506881 - Pasting an URL into the download manager should start the download of that file

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 712421

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, enhancement)

Description

[Thomas]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; fr; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; fr; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1

If the clipboard contains a recognizable URL (ie starts with http:// or https:// or ftp://) then it'd be nice if pasting into the download manager started the download of that file.

This is default behavior in Safari and Omniweb.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Copy a valid URL into the clipboard.
2. Open the Download Manager.
3. Paste the URL.
Actual Results:  
Nothing happens.

Expected Results:  
Start the download from the pasted URL.

Currently I have made an extension _almost_ working. But it only handles Ctrl/Command+V event, not middleclick (on Linux).

BTW, there is a similar bug but it seems Camino-centric,: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=328665 That's why a created a new bug for the toolkit.

Comment 1

[Vivien Nicolas (:vingtetun) (:21) - (NOT reading bugmails, needinfo? please)]

Thomas, can you add your extension (as an attachment) to take a look at how it works?

Comment 2

[Thomas]

Attachment: First steps, inside the extension

Here is the extension. Right now, it's not completely functional. I need to:
-find how to download in the default download folder (currently it saves the file in the cache folder)
-put a real name to the downloaded file, currently it's a random name...

Comment 3

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

While this seems fine for an add-on to do, this isn't something we'll want in the core product.  The download manager doesn't need to have everything and the kitchen sink.

Comment 4

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

We ended up doing this!