731990 - helper application not remembered and dialog box (file picker/chooser) cumbersome/inconvenient

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Landis Reed]

Attachment: FF-Aurora-OpenDialog-Changed-Sucks-29.02.12-03.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:12.0a2) Gecko/20120227 Firefox/12.0a2
Build ID: 20120227042012

Steps to reproduce:

firefox (Aurora 12.0a2 on openSuSE 12.1 / KDE 4.7.2) 
I click on *.pdf file.
(have in pref>apps chosen 'always ask')
dialog 'ask' is Always 'Browse'. It no longer has either last used listed.
Also, when I click 'browse' the open dialog opens and it takes more clicks (TOO MANY Clicks) to be able to type the location of my app (/usr/bin/okular). 


Actual results:

Helper Application does NOT remember last used as of this update (29.02.12)
Helper Application dialog - HATE the click ****, browse and having to click, Yet Again to be able to type in the location of my application /usr/bin/okular... 

I HATE having to let go of the keyboard for one stupid click... It looks like some cabbage patch, toyland interface for little boys and xbox.. so to speak.


Expected results:

what to do with file dialog should 'remember' what I used / did last as it Always has.
And if it can't, I should not have to click yet another thing to be able to type the location of the 'helper application' and I should Not have to type the full path when the base path is already in the Non-Typable portion of the location "/usr/bin" with file browse list below. 
It's Too far to scroll to 'okular' and irritating to have to click again, just to have to go back to keyboard and type Full path, again, to /usr/bin/okular...
Put it back to open dialog of a week ago!!!!! 
Please!
Landis.
p.s., is the open dialog a function of KDE 4.7 and it's moronic unilateral decision to make the **** app, Dolphin the 'default file manager' and not that of FireFox, even though I use konqueror???

Comment 1

[Landis Reed]

with todays update i don't even get the option to click on type path.. 
trying to launch google earth [url http://landisreed.com/images/screens/FireFox/FF-Aurora-OpenDialog-Changed-Sucks-29.02.12-04.png] this is all I get.. [/url]
google earth is in /opt/google/earth/free/ , fyi..

Landis.

Comment 2

[mozilla]

Agreed, the current dialog is **** (sorry for abrupt review, but it is: it is cumbersome for advanced users and hopelessly confusing for those unfamiliar with a command line)

What it should do, in my opinion, is:
1) allow a path and arguments to be typed (3 times quicker for many users and more flexible)
2) provide autocompletion based on the PATH environment variable and/or the desktop-provided menu entries (so if I type "okul" it will complete to /usr/bin/okular, assuming that exists)
3) on linux, xdg-open usually finds a good application, so this should probably be the default tool to open files of unknown type (IMHO it could simply be used to completely replace Firefox's application selection since its choices are (at least for KDE) *far* better and it provides better desktop integration)

Comment 3

[mozilla]

I realise these may not be exactly the same issue, but both have roughly the same resolution: improve the "select application" system.

Another issue with the current system: impossible to select applications in a hidden path (e.g. I have $HOME/.local/bin).