926146 - Toolkit download manager doesn't show any downloads anymore

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Downloads Panel, defect)

Description

[Cork]

After the landing of bug 847863, the toolkit download manager doesn't show any downloads anymore.

STR:
1. Start a new clean profile
2. Set browser.download.useToolkitUI to true
3. Click the download arrow to get the download window
3. Download a file

Expected result:
The download should show up in the download window

Actual result:
Nothing shows in the download window

Regression range:
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=d136c8999d96&tochange=2ab07dec6404

The toolkit manager needs to be removed or (preferably) updated to the new backend.

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Removing support for useToolkitUI could be fine now, mostly cause we are giving back something very tangible for it, like a faster/smoother downloads experience. I would have liked to have at least bug 851774 fixed before dropping the old DM, if that's feasible in a short time with the new API that'd be very nice action.

Comment 2

[:Paolo Amadini]

(In reply to Marco Bonardo [:mak] from comment #1)
> Removing support for useToolkitUI could be fine now, mostly cause we are
> giving back something very tangible for it, like a faster/smoother downloads
> experience. I would have liked to have at least bug 851774 fixed before
> dropping the old DM, if that's feasible in a short time with the new API
> that'd be very nice action.

Bug 851774 is already fixed by the new JavaScript API for downloads. We should definitely use a build-time setting so that the improvements are available to everyone, I've filed bug 928349 for that.

Comment 3

[Cork]

Uh sorry but how is a compile time pref for the javascript api going to fix browser.download.useToolkitUI?

Right now users with that has useToolkitUI = true hand a broken download manager.

Comment 4

[:Paolo Amadini]

(In reply to Cork from comment #3)
> Right now users with that has useToolkitUI = true hand a broken download
> manager.

The useToolkitUI preference will be available in Firefox 24 ESR (Extended Support Release) only. Using that channel will be the only way to continue to use the Toolkit Download Manager for some time, even though this means staying in a condition that is not officially supported.

Starting from Firefox 26 the preference will not be available anymore, because the old Download Manager code is not compatible with the new JavaScript API, and updating it would require a considerable amount of time that we can better spend on other improvements. There may be add-on developers interested in spending their time to support an experience similar to the old Download Manager with the new Downloads API back-end.

Comment 5

[Cork]

Ah, sorry i missed that bug 845403 was duped.

Comment 10

[:Paolo Amadini]

For people interested in an alternate user experience for downloads, at present there are at least two actively maintained add-ons that may serve the purpose, even in two different ways:

https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/download-manager-tweak/
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/downloads-window/

Since we can't include every possible download experience in the core product because of its maintenance costs, I'm really grateful to the authors of those add-ons (and of add-ons in general) since they can provide users with a level of customization that would otherwise be impossible to attain by core contributors alone.

As we mentioned when we contacted add-on authors in advance about the new Downloads API, we know this was a substantial change, but the performance improvements we obtained by doing it are really important globally (download management was the main cause of noticeable intermittent hangs on slow systems, and some systems had performance problems related to antivirus software).