406161 - list of labels (tags) is not shown (suggestion: show as folders or as tag cloud)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[jetxee]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; ru; rv:1.9b1) Gecko/2007110903 Firefox/3.0b1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; ru; rv:1.9b1) Gecko/2007110903 Firefox/3.0b1

I cannot find the list of existing tags (labels) in neither bookmarks sidebar nor in Places organizer. I can see the list of folders, but not the list of labels I used. They only appear as additional properties of some bookmarks.

In my opinion this predates the whole idea of labels. They should provide a flat categories system to navigate the bookmarks. The tag-oriented user wants to see which labels are there, and which items are marked with them.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Add some tags to bookmarks
2. Try to find which tags are there and which bookmarks `belong' to which tag.
Actual Results:  
Tags (labels) are viewed now as an additional property of the bookmark. It is impossible to view all the available tags or navigate the collection of bookmarks using only tags.

Expected Results:  
I would expect tags (labels) to be visible in bookmarks sidebar and Places organizer as
* either special type of folder (they are parents for bookmarks)
* or as an element of tag cloud (web-style)

In fact I would expect tags (labels) and folders to be identical from the user  point of view.

I would like to point to Epiphany web browser, where tagging system is used in bookmarks for years. They are called topics there and are identical to (virtual) folders. In fact, it also simplifies the process of adding a bookmark. It is sufficient to think which topics it relates to, and check them, no need to deal with a hierarchic folder trees each time one adds a bookmark.

Comment 1

[Kevin Brosnan]

A list of tags can be viewed by opening the star menu and clicking the down arrow at the end of the tag text box.

The places folder has a list of your most recently used tags and most used tags.

Comment 2

[jetxee]

We should distinguish two uses of the list of labels:

1) A list of existing labels to choose from for new bookmarks. This one serves only when adding new bookmarks/modifying existing bookmarks.

It is the list which can be viewed by opening star menu. This list does not help in navigation.

2) A list of labels as a means of navigation. This one serves when an existing bookmark is looked for.

Now I see that there are lists of labels in Places menu if bookmarks toolbar is enabled. However, I think this menu is not very convenient if the number of bookmarks and labels is big (when the list does not fit the screen anymore).

As the main tools to deal with bookmarks (especially large bookmarks collections) are Bookmarks menu, bookmarks sidebar and Places organizer, I think the same lists of labels should be visible also there.

For example, if most used labels appeared in Bookmarks menu, bookmarks sidebar and Places organizer as "folders", they would be more easily accessible.

Comment 3

[Ondrej Brablc]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Now I see that there are lists of labels in Places menu if bookmarks toolbar is
> enabled. However, I think this menu is not very convenient if the number of
> bookmarks and labels is big (when the list does not fit the screen anymore).

With my FF I can see tags in "Bookmarks Toolbar->Smart Bookmarks->Recent Tags". This shows up the last 10 tags added. Regardless whether "Bookmarks Toolbar" is shown or not, I can see the full list of tags from places organizer accessible via "Bookmarks->Show All Bookmarks" menu.

It should already now be possible to create a smart bookmark which can be placed anywhere in the "Bookmarks Toolbar" or "Bookmarks Menu", which will give you a list of all tags (after implementation of bug 385245, the uri of the smart bookmark will be place:type=6, and loading or this list will be very fast).

As for the tags cloud, my feeling is that this could be a nice idea for some extension.

Comment 4

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

A "Tags" folder was added to the Library. Marking WFM. See the TagSifter extension for getting a tag cloud in your sidebar.

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Bug 451915 - move Firefox/Places bugs to Firefox/Bookmarks and History. Remove all bugspam from this move by filtering for the string "places-to-b-and-h".

In Thunderbird 3.0b, you do that as follows:
Tools | Message Filters
Make sure the correct account is selected. Click "New"
Conditions: Body   contains   places-to-b-and-h
Change the action to "Delete Message".
Select "Manually Run" from the dropdown at the top.
Click OK.

Select the filter in the list, make sure "Inbox" is selected at the bottom, and click "Run Now". This should delete all the bugspam. You can then delete the filter.

Gerv