421763 - bookmarks import and restore only allow files named .html and .json

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[crf]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5pre) Gecko/2008030804 Minefield/3.0b5pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5pre) Gecko/2008030804 Minefield/3.0b5pre

When you choose to restore bookmarks from a bookmarks backup, it displays and lets you to select only files that have a particular extension, html.

You should be able to choose to display and select files that are not html. Although naming the files *.html is the normal way, and a good default to have, why shouldn't you be able to name your backups however you'd like?

--

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open the Library via Organize Bookmarks in the Bookmarks menu
2.From Import and Backup, choose Restore --> Choose file.
3.A dialogue pops up, and it (sensibly) displays files with the suffix .html in selected directories
4.There is a box that allows you to choose what types of file are shown, but it less sensibly allows only one choice, html.
Actual Results:  
You can't choose your bookmarks backup if it is not named *.html

Expected Results:  
Allow you to choose a backup with any kind of name or suffix.

The workaround is to rename your files as needed.

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to comment #0)
> why shouldn't you be able to name your backups however you'd like?

because the standard format is html, the file is an html file, you will be able to open it with other programs/editor that accept html files, so why you would want to change that?

Comment 2

[crf]

I am not angling for mozilla to be able to read files other than html files, and clearly wrote that, Marco. I simply want it to not prevent you naming your html backups however you want. An extension does not a file make.

Comment 3

[Ryan Hickman]

The bookmarks engine has since been changed to JSON. The above still applies, just replacing .html with .json.

Confirmed
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008041104 Minefield/3.0pre

Kubuntu Hardy Alpha - KDE4.03

I tend to name backups with the .backup extension, regardless of file type. This is definitely a bug to consider.

I vote to move forward - CONFIRMED.

Comment 4

[Jason Harvey]

Attachment: Adds "All Files" filter option when choosing "Bookmark Restore" file

Added an "All Files" filter option to the file chooser interface. The "JSON" option is still the default. I would guess that most users are going to use the default file extension so I don't believe it is necessary to set the "All Files" filter as default.

Built and tested on Ubuntu Hardy amd64 with Gnome 2.22.1

Comment 5

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Wouldn't this give incomprehensible problems if new Firefox 3 users want to restore an old bookmarks.html file? I assume Firefox will do nothing in that case because it only can restore the .json format. 

Comment 6

[Ryan Hickman]

I agree, users will assume that .html can be restored when it likely cannot.

Comment 7

[Jason Harvey]

Should the lack of functionality to restore an HTML bookmark backup be addressed in another bug report?

Regardless of whether you can restore HTML files or not, users should be allowed to restore a JSON file without a .JSON extension.

If you attempt to restore an HTML backup file, the current interface pops an error indicating that the file is of an invalid format.

Comment 8

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Should the lack of functionality to restore an HTML bookmark backup be
> addressed in another bug report?

do you mean the ability to import a bookmarks HTML file and have it completely replace the existing bookmark collection?

if so, yes please file a new bug for that.

let's use this bug for removing the file extension restriction, whether html or json.

> 
> Regardless of whether you can restore HTML files or not, users should be
> allowed to restore a JSON file without a .JSON extension.
> 
> If you attempt to restore an HTML backup file, the current interface pops an
> error indicating that the file is of an invalid format.
> 

agreed. the Restore menu option should only show json files i think. however, if the user chooses a file via the file picker, we should trust their choice and attempt to process the file.

Comment 9

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Comment on attachment 315453 [details] [diff] [review]
Adds "All Files" filter option when choosing "Bookmark Restore" file

r=me, thanks

Comment 10

[Michael Kohler [:mkohler]]

Attachment: hg patch (ready for checkin)

I made a hg diff of this change. So we can checkin? (checkin-needed)

Comment 11

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/82d9e20dd56d

Comment 12

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Comment on attachment 374160 [details] [diff] [review]
hg patch (ready for checkin)

really minor and no risk change, adding full wildcard to open file dialog.

Comment 13

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-1.9.1/rev/7be850ebb96b

Comment 14

[Aakash Desai [:aakashd]]

Not sure what happened, but I'm seeing a different between trunk and Shiretoko:

Trunk:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090505 Minefield/3.6a1pre ID:20090505031205

JSON and All Files options available

and

Shiretoko

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1b5pre) Gecko/20090505 Shiretoko/3.5b5pre ID:20090505031155

JSON option only available

Comment 15

[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