597145 - Move download progress meter to toolbar icon (as replacement for status bar indicator)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Theme, defect)

Description

[Peter Henkel [:Terepin]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0b7pre) Gecko/20100916 Firefox/4.0b7pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0b7pre) Gecko/20100916 Firefox/4.0b7pre

Since new DM won't make it into 4.0 and the status bar will be removed, we need to place progress meter somwhere else. Probably the most uninvasive solution would be adapting Stephene's idea. Looks nice, fit's both new UI and GUI, plus in 4.1 we could just add new DM (in 4.0 it would be opening old DM).

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Dave Garrett]

With the progress text going away in the status bar, there *needs* to be a replacement for that. Making a point of changing the OS to "all" because Win7 already has a progress meter using the download manager window icon in the taskbar, though this still requires opening the download manager. (bug 474060) Linux, older Windows, and other OSes, on the other hand, would have no progress indicator even with the download manager minimized unless you kept the thing on-screen and in the way. Mac has an idea not yet worked on for its dock in bug 548763. 

This has a blocking request on it right now and I really need to argue for a blocking betaN+ here, as we can't remove the main top-level GUI notification for downloads and not replace it with at least an icon progress meter in the toolbar (with the preexisting total time estimation in tooltip).

I tried keeping the downloads manager open for all downloads when I created my Firefox 4 profile and had to give up, because the current GUI is horribly out-dated (i.e. sucks). We all know it; that's why it's being redone in bug 564934. (which should have been a blocker, but that was only my opinion)

Comment 2

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

The replacement is in the Download Manager, or in an add-on someone develops. I've WONTFIXED and blocking minused a few other bugs like this in the past. If we get a better Download Manager (that's not a separate window) in the future we'll do OK.

For now the design decision is to take this out of the main window. I'm sorry to disappoint you.

Comment 3

[Dave Garrett]

(In reply to comment #2)
> For now the design decision is to take this out of the main window.

So, you're intentionally regressing and shipping without an intended feature. Firefox 4.0 is actually intended have worse download handling then Firefox 3.x? (or, just if you're not on one of the Chosen OSes?) I'm not being rhetorical here; I would honestly like to know the reasoning. The intended download manager replacement has been explicitly said to not make Firefox 4.0, so it's getting partially crippled via status bar removal without any replacement.

Comment 4

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

(In reply to comment #3)
> The intended download
> manager replacement has been explicitly said to not make Firefox 4.0, so it's
> getting partially crippled via status bar removal without any replacement.

Sometimes these things happen in the name of progress. I can assure you that I'll work hard to land the new download manager in Firefox 4.x. The situation is pretty good for the large majority of our audience, and if there's a way to do something similar for Linux, I'd love to know how.

Comment 5

[Dave Garrett]

(In reply to comment #4)
> if there's a way to do something similar for Linux, I'd love to know how.

Both GNOME and KDE have built in system-wide notification systems. I don't know how advanced GNOME is these days, but all KDE file system actions with a progress meter needed popup in their own auto-hiding collapsible panel with a progress bar and info. If you could hook into this many people would probably like that a lot. I don't know if there's a GTK route that would hook into both. (i.e. I have no idea how to implement this)

Comment 6

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

We show progress in the taskbar in Windows 7; bug 548763 offers to do this for the dock in OSX. If we want a bug on file for Linux, be my guest. But this bug is WONTFIX.