5)
Yes, I agree, this should be the same icon like in Mozilla and Netscape.
The "Offline" extension for Thunderbird has the same statusbar icon, so I hope,
Firefox will get it too.

Comment 11

[Alessandro Minelli]

This feature sound very useful & professional, proponsing 1.0 blocking.

Comment 12

[Matija Polajnar]

Icon shoud look & work just like the icon in Thunderbird 8 (in left bottom corner).

Comment 13

[walf]

I totally agree with Oliver (comment #5)

this was a very useful feature in Moz/NS, and one of best features of firefox is
themes, but now i am stuck with Motohiko's button in every theme instead of the
theme authors being able to include it too.

Comment 14

[Parkhideh]

How come bug 297140 is not claimed to be a duplicate of this report and is closed?
My bug # 313287 is definitely a duplicate of this report.

Comment 15

[Parkhideh]

*** Bug 313287 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[Michael Ventnor]

Taking: I have something up my sleeve and this has become more important since an emphasis of Fx3 is offline apps.

Comment 17

[Michael Ventnor]

Attachment: Patch

The actual patch. I'll attach icon proposals shortly for ui-r.

Comment 18

[Michael Ventnor]

Attachment: Patch 1.1

Er, actually use this one instead.

Comment 19

[Michael Ventnor]

Attachment: Indicator 1

This was the first indicator I made. I absolutely suck at The GIMP, I was originally ambitious and tried to draw an ethernet cable and a port, but undid half the work because it looked terrible and just fell back to a Netscape 7 design. Because of that, this looks like the bastard child of an ethernet cable and a power cord. It still looks kind of nice, though.

Comment 20

[Michael Ventnor]

Attachment: Indicator 2

After having a bit of doubt about the usability of my first indicator, I went ahead and made this one. This is the one I prefer but I'll leave it to Beltzner.

Although, if any talented graphics designer offered to make better looking icons, I wouldn't object :)

Comment 21

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/mail/themes/qute/mail/icons/online.png
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/mail/themes/qute/mail/icons/offline.png

http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/mail/themes/pinstripe/mail/icons/online.png
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/mail/themes/pinstripe/mail/icons/offline.png

Comment 22

[Parkhideh]

Michael, I have no objection to a new ICON or the old one from Netscape.  But isn't it better to copy Thunderbird's ICON to show the product is from the same organization?
(In reply to comment #20)

Comment 23

[Parkhideh]

Two questions:  
1) Will this online/offline ICON be an active button like in Netscape and Thunderbird?  (i.e. clickable without a need to go to menu File/Offline)
2) Will Firefox remember the last condition when it was closed (like offline) and come up that way next time?  (or in setup give the option of asking each time)

Comment 24

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Comment on attachment 268678 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch 1.1

>+  skin/classic/browser/onoffline.png

That's a weird name. I'd prefer onlineStatus.png, or just use two files. Actually, the latter seems more appropriate to me in that case.

>+netStatusIcon.online=%S is in online mode and will use an available internet connection
>+netStatusIcon.offline=%S is in offline mode and will not attempt to connect to the internet

"Internet", and the final dot is missing.

Comment 25

[Michael Ventnor]

(In reply to comment #22)
> Michael, I have no objection to a new ICON or the old one from Netscape.  But
> isn't it better to copy Thunderbird's ICON to show the product is from the same
> organization?
> (In reply to comment #20)
> 

I didn't know about that icon, thanks. I'll use that.

Comment 26

[Michael Ventnor]

I personally don't like the lightbulb icon, lightbulbs in programs tend to imply "tip of the day" or "hint", rather than a status.

(In reply to comment #23)
> Two questions:  
> 1) Will this online/offline ICON be an active button like in Netscape and
> Thunderbird?  (i.e. clickable without a need to go to menu File/Offline)
> 2) Will Firefox remember the last condition when it was closed (like offline)
> and come up that way next time?  (or in setup give the option of asking each
> time)

1) Yes. It responds to double-click.
2) It does the same thing as File>Work Offline, so yes it will remember it.

Comment 27

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to comment #26)
> I personally don't like the lightbulb icon, lightbulbs in programs tend to
> imply "tip of the day" or "hint", rather than a status.

Well, unless you have a better icon ... ;)

> 1) Yes. It responds to double-click.

Any reason why it shouldn't be a single click? That would also be consistent with Thunderbird.
While we're at it: Any reason why it shouldn't be on the left corner?

Comment 28

[Michael Ventnor]

Attachment: Lightbulb icons

(In reply to comment #27)
> (In reply to comment #26)
> > I personally don't like the lightbulb icon, lightbulbs in programs tend to
> > imply "tip of the day" or "hint", rather than a status.
> 
> Well, unless you have a better icon ... ;)

I uploaded two icons reminiscent of Ye Olde Mozilla, but I'm so bad at making things in GIMP from scratch that they look horrible... :P

> > 1) Yes. It responds to double-click.
> 
> Any reason why it shouldn't be a single click? That would also be consistent
> with Thunderbird.
> While we're at it: Any reason why it shouldn't be on the left corner?
> 

I don't want people accidentally single-clicking it, then panicking that they're getting "a weird error page". Usually a double-click is designed to separate accidents from actually wanting something.
And the right side is usually where all status bar icons go in Firefox, the left is completely reserved for the status text. If you look up screenshots of the old Suite, you'll see that the offline indicator was on the right too.

These are the Qute lightbulbs, touched up a little bit.

Comment 29

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to comment #28)
> I don't want people accidentally single-clicking it, then panicking that
> they're getting "a weird error page". Usually a double-click is designed to
> separate accidents from actually wanting something.

corsor:pointer could help then. It's not really discoverable here that double-clicking will do something. (I would say that for #security-button too, by the way.)

> And the right side is usually where all status bar icons go in Firefox

"all status bar icons" is misleading, as there are only a few currently, and hardly more than one at the same time. As they add up, queuing them might be the easiest but not the best solution.

> the left is completely reserved for the status text.

The online status indicator suits the status text pretty well. It's the right context.

> If you look up screenshots of
> the old Suite, you'll see that the offline indicator was on the right too.

We should care about current Mozilla products, e.g. Thunderbird, instead of the old Suite. At least, as long as Thunderbird's behaviour makes sense, which I think it does.

Comment 30

[walf]

(In reply to comment #29)
> (In reply to comment #28)
> > I don't want people accidentally single-clicking it, then panicking that
> > they're getting "a weird error page". Usually a double-click is designed to
> > separate accidents from actually wanting something.
> 
> corsor:pointer could help then. It's not really discoverable here that
> double-clicking will do something. (I would say that for #security-button too,
> by the way.)
I agree that single-click is enough, it works for Thunderbird. Everyday users who have no knowledge that it is a button will not be clicking the left of the status bar anyway. If they do get the "weird error page" it would not only direct them to File>Work Offline, but also to the icon/button at left of the statusbar because it would be an integral part of the browser. Thus users accidentally clicking this button would quickly learn not to, just like in all those versions of Mozilla and Netscape that did the same thing.
> 
> > And the right side is usually where all status bar icons go in Firefox
> 
> "all status bar icons" is misleading, as there are only a few currently, and
> hardly more than one at the same time. As they add up, queuing them might be
> the easiest but not the best solution.
I've found that the majority of extensions I use that have a statusbar icon are on the right, and have relevance to the current page or to some external data (like Abe Vigoda Status), whereas the online/offline button is pertinent to the entire browser.
> 
> > the left is completely reserved for the status text.
> 
> The online status indicator suits the status text pretty well. It's the right
> context.
> 
> > If you look up screenshots of
> > the old Suite, you'll see that the offline indicator was on the right too.
> 
> We should care about current Mozilla products, e.g. Thunderbird, instead of the
> old Suite. At least, as long as Thunderbird's behaviour makes sense, which I
> think it does.
What's more, it is the default mode of the extension Work Offline by Naoyuki Asano which has exactly the functionality that people here are arguing should  be already in Firefox, and that extension has been around for ages.

Comment 31

[Parkhideh]

(In reply to comment #26)
a) First in reply to the response of Q2;  I have Firefox 2.0.0.1 and it does not remember the offline status when set via menu File / Work Offline.  Are you using a newer version that I should test for this feature?

b) My two cents worth on views expressed from #26 onwards:
   1) Single click on ICON follows precedence.  Double click would need a Popup HINT to educate the user.  I agree with the sentiment that users will not make the mistake twice, so let them click once.
   2) Thunderbird has the Online/Offline Icon on the left.  That was and is confusing only because others like Netscape have had functionality on left and status on right.  So here my preference is to see the Icon on the right.  However, I say that with reservation because I do value uniformity among products and if Thunderbird was first; shouldn't Firfox follow?
   3) Related to remembering offline status:  Both Thunderbird and Netscape have  this useful feature that if selected (in options); on startup, program asks if user wants to work online or offline.  May we have that in Firefox?
Thank you.

> ........
> (In reply to comment #23)
> > Two questions:  
> > 1) Will this online/offline ICON be an active button like in Netscape and
> > Thunderbird?  (i.e. clickable without a need to go to menu File/Offline)
> > 2) Will Firefox remember the last condition when it was closed (like offline)
> > and come up that way next time?  (or in setup give the option of asking each
> > time)
> 
> 1) Yes. It responds to double-click.
> 2) It does the same thing as File>Work Offline, so yes it will remember it.
> 

Comment 32

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 269190 [details]
Lightbulb icons

I think instead of using an icon in the status bar, a clear text-button in the location bar would make it more evident and obvious that a user was in offline mode. So something like:

 [@ http://foo.bar.com               (Offline) |v]

Comment 33

[Cees T.]

Bug 574653 - RFE: Display "Offline" in windows title when Firefox is working offline.

A toolbar button would be a separate RFE.

Comment 34

[alanjstr]

Since the current direction seems to be to get rid of the status bar, I'm not sure if this bug is still going to happen.

Comment 35

[Cees T.]

https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/493/
Work Offline 1.5 by Naoyuki ASANO
Adds work offline mode UI to Mozilla Firefox.

Comment 36

[walf]

(In reply to comment #35)
> https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/493/
> Work Offline 1.5 by Naoyuki ASANO
> Adds work offline mode UI to Mozilla Firefox.

He's stopped updating it, people have to hack it to get it to work. The advocates of this bug don't think it should be an addon.

Comment 37

[Chris Wood]

Should WONFIX in favour of bug 574653 (so offline status would at least be visible to the OS and perhaps displayed in the taskbar).

Comment 38

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

The status bar is long gone.