Closed Bug 231580 Opened 21 years ago Closed 18 years ago

Download Manager should receive focus when downloading commences and it is open

Categories

(Camino Graveyard :: Downloading, enhancement, P3)

Product:
Camino Graveyard
Component:
Downloading
Platform:
PowerPC
macOS
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED
Milestone:
Camino1.5

People

(Reporter: paul, Assigned: mikepinkerton)

References

Details

(Keywords: fixed1.8.1) 

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-gb; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040114 Camino/0.7+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-gb; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040114 Camino/0.7+

When the download manager is open and a file starts to download the manager does
not recieve focus or bring itself to the top. If the download manager is
obscured by another window there is no indication that a download has started or
that anything has happened. The download manager should bring itself to the
front and claim focus when a download starts

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open the download manager
2. Obscure the download manager with a new browser window
3. Start downloading a file

Actual Results:  
There is no feedback that anything happened

Expected Results:  
The download manager should recieve focus and raise itself to the top of the
window stack
Camino previously gave focus to the dl manager for each download.  Bug 191306
was filed to prevent the dl manager from taking focus and distracting the user.

See bug 229930 requesting a toolbar button for download window one-click focus.
nobody is ever going to be happy, we may have to make a pref. fwiw, safari does
the same thing we do (leave it in the bg)
Target Milestone: --- → Camino1.0
I feel this is half and half.
Even though the download manager shouldn't obtain focus the download manager
should at least come forward to say "Hey, I'm downloading something."
Feedback in the current window would be useful when a download commences.  For
example, versiontracker.com downloads seem to fail if you leave their page
before the ads loop.  A download indication would cue the user that it is safe
to leave the page.

However, bringing the whole dl manager to the front is not elegant.  Perhaps
another alternative, like minimal download feedback in the status bar.
Summary: download manager should recieve focus when downloading commences and it is open → Download Manager should receive focus when downloading commences and it is open
Confirming as an RFE
Severity: normal → enhancement
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
please, if you add this, add it as a pref. It can drive you batty when
attempting to download a few files from the same page if the DL manager keeps
jumping in front.
Maybe we should simply change the status text in the browser window to "Download
started" when a download is commenced?
Perhaps Growl support (http://growl.info) could be added for download
started/completed notifications?
In every browser I use, I position the download manager so that I can see it
when it opens (granted, I have a wide enough screen for that) and I can check on
the status with a glance while I continue to do other things (queue other files
for download, browse, etc.)

There are so many things these days trying to grab focus and the one suggested
in this bug would drive me crazy! :-)

Please make the behavior advocated in this bug a pref if it is implemented :-)
Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention before, or it is a recent regression, but
20041029 0.8+ nightly *has* the download manager taking focus when a download
begins!?
Apologies for the *third* posting; I misunderstood the fix in Bug 191306.
*** Bug 266830 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
In firefox when you do a search in a web page, a small bar pops up at the
bottom. What would you think of having such a small bar for download that start
and finish. The starting version could give the option to cancel the download.
The finish one would give the option present in the download manager basically.
Those would stay up for 30 seconds and have a close button if the user want to
get rid of them earlier. If the user performs several download only one would be
displayed, he would then have to switch to the download manager. The bar is
about 20~25 pixels in height.
Perhaps a better solution would be some or all of these:

1) Downloads manager only takes focus the first time it opens. I find this annoying even in safari, but 
it's probably a must for usability

2) Add a new area in the status bar down at the bottom of the browser window. make a one liner 
stating the file name being downloaded, and a status bar going across until complete. Add a small info 
type icon that would bring the downloads manager to be the window in focus. Perhaps leave it there 
until complete, and then put an X beside it. If there for more than $TIME (of which I shouldn't be the 
one to suggest), go ahead and dismiss it. If there are multiple downloads, make it 2 lines, one for 
current file, and one for progress of all files.

3) There is already the downloads toolbar button, this works well with this paradigm. If someone wants 
to see more information on the download, they can click it, or the info button at the bottom of the 
window.

4) No need for a preference.

5) Add Growl support (maybe). No need for a preference, user can configure Camino preferences in the 
Growl preference pane. User can be notified via Growl when a download starts, can see the progress of 
the download at the bottom of the window, and can continue browsing. 
(In reply to comment #14)
> 2) Add a new area in the status bar down at the bottom of the browser window. 

A download is not associated with a window so it shouldn't be displayed in the
window. It would make it look like activity is happening at each page you
visited in the window and information is lost if the window is closed.

> 5) Add Growl support (maybe).

That is bug 283100
(In reply to comment #15)
> (In reply to comment #14)
> > 2) Add a new area in the status bar down at the bottom of the browser window. 
> 
> A download is not associated with a window so it shouldn't be displayed in the
> window. It would make it look like activity is happening at each page you
> visited in the window and information is lost if the window is closed.
> 


Well do you have a better idea?

> > 5) Add Growl support (maybe).
> 
> That is bug 283100

Yea, I know.
Priority: -- → P3
Target Milestone: Camino1.0 → Camino1.1
Unable to get download manger window to work with cookies enabled/disabled on
several websites like versiontracker.
(In reply to comment #17)
> Unable to get download manger window to work with cookies enabled/disabled on
> several websites like versiontracker.

What do you mean?
*** Bug 320632 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Since when is it OK to hide things from the user when the user has performed a new action? When I click on a link to download a file, there should be something indicating that the download has started (like a window popping up to show me the progress...), but in most cases when I click on a download link, nothing happens. And then I click again and nothing happens. And then I press F10 and realize that the download was being hidden from me (with the manager loading behind my browser window) and I'm downloading five copies of the one file that I need.

I'm not a novice user by any means, using Linux as my main desktop before I started working at a place that had Macs and then I finally got a G5 iMac, and if it takes me this much time to realize something's wrong (i.e. I'm hogging the connection and harddrive space by downloading the same file multiple times), I can't imagine how long it'd take beginners to realize what's happening. When I start a new download, I should not need to hunt around for something telling me it started. That's frustrating.

If someone is downloading multiple files at a time (is that even the most common action? I don't think so... I think most people download one file at a time before browsing to another page) then they can simply move the download manager window to the side so that the popup doesn't overlap the browser window. Or it could be a preference. But for the sake of new users, the current default should not stand.
watching my gf click the same link over and over and over and then ask me if the internet is working makes me think we need a pref, which defaults to "on" to bring the window to the front if it's open and a download starts.

for those that it annoys, they can turn it off. i think those people are in the minority, maybe even a hidden pref will be good enough.
*** Bug 329523 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
pink fixed this today.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 18 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
(In reply to comment #23)
> pink fixed this today.
> 

Is this fix supposed to be in the nightlies already? I just downloaded a new one (March 23 on OS 10.4.5) and the behavior still doesn't seem to have changed. I download a file to bring up a download manager window, then if I browse to another page with the browser window overlapping the download manager and click on another download link, it looks like nothing happens. Click a couple times to download the same file and still nothing until I move the browser window out of the way and see multiple copies of the same file downloading.
This fix will be in trunk builds and nightlies from the 1.8 branch (designated as 1.0+) but *not* from nightlies from the 1.8.0 branch (designated as 1.0.0+).
For the record, this is extremely fucking annoying for those of us (which is probably most Camino users) who are used to the old behaviour.

I think we should default to the original behaviour, and thoroughly document this for the five people who want to be annoyed by the downloads window coming to the foreground every time they click something.

cl
watching people use camino, you sir are in the minority. most people have no idea why the download didn't start and click the link again and again. I think even BenG is in this group.
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.