430477 - I killed my whole year of download history with a mis-click

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, defect)

Description

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Silly Clear List button.

Meh. Time to start rebuilding I guess. :p

Comment 1

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Too late to change strings anyway.. Future.

Comment 2

[Damian Shaw [Quan]]

I always back-up my profile when testing, so I can test extremely large download lists for example when I need to and test that clear list buttons work at other times.

Do you think there should be a warning here? It doesn't seem like a common thing to mis-click such a button, it was as mis-clickable in the context menu if you wanted to click something else there.

Comment 3

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

I had a backup.. kinda ;) I use a profile for nightly usage and a separate one for testing. I copy my nightly's downloads.sqlite to testing from time to time. Except I cleared the list in the test profile when implementing the Clear List button and now on the nightly I accidentally hit the Clear List button...

Both profiles = no downloads. :(

Comment 4

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Attachment: v1

Maybe? I totally didn't try compiling, so no testing either. Off to lunch. :p

Comment 5

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

Comment on attachment 317300 [details] [diff] [review]
v1

> nsDownloadManager::CleanUp()
> {
>+  // Try to backup the database before killing everything
>+  nsCOMPtr<mozIStorageService> storage =
>+    do_GetService(MOZ_STORAGE_SERVICE_CONTRACTID);
>+  nsCOMPtr<nsIFile> dbFile;
>+  nsCOMPtr<nsIFile> backup;
>+  if (storage &&
>+      NS_SUCCEEDED(NS_GetSpecialDirectory(NS_APP_USER_PROFILE_50_DIR,
>+                                          getter_AddRefs(dbFile))) &&
>+      NS_SUCCEEDED(dbFile->Append(DM_DB_NAME))) {
get the db file from the connection object

>+    (void)storage->BackupDatabaseFile(dbFile, DM_DB_BACKUP_FILENAME, nsnull,
>+                                      getter_AddRefs(backup));
weird spacing

need opinion from drivers too

Comment 6

[Simon Bünzli]

You'd also have to make sure to remove that backup file when clearing private data.

Comment 7

[Jesse Ruderman]

I think an "Undo" command would be better than a warning dialog.

Comment 8

[AndrewM]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I think an "Undo" command would be better than a warning dialog.

And maybe after a certain amount of time has elapsed or the user downloads something new the downloads.sqlite.backup file could be automatically deleted and the "Undo" command becomes disabled again.

Comment 9

[Kai Liu]

What about making the list clearing take effect only after the dialog has been closed?  When clicked, change "Clear List" to "Undo Clear List".

Comment 10

[José Jeria]

Just curious, how can you mis-click on this clear list button? What did you intend to click on? There is no button next to it.

The undo concept would be needed to be added to all buttons that clear information, such as the "clear private data" too. 

Comment 11

[Jason Quinn]

If you accidentally click "Clear list", too bad. Adding an "Are you sure?" prompt or dialog is holding the user's hand way too much. Adding such a prompt will be a nuisance because the vast majority of the time they will want to clear the dang list and not be bothered.

In the remaining minority of clicks, the experience of accidental clicking amounts to, "damn it.... oh well". In other words, it's not the end of the world. Pretty much the only people for whom it would be slightly more annoying would be for developers of the downloads manager who like their long list because it helps them test the performance of the module and the search.

Don't forget some of the reasons WHY people are interested in using a "clear list" function... too remove embarrassing stuff from their history! Porn or whatever. Keeping downloads in some database after clearing the list to support some "undo" function or what-have-you is not what the most people would want and treads into privacy concerns. In the user's mind, when they clear the list it should erase their tracks. 

On a more proactive note, I'm curious about the question in Comment #10 too. How did you accidentally click it?

Lastly, if there must be a dialog, I think Kai Liu's suggestion sounds fairly reasonable.

Comment 12

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

Verified WONTFIX