252454 - Dragging bookmark folder to Desktop causes modal error lock up

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Oomingmak]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040707 Firefox/0.9.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040707 Firefox/0.9.2

Drag and drop from the Bookmarks menu to the Desktop has some strange behaviour.

Three problems exist:

1. You need to release the modifier key (control or shift) BEFORE letting go of
the bookmark file, otherwise it will just not be copied. 

2. Dragging a bookmark FOLDER from the Bookmark menu to the Desktop causes a
modal error dialog (that does not stay on top). This gives the appearance of
Firefox having "locked up" (and it's not easy or intuitive to know how to
resolve this).

3. You can not change the type of drag that you are doing in mid-drag (by
pressing or releasing modfier keys). 

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
Issue ONE:
1. Size the Firefox window so that you can see some Desktop
2. Hold down the control key and drag a single bookmark to Desktop
3. Let go of the MOUSE button over the Desktop BEFORE you release the control key

Issue TWO:

1. Repeat the above, but this time using a bookmark FOLDER
2. Release the CONTROL key BEFORE letting go of the mouse button
3. Then release the mouse button to drop the bookmark folder on to the Desktop

Issue THREE:
1. Open the Bookmarks folder and find a single bookmark file
2. Point your mouse to the file and press and hold your primary mouse button
3. Begin to drag the bookmark to the Desktop
4. While still holding down the primary mouse button, press and hold down the
control key on the keyboard
Actual Results:  
Issue ONE: Nothing at all happens

Issue TWO: Hear an error sound and Firefox appears to lock up. In fact this is
due to a modal error dialog, but which does not appear on top (so you can't see
what's causing the problem). After much jiggling about of various open windows 
you will find the hiding Firefox error dialog which says "Not enough storage is
available to complete this operation"

Issue THREE: no indication is given that a shortcut or copy is about to be made
(the mouse pointer does not change in response to whether the contol key is
depressed or not). 


Expected Results:  
Issue ONE: The bookmark file should have appeared on the Desktop (irrespective
of when the modfier key was released).

Issue TWO: The folder should have appeared on the Desktop (complete with a
re-creation of the bookmark files and sub-folders that were stored inside it).

Issue THREE: In the case of Windows OS, the mouse pointer should have changed to
show a  +  (plus) sign, indicating that a copy will be made. This is totally
standard behaviour in Windows (and it can be witnessed by dragging any file or
folder and pressing a modifier key AFTER the drag has started). The action can
be changed indefinitely depending on what key is depressed or released. 

If no modifier key is used, then this will result in the default drag action
being applied (i.e. Move - if on same drive, Copy - if on another drive).
'Control' will always result in 'Copy' being made, and 'Shift' will always shift
/ 'Move' the file to new location. 'Alt' is used to create an 'Alternative'
launch point for the file (i.e. a shortcut link).

Firefox gives an idication that bookmarks files and folders ARE droppable on the
Desktop (there is no "No drop" icon displayed, instead it shows a drag and drop
icon). Therefore, you would expect Firefox to work in a standard drag and drop
manner that is consistent with the OS on which it is being run. 

The drag and drop to Desktop does not work for Bookmark Files or Bookmark
Folders without using a Modifier key. The modifier key can be either Control or
Shift, but strangely they both do exact the same thing. 

I think it would be better if 'Control' placed a 'Copy' on the Desktop (leaving
the original HTML bookmark in tact) while 'Shift' could give the apperanace of
'Moving' the bookmark (or folder) to the Desktop (by creating the file(s) on the
Desktop and then deleting the original HTML item bookmarks).

There is also the issue of inconsistent drag and drop WITHIN the Bookmark menu
(i.e Shift being required for bookmark FOLDERS but NOT for bookmark FILES).

I would suggest that either 'Shift' always 'moves' and 'Control' always
'copies', or that Firefox always follows OS conventions (which in the case of
Windows means that no modifier is the same as shift - i.e. move). This would
mean that both bookmark files and bookmark folders would be moveable within the
bookmarks menu OR to the Desktop, without needing a modifier. If modifier keys
are to be used, then they should apply both to single bookmark files as well as
bookmark folders.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Oomingmak, you have provided superb detail

But I am marking this INVALID because you describe 3 different types of bugs,
each with different solutions and resolutions. In the future, generally
speaking, create just one bug per issue.

To give you a head start on your 3 items.

1. "need to release the modifier key (control or shift) BEFORE letting go of
the bookmark file, otherwise it will just not be copied." see #3 below - note
however windows 2000 does not behave the same as XP, in XP the bookmark will be
dropped/copied just fine.

2. a) drag and dropping a folder into windows (desktop or folder) is not a valid
function. b) the error message which is hidden is (I think) a MS-windows message
which FF (I think) has no control of the placement - however in XP the "not
enough storage" messsage is not hidden behind the FF window like it is in
windows 2000

3. mouse modifier key functions (move for example) are not supported (currently)
within FF bookmark drag and drop.  The behavior you describe is consistent with
the modifiers not working.  I don't think it makes sense to provide a "move"
function from bookmarks, but you could create a new bug as an enhancement
request. (look for a duplicate bugs first)

Comment 2

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs, filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change