Firebird's got a new download manager! Help testing!
- OldNerdGuy
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Ok, let's start by saying I love the new Download Manager. But... the first time I saw it, the background image left me with the impression of someone making a certain single digit finger expression
Perhaps some different shading so the Arrow and the Folder are more distinct.
I will add that it was a surprise, I was not expecting it. I had just setup SUSE 9.0, and added the latest Linux Nightly (11/29), and this was the first download I had tried. All my Windows builds have been with older versions, theme problems... Looks like a good reason to update and find different themes that work.
That aside, whomever developed the new Download Manager.. thanks.
Perhaps some different shading so the Arrow and the Folder are more distinct.
I will add that it was a surprise, I was not expecting it. I had just setup SUSE 9.0, and added the latest Linux Nightly (11/29), and this was the first download I had tried. All my Windows builds have been with older versions, theme problems... Looks like a good reason to update and find different themes that work.
That aside, whomever developed the new Download Manager.. thanks.
- hariskar
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OldNerdGuy wrote:Ok, let's start by saying I love the new Download Manager. But... the first time I saw it, the background image left me with the impression of someone making a certain single digit finger expression
I totally agree! I thought I was the only one.
And I also agree that I like the Download Manager a lot.
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Another bug?
(OS X 10.1.5, FB 20031129) New download manager Options button should point to the Downloads window of the Preferences window. Besides this (no Mail button, menu and the plague of not saving downloads to ~/Desktop), it's an excellent build! Love the new feature! I can currently live w/ the download issues, but a button or menu for sending mail is a must. I'll keep waiting! BTW, is it possible to get mail functionality by 0.8 final? Pleeeeeaaaaasssseeee?! heheheheh
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Aaron
Aaron
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- max.spicer
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- Joined: July 2nd, 2003, 3:52 am
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Neat feature and looks really good too. I was surprised that it doesn't go in the sidebar though. It would be nice to have the option.
My concern is that when you close the download manager window, you don't get any further information to tell you that downloads are actually happening. This could be confusing to users, as they could just assume that the download has been cancelled. I think you should really pop up a message telling the user that downloads will continue in the background and how to get back to the download manager to check their status. It would have to have a "don't show this again" option though. Would it be possible to put an icon in the task bar when there are downloads in progress and the download manager is closed? Something like GetRight's progress icon would be ideal.
The Show link should handle the situation where downloaded files have since been deleted. Currently, it just does nothing. I sat there clicking Show for a while until I remembered that the files were now sitting in my recycle bin.
Retry doesn't seem to work for me. I started a download of the latest thunderbird from mozilla.org, then closed my last browser window (leaving just the download manager), and clicked the X on download manager. This exited it without any warning - another problem - and cancelled the download. Having now restarted Firebird, I can sit there clicking Retry until the cows come home, but nothing happens.
Thanks for all your work!
Max
My concern is that when you close the download manager window, you don't get any further information to tell you that downloads are actually happening. This could be confusing to users, as they could just assume that the download has been cancelled. I think you should really pop up a message telling the user that downloads will continue in the background and how to get back to the download manager to check their status. It would have to have a "don't show this again" option though. Would it be possible to put an icon in the task bar when there are downloads in progress and the download manager is closed? Something like GetRight's progress icon would be ideal.
The Show link should handle the situation where downloaded files have since been deleted. Currently, it just does nothing. I sat there clicking Show for a while until I remembered that the files were now sitting in my recycle bin.
Retry doesn't seem to work for me. I started a download of the latest thunderbird from mozilla.org, then closed my last browser window (leaving just the download manager), and clicked the X on download manager. This exited it without any warning - another problem - and cancelled the download. Having now restarted Firebird, I can sit there clicking Retry until the cows come home, but nothing happens.
Thanks for all your work!
Max
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Whoever suggested that the Manager should go in a tab has struck on a great idea too. I don't really like sidebars; they take up too much screen real estate. Equally, tabbed browsing means that I don't really want too many taskbar entries. It really makes sense that the Manager could be a tab, a sidebar or a separate window, but if I had to choose one it would surely be a tab. It just fits.
http://colinramsay.ath.cx - Mozilla, CSS, .NET
- PhoenixNostalgia
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- bengoodger
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Here are the key bugs I'm seeing people reporting here as well as some of my own...
- biff notification is annoying for quick downloads (save image as) - use this heuristic if download completed in under n secs, do not show; if dlmgr is foreground, do not show.
- show link and double-click open do not work if file is removed... should be disabled/show notification
- problems with Retry
- no time until complete information
- drag to download button on toolbar.
- if you quit the app by closing all windows with File->Close, the close confirm isn't shown
- progress notifications don't work on MacOS X
I'll be looking at these this week along with some of the other things I have to do with the Helper Apps options.
The tab dlmgr is a neat idea and it'd be great for an extension or something, but as tabs are somewhat foreign to a lot of users, I don't really want to push them on them.
- biff notification is annoying for quick downloads (save image as) - use this heuristic if download completed in under n secs, do not show; if dlmgr is foreground, do not show.
- show link and double-click open do not work if file is removed... should be disabled/show notification
- problems with Retry
- no time until complete information
- drag to download button on toolbar.
- if you quit the app by closing all windows with File->Close, the close confirm isn't shown
- progress notifications don't work on MacOS X
I'll be looking at these this week along with some of the other things I have to do with the Helper Apps options.
The tab dlmgr is a neat idea and it'd be great for an extension or something, but as tabs are somewhat foreign to a lot of users, I don't really want to push them on them.
Last edited by bengoodger on November 29th, 2003, 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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bengoodger wrote:The tab dlmgr is a neat idea and it'd be great for an extension or something, but as tabs are somewhat foreign to a lot of users, I don't really want to push them on them.
I totally agree here. Having another tab just for downloads would almost be another waste of space, sans sidebar. The download manager as is should stick around for quite some time.
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Aaron
Aaron
- scratch
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scratch wrote:max.spicer wrote:Would it be possible to put an icon in the task bar when there are downloads in progress and the download manager is closed? Something like GetRight's progress icon would be ideal.
put it in the statusbar, with the popup alert and the style switcher.
Yepper, status bar.
Agreed.
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bengoodger wrote:Here are the key bugs I'm seeing people reporting here as well as some of my own...
Ben, another thing (I don't know what others think of this?): I think that Show isn't clear as to what it should do. I was expecting 'Show' to open the file I downloaded. Instead it 'shows' (!) the location. Perhaps this should be called 'Location' instead? It would certainly clarify the purpose of the link.
Also, would it be possible to have 'Open' as a link from the download manager (like show is at the moment). I understand that double-clicking works for a file open, but if the file has since been deleted double clicking does nothing (so you don't know whether the d/l manager isn't working or whether the file has gone / renamed ??!).
- bengoodger
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metz2000 wrote:bengoodger wrote:Here are the key bugs I'm seeing people reporting here as well as some of my own...
Ben, another thing (I don't know what others think of this?): I think that Show isn't clear as to what it should do. I was expecting 'Show' to open the file I downloaded. Instead it 'shows' (!) the location. Perhaps this should be called 'Location' instead? It would certainly clarify the purpose of the link.
Point taken... I'm not sure how it can be better explained however in a single word. Perhaps "Reveal". What I would like is an icon similar to that used by Safari's download manager... and a tooltip that provided more info.
metz2000 wrote:Also, would it be possible to have 'Open' as a link from the download manager (like show is at the moment). I understand that double-clicking works for a file open, but if the file has since been deleted double clicking does nothing (so you don't know whether the d/l manager isn't working or whether the file has gone / renamed ??!).
Since the file is actually gone, wouldn't a notification that the file cannot be opened because it does not exist be more informative than providing a disabled link?
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I've had some problems with the new manager.
First, even though "Show Download Manager when a download begins" and "Close Download Manager when all downloads are complete" are both checked, Firebird does neither of these things. [Edit: I created a clean profile, and this works now. D'oh.]
Second, sometimes when I pause a download, Firebird keeps downloading it. It's not just that the progress bar keeps moving; gkrellm shows that I'm still downloading. If the download completes while it's still "paused," then when I try to resume it, the progress bar will return to where it was before it was "paused," and then do nothing. I've only experienced this with files from mozilla.org servers, but I can't reproduce it every time. [Edit: new profile seems to have corrected this, too.]
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6b) Gecko/20031127 Firebird/0.7+
First, even though "Show Download Manager when a download begins" and "Close Download Manager when all downloads are complete" are both checked, Firebird does neither of these things. [Edit: I created a clean profile, and this works now. D'oh.]
Second, sometimes when I pause a download, Firebird keeps downloading it. It's not just that the progress bar keeps moving; gkrellm shows that I'm still downloading. If the download completes while it's still "paused," then when I try to resume it, the progress bar will return to where it was before it was "paused," and then do nothing. I've only experienced this with files from mozilla.org servers, but I can't reproduce it every time. [Edit: new profile seems to have corrected this, too.]
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6b) Gecko/20031127 Firebird/0.7+