Firebird's got a new download manager! Help testing!

[Azaar]

3. All of this Pause trouble - were people seeing it with the standalone progress window too? I am using exactly the same mechanism.

Yes I saw this behaviour in the old download progress windows. As far as i can see (with the new manager) dls do pause but take a couple of seconds to stop, as if MozFB is just receving the last few packets in the pipe. While it makes sense to recevice data already sent it _is_ very disconcerting.

Azaar

[VManOfMana]

Ben:

The new donwload manager looks very good, but here are my 2 cents:

I think it would be better to use buttons instead of hyperlinks to perform actions with the different files. Maybe this can result in a more bloated interface and may need some rearrangement, but at the end, those hyperlinks represent actions that can be done, not links to another document which is available on another web page (and the download manager cannot really be considered a web page anyway). I think at the end using buttons results in a more intuitive interface. What do you think?

[alcatraz52]

^And you can also apply an action such as "Pause" to more than one thing by using a selection box and click Pause.

Also the downloads seem kind of big for what info they give. But I like it so far...

[sgarrity]

I'm sure this is just something that hasn't been gotten to yet, but I thought I'd point it out just in case: The show/hide toolbar control should not appear in window title bar in OS X (see screenshot below). Should I file this in bugzilla?

[sgarrity]

I think it would be better to use buttons instead of hyperlinks to perform actions with the different files. Maybe this can result in a more bloated interface and may need some rearrangement, but at the end, those hyperlinks represent actions that can be done, not links to another document which is available on another web page (and the download manager cannot really be considered a web page anyway). I think at the end using buttons results in a more intuitive interface. What do you think?

I agree. Hyperlinks in windows should only be used to open a webpage. Buttons, though they may be visually heavier, would be better here.

Safari uses small circle buttons with icons ('X' for cancel and a magnifying glass for locate). However, I like how the Firebird version uses actual text labels - much clearer. Small text-labled buttons would be my suggestion.

Looking good though (the download manager and the project in general).

[adam_tomlinson]

I think the new download manager is amazing. I haven't had any problems with it so far at all

[bengoodger]

Safari uses small circle buttons with icons ('X' for cancel and a magnifying glass for locate). However, I like how the Firebird version uses actual text labels - much clearer. Small text-labled buttons would be my suggestion.

Looking good though (the download manager and the project in general).

I'd like to add icons if possible, also find a way to use buttons instead of links, but thus far I've had trouble coming up with "slimline" buttons that don't make the download items larger and heavier.

[sgarrity]

I'd like to add icons if possible, also find a way to use buttons instead of links, but thus far I've had trouble coming up with "slimline" buttons that don't make the download items larger and heavier.

Do you have any mockups or screenshots of any trials - I'd be willing to help with the layout, but I'm affraid I don't know enough about the contraints (working with XUL, OS-native buttons, languages with longer wording, etc).

I know OS X 10.3 now has a <a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_18_section_2.html#CEHCDIHA">small and mini control set</a> - but I'm not sure if/how that applies here.

[amano]

I like its modern look, but I miss really new functionality.

Bringing up the download manager results in (too?) heavy loading. I think there should be done some optimization. clicking on the clear button made my firebird hang (consuming all resources).

I use one of Mike Tigas' great Mng builds, Celeron 800, 256Megs Ram, WinXP SP1.

EDIT:
HMM, just saw these ones in the firebird checkins:

Show time remaining (forgot to turn this on for some reason) for downloads, make download items shrink properly to avoid horizontal scrollbars.

Fix 227006 - crash after saving image... also make dlmgr window delay parameterizable, and rename some preferences

Shorten delay before dlmgr window opens.

Add missing xpt files to the packager list. This fixes:
- various dlmgr bugs
- view source
- find in page
for installer builds!

Fix long lockup when hitting Cleanup button with a large number of removable downloads. (Use datasource batching)

So all of my issues seem to be fixed.

[Sailfish]

I just noticed that it was quite easy to execute a downloaded executable file (notepad.exe) by clicking on it's entry in the Downloads Manager list. Is this intentional? It seems virus-prone to me...

[amano]

One thing that was bugging me for a long time with firebird.

eg. download a jpeg attached to a post in a forum:
it will always open a blank page in a new window (which is really annoying)!

can this be fixed? Just bring up the download dialog, but don't open a blank page.



and why doesn't the download manager remember all file types? it asks me every time what to do with jpegs, but remembers zip files flawlessly once I have told it to do it automatically from now on.

these are the biggest issues with download implementation these days (IMHO).

[Azaar]

My gripes:

<a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=227142">Bug 227142</a>: 'cancel' hidden if filename too big
<a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=227145">Bug 227145</a>: dlmngr does not focus front when a new dl is begun

I think someone else mentioned that its needs its own icon for identification in the taskbar.

[Nerd3D]

So far I really like this improvement.

One bit I've noticed. When an item is "opened" it's entry remains in the DLM and cant be removed... At least not until another item is saved. Wouldn't is be better if items that are directly opened had their entry removed once the download is finished? After all they are (essentially) gone any way.

[velcrospud]

as long as the download statusbar extension still works!

- broke

One thing, and one thing only, might make me happy with the download manager, and that would be configurable, discrete directories for downloads based on file types. All .exe files sort into one dir, all .zip into another, all .rar into a third, etc.

Download Sort

Good job Ben, it looks really nice, (although I'm still going to prefer my extension when I get it fixed - I like to see my downloads without ever losing focus of the main window)

One thing - Is it really a good idea to use the recycle bin icon for the clean up button? - if I didn't already know what it did I might assume it was going to put all my downloads into the windows recycle bin.

People with problems using the clean up button might want to start fresh by deleting "downloads.rdf" in their profile folder when firebird is closed.

[bengoodger]

One thing - Is it really a good idea to use the recycle bin icon for the clean up button? - if I didn't already know what it did I might assume it was going to put all my downloads into the windows recycle bin.

Maybe not. I was just using the most appropriate icon I could find in the source tree File a bug if you think we should use a better one.

People with problems using the clean up button might want to start fresh by deleting "downloads.rdf" in their profile folder when firebird is closed.

Shouldn't be necessary now, unless there are other bugs. Here's what I've fixed this weekend:

- All (well, all that I could easily spot) codepaths that cause the application to exit (File->Exit, closing all windows) now cause a confirmation prompt if there are active downloads.
- Show an accelerator key combo in the Tools menu for the Download Manager
- Show an error if the user attempts to open or show a download item that no longer exists
- Show time remaining for active downloads
- Make the download items shrink properly horizontally when the window is resized, avoiding horizontal scrollbars
- Fix long hang when using Clean Up button
- Various installer problems with Downloads, Privacy Options panels, as well as View Source and Find in Page
- Crash after saving image fixed.
- Shorten delay before download manager window opens.
- Fixed some of the issues with Retry - (problem with it forgetting where you had saved the file to). Retry is still unable to remember if a file was to be handled with an external application however - it simply downloads the file. The fix for this aspect is more involved and will have to wait.
- The toolbar hide button on the titlebar on MacOS X should now not show up.
- You can now drop links on the downloads toolbar button.

- I have also added a lot of helpful hooks and hidden prefs for people who wish to customize the behaviour further, or write extensions that place downloads.xul (the manager window) in other parts of the UI, like sidebars or tabs.

I need to run a build on MacOS X now and look at the problems there.

Also - I changed a bunch of the pref names today, so some of your settings may stop taking effect in builds beginning Monday. Please re-check your settings in the Options dialog.