27586 - The "Select a Directory" dialog is all wrong

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect, P4)

Description

[Henrik Gemal]

If you press "Browse..." in the custom installer you'll get a "Select a 
Directory" dialog.

1)
In this dialog the first field is called "Directories". It should be called 
"Path".

2)
The second field showing the directory structure doesn't have a heading!

3)
There should also be some help text. Something like:
"Please choose the directory for installation."

4) The "Ok" and "Cancel" should be aligned correctly next to the directory 
structure.

Comment 1

[Henrik Gemal]

Please see the attached image that show the VERY bad dialog....!

Comment 2

[Henrik Gemal]

Attachment: *VERY* bad/ugly/wrong dialog...

Comment 3

[Sean Su]

mass change to M16

Comment 4

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

More problems, going by the screenshot (note that the Acrobat dialog gets some of 
these wrong as well) ...

* The title of the dialog should be `Choose Folder', not `Select a Directory'.
  (Just `selecting' it isn't enough, you also have to exit the dialog to confirm
  your choice. And as far as the user is concerned, it's a `folder', not a
  `directory'.)
* The `Path' (currently `Directories') text widget should have a bevelled border.
* The `Drives' widget should really be called `Drive', since you're only
  selecting one drive.
* the `Directories' widget should really be called `Folder', since you're
  selecting only one folder.
* the `Drive' field should be above the `Folder' field, not below it (since it's
  drives which contain folders, and not the other way around).
* The `Path' widget should be at the bottom, not the top, since it's a more
  technical/advanced way of specifying a path than selecting it from the Drive
  and Folder widgets.
* It would be nice if the `Ok' button could read `Choose', to reassure the user
  about what they're actually doing.

Thus:
+-----------------------------------------+
| Choose Folder :::::::::::::::::::::::[X]|
+-----------------------------------------+
| Please choose the installation folder.  |
|                                         |
| Drive:                                  |
| [C:\ (Fred Disk)      :^] (Network ...) |
|                                         |
| Folder:                                 |
| +---------------------+-+ (( Choose  )) |
| |Fa Program Files     |A|               |
| | Fa Mozilla          |:| (  Cancel   ) |
| |::Fa Seamonkey:::::::|:|               |
| |                     |:|               |
| |                     |:|               |
| |_____________________|V|               |
| |<===================>| |               |
| +---------------------+-+               |
|                                         |
| Path:                                   |
| [C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Seamonkey\  ] |
|                                         |
+-----------------------------------------+

That wouldn't be perfect (a perfect design would take me a bit longer to figure 
out:-), but it would be better than what you have now.

Comment 5

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

The missing border around the Path widget is bug 27577.

[e-mail], if (as you suggested as a possibility in bug 27577) you're 
going to write your own folder selection dialog from scratch, drop me a line and 
I'll come up with a more thorough redesign.

Comment 6

[Cathleen]

post pr2

Comment 7

[timeless]

Marking blocker for the sake of it.
MPT's dialog isn't bad.
MPT have you played w/ MSI? [@6am I have a one track mind]

Comment 8

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Unsetting missed milestones to aid triage queries.

Comment 9

[Henrik Gemal]

Attachment: What a select dir dialog could look like. taken from installer of Offline Explorer.

Comment 10

[timeless]

that dialog is a windows standard dialog for directory picking.

mpt: I know network is a traditional dialog button, but would it be ok to 
require users to use the os to map drives instead of the installer?

Comment 11

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

I don't see why not.

Comment 12

[Henrik Gemal]

Fixing this bug, by using the "Select Directory" widget shown in the 
screenshot, would fix:
- bug 67067
- bug 27577
- bug 37099
- bug 56299
- bug 33349
- bug 37227

Comment 13

[Sean Su]

over to Curt

Comment 14

[Henrik Gemal]

*** Bug 27577 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Henrik Gemal]

*** Bug 165324 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(current dialog seems fine to me, but...)

(In reply to comment #9)
> Created an attachment (id=22606) [edit]
> What a select dir dialog could look like. taken from installer of Offline Explorer.

would your proposal put it on par with FF's sucky directory interface? (if they fixed it so "new folder" integrated properly it might not be so bad, but in its present state which has been broke for months ...)

Comment 17

[Benoît]

It's almost 2007, and the dialog is still like this. Though, to be honest, I don't mind. :)

I guess fixing this isn't worth it with the move to NSIS anyway.

Comment 18

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Seamonkey and Firefox are using a new NSIS based installer. resolving this old bug, please reopen if you still get this with the new installer