681850 - Data Manager: can't add a cookie permission for a new site

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: Passwords & Permissions, defect)

Description

[Commander]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:6.0) Gecko/20110813 Firefox/6.0 SeaMonkey/2.3
Build ID: 20110813174900

Steps to reproduce:

* Open Data Manager
* Choose "Permissions only" ("All data types" behaves the same way)
* Select "*" (all domains)
* Click the "Permissions" tab on the right
* Click "Add" at the bottom of the right pane
* Enter a domain name (which was NOT listed before)
* Choose "Set cookies"
* Click "Add"


Actual results:

The domain did not appear anywhere on the left side.
It sort of disappeared into "nothingness". The domain can't be found
through any of the choices in the Domain Manager. Moreover,
the cookies are not allowed to be set either.


Expected results:

The domain should have been added to the list of domains on the left
with the cookie permission shown on the right.

NOTE: This is NOT the same as trying to add cookie permissions though
the Tools -> Cookie Manager -> Allow ... menus. The reason is simple:
some sites have sort of "backend" sites which provide most of the content.
It is though "backend" sites that set and use cookies. However, the actual
URL does not show these "backend" sites. Thus, using the Cookie Manager
menu allows one to set cookie permissions on the for the main site.

This bug is sort of similar to bug #588417 (add popup permissions)
and bug #677442 (add image permissions). In these two bugs the workflow
is the same: trying to add a permission for a new domain that was not
listed before.

This behavior has been in SeaMonkey ever since Data Manager was
introduced (2.1 I believe). Both 2.2 and 2.3 have the same problem.

Comment 1

[Commander]

CC'ing Kairo. I believe he is the original author of the Data Manager.

Comment 2

[Robert Kaiser]

INVALID as you missed the most important step: Setting an actual permission. All you did was just bringing an entry for cookie permissions up on the display, now you need to select if it should be allowed, session-only, or blocked, else you have set nothing.

I know the UX isn't ideal there and improvement suggestions are welcome, but we cannot know what a user actually wants to set.

Comment 3

[Commander]

(In reply to Robert Kaiser (:[e-mail]) from comment #2)
> INVALID as you missed the most important step: Setting an actual permission.
> All you did was just bringing an entry for cookie permissions up on the
> display, now you need to select if it should be allowed, session-only, or
> blocked, else you have set nothing.

Right. After clicking "add" in the last step in comment #0,
the domain does show up on the right pane. If I click "Allow session cookies",
for example, in that row, the permission does get set.

> I know the UX isn't ideal there and improvement suggestions are welcome, but
> we cannot know what a user actually wants to set.

How about showing up a combobox to the right after the permission type
with more details (block, allow session etc), which would be specific
to the selection in the first combobox (cookie, image, popup etc).
Once the user makes a choice from the second combobox, then "Add" appears
like it does now. This way when the user clicks "Add", the code will be
able to do things correctly. Here is a mock up:

+-----+   +-------------+-+   +---------------+-+   +-----+
| Add |   | Set cookies |V|   | Allow session |V|   | Add |
+-----+   +-------------+-+   +---------------+-+   +-----+
   ^
   |
May be rename to "New permission"?

Comment 4

[Robert Kaiser]

(In reply to Commander from comment #3)
> +-----+   +-------------+-+   +---------------+-+   +-----+
> | Add |   | Set cookies |V|   | Allow session |V|   | Add |
> +-----+   +-------------+-+   +---------------+-+   +-----+
>    ^
>    |
> May be rename to "New permission"?

There is no "Add" there any more once you clicked, there is the hostname field in the front instead. ;-)
So it might look like this:

> +-------------------+   +---------------+-+   +---------------------+-+   +-----+
> | Enter a host name |   | Select a type |V|   | Select a permission |V|   | Add |
> +-------------------+   +---------------+-+   +---------------------+-+   +-----+

The permission selection is not 100% easy to implement, but should be doable.

Can you file a separate bug on that, mark it dependent on bug 569341 and bug 588417 and please CC me?

Comment 5

[Commander]

(In reply to Robert Kaiser (:[e-mail]) from comment #4)
> There is no "Add" there any more once you clicked, there is the hostname
> field in the front instead. ;-)

Right :)

> So it might look like this:
> 
> +-------------------+   +---------------+-+   +---------------------+-+   +-----+
> | Enter a host name |   | Select a type |V|   | Select a permission |V|   | Add |
> +-------------------+   +---------------+-+   +---------------------+-+   +-----+
> 

That will work.

> Can you file a separate bug on that, mark it dependent on bug 569341 and bug
> 588417 and please CC me?

Done, see bug #682193.