611500 - [meta] Provide better feedback for the completion of sync operations

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Description

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

The purpose of this bug is to improve the way that we provide feedback for sync operations, as far as I can tell there are three types:

1) initial sync, triggered from the setup wizard
2) triggered from the Firefox menu or tools menu
3) triggered from the customizable toolbar button

The three solutions will likely be slightly different.  I'll post mockups to this bug.

Comment 3

[Nordware]

I think, as the sync interval will become shorter and shorter in future (currently it's 5 minutes), it would be kinda distracting to have something moving on the primary UI. I think it would be a good solution to have some kind of a throbber in the Firefox menu and also change the "Sync Now" entry to "Syncing..." instead.

Comment 4

[Nordware]

Attachment: Mockup

This is just a quick mockup i created for bug 647386 .
As an alternative the sync icon itself could be acting as a throbber, spinning like it was in the standalone sync addon.

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

I think with Instant Sync we no longer want this, aside from the first syncs (bug 675822 for desktop, bug 675824 for mobile) which are covered elsewhere.  Marking WONTFIX.

Comment 6

[Nordware]

Still there should be a way to tell if Firefox is actually syncing.
I think at least the term "Sync now" cold be changed to "Syncing...".

I often do something at home and want to sync before leaving home so I can resume my work on any other computer "with Firefox Portable on my pen drive). So i click "Sync now" and wait... It would be nice to see, wen it's finished.

Comment 7

[Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon]]

(In reply to Nordware from comment #6)
> Still there should be a way to tell if Firefox is actually syncing.
> I think at least the term "Sync now" cold be changed to "Syncing...".

We want to do that. In fact, we want to get rid of the "Sync Now" menu item and simply say "Synced x minutes ago" or "Syncing..." if we're syncing right this moment.

> I often do something at home and want to sync before leaving home so I can
> resume my work on any other computer "with Firefox Portable on my pen
> drive). So i click "Sync now" and wait... It would be nice to see, wen it's
> finished.

What work is this? Firefox 7+ syncs changes to bookmarks, passwords, etc. pretty much immediately. This should make "Sync Now" obsolete for a lot of cases.

Comment 8

[Nordware]

(In reply to Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon] from comment #7)

> We want to do that.

Ok, i were just confused about the WONTFIX status of this bug.

> What work is this? Firefox 7+ syncs changes to bookmarks, passwords, etc.
> pretty much immediately.

It doesn't seem to instant-sync tabs (actually it hardly ever syncs tabs at all).
But i think this is a different story and will be told in a different bug. [(c) Michael Ende]