Feature Request: Download Actions split

[malliz]

fuziwuzi stop trolling

[cricketmilki]

It gets worse in new versions of Firefox. Some really "smart" person decided to remove (in latest nightly builds) the ability to OPEN files. Now you have no choice but to SAVE them to some folder on your drive, then use the operating system to navigate to that folder and manually open it yourself. Yeah, that's real convenient!

Maybe opening some files upon download isn't considered "safe browsing" but it should be MY choice, not some Firefox developer.

Then Stop using Firefox.

[Old Fuziwuzi]

fuziwuzi stop trolling

Excuse me? I made a valid comment, on topic. When is that considered "trolling"?

[Old Fuziwuzi]

It gets worse in new versions of Firefox. Some really "smart" person decided to remove (in latest nightly builds) the ability to OPEN files. Now you have no choice but to SAVE them to some folder on your drive, then use the operating system to navigate to that folder and manually open it yourself. Yeah, that's real convenient!

Maybe opening some files upon download isn't considered "safe browsing" but it should be MY choice, not some Firefox developer.

Then Stop using Firefox.

Why? That's not a very mature or practical response to a legitimate question/problem. I was on topic with my post, just because you don't LIKE my post doesn't make it less legitimate.

I did take advantage of the MimeType Editor mentioned earlier. While not a very elegant solution, it does work none the less, at least in my situation.

[cricketmilki]

It gets worse in new versions of Firefox. Some really "smart" person decided to remove (in latest nightly builds) the ability to OPEN files. Now you have no choice but to SAVE them to some folder on your drive, then use the operating system to navigate to that folder and manually open it yourself. Yeah, that's real convenient!

Maybe opening some files upon download isn't considered "safe browsing" but it should be MY choice, not some Firefox developer.

Then Stop using Firefox.

Why? That's not a very mature or practical response to a legitimate question/problem. I was on topic with my post, just because you don't LIKE my post doesn't make it less legitimate.

I did take advantage of the MimeType Editor mentioned earlier. While not a very elegant solution, it does work none the less, at least in my situation.

You were complaining about Firefox. So I suggested Why don't you stop using it ?

[Thumper]

Calm down, kids.

The reason that the actions box sometimes comes up for known file types is that Firefox is lying to you. It actually uses the server's MIME type to find out what the file is: if the server doesn't give it an accurate type (by sending application/octet-stream) Firefox will always warn you as a security measure. For things like zip files, the error is with the server, which should be telling Firefox that the file is a zip file. Internet Explorer simply looks at the file extension to tell what kind of file it is, whereas Firefox appears to do this but doesn't. It's all rather technical and there isn't currently a perfect solution.

- Chris

[Old Fuziwuzi]

It gets worse in new versions of Firefox. Some really "smart" person decided to remove (in latest nightly builds) the ability to OPEN files. Now you have no choice but to SAVE them to some folder on your drive, then use the operating system to navigate to that folder and manually open it yourself. Yeah, that's real convenient!

Maybe opening some files upon download isn't considered "safe browsing" but it should be MY choice, not some Firefox developer.

Then Stop using Firefox.

Why? That's not a very mature or practical response to a legitimate question/problem. I was on topic with my post, just because you don't LIKE my post doesn't make it less legitimate.

I did take advantage of the MimeType Editor mentioned earlier. While not a very elegant solution, it does work none the less, at least in my situation.

You were complaining about Firefox. So I suggested Why don't you stop using it ?

Are you daft? This is a forum to discuss the features of Firefox, and this thread in particular was started to discuss the features and problems associated with the new Download Actions dialog and function. If nobody ever complained, very little would ever get fixed or changed, now wouldn't it? If *YOU* don't like to read these complaints, perhaps YOU should stop reading these forums. I happen to enjoy running Firefox and simply want to see it succeed and be the best browser it can, and that involves reporting issues and problems I find.

[Old Fuziwuzi]

Calm down, kids.

The reason that the actions box sometimes comes up for known file types is that Firefox is lying to you. It actually uses the server's MIME type to find out what the file is: if the server doesn't give it an accurate type (by sending application/octet-stream) Firefox will always warn you as a security measure. For things like zip files, the error is with the server, which should be telling Firefox that the file is a zip file. Internet Explorer simply looks at the file extension to tell what kind of file it is, whereas Firefox appears to do this but doesn't. It's all rather technical and there isn't currently a perfect solution.

- Chris

Thank you, Chris. It just seems there was some checkin within the last couple of weeks that altered the behavior. File types that I could previously open I now can't without editing the mimetypes in Firefox using an extension. The same has happened, according to some, in Thunderbird, where people must now save any email attachments and manually open them separately. I feel this lack of function in Firefox and especially Thunderbird will be a MAJOR source of complaints and bad reviews should they be released like this.

[cricketmilki]

It gets worse in new versions of Firefox. Some really "smart" person decided to remove (in latest nightly builds) the ability to OPEN files. Now you have no choice but to SAVE them to some folder on your drive, then use the operating system to navigate to that folder and manually open it yourself. Yeah, that's real convenient!

Maybe opening some files upon download isn't considered "safe browsing" but it should be MY choice, not some Firefox developer.

Then Stop using Firefox.

Why? That's not a very mature or practical response to a legitimate question/problem. I was on topic with my post, just because you don't LIKE my post doesn't make it less legitimate.

I did take advantage of the MimeType Editor mentioned earlier. While not a very elegant solution, it does work none the less, at least in my situation.

You were complaining about Firefox. So I suggested Why don't you stop using it ?

Are you daft? This is a forum to discuss the features of Firefox, and this thread in particular was started to discuss the features and problems associated with the new Download Actions dialog and function. If nobody ever complained, very little would ever get fixed or changed, now wouldn't it? If *YOU* don't like to read these complaints, perhaps YOU should stop reading these forums. I happen to enjoy running Firefox and simply want to see it succeed and be the best browser it can, and that involves reporting issues and problems I find.

I know you are but what am I ? I doubt Firefox devs visit here. File a bug or go to mozilla.dev.apps.firefox at Google Groups then.

[Thumper]

Thank you, Chris. It just seems there was some checkin within the last couple of weeks that altered the behavior. File types that I could previously open I now can't without editing the mimetypes in Firefox using an extension. The same has happened, according to some, in Thunderbird, where people must now save any email attachments and manually open them separately.

If some change has occurred in the last few weeks which does something it shouldn't, I'm sure that everyone would be most appreciative if you could track down which date this changed and file a bug report. While I've noticed that the dialogue had changed, I hadn't noticed that any actual functionality had been removed.

I feel this lack of function in Firefox and especially Thunderbird will be a MAJOR source of complaints and bad reviews should they be released like this.

You'll forgive me if I'm sceptical of this, given that this issue has hardly dominated reviews of the browser in the last two years. Files sent with content-disposition:attachment from webmail apps will always bring up the confirmation by design, and this has been the case since before Firefox 1.0 was released.

For the record, it's usually best to just ignore people who get defensive or post unconstructive comments. Replying to them simply bogs threads down.

- Chris

[Old Fuziwuzi]

Thank you, Chris. It just seems there was some checkin within the last couple of weeks that altered the behavior. File types that I could previously open I now can't without editing the mimetypes in Firefox using an extension. The same has happened, according to some, in Thunderbird, where people must now save any email attachments and manually open them separately.

If some change has occurred in the last few weeks which does something it shouldn't, I'm sure that everyone would be most appreciative if you could track down which date this changed and file a bug report. While I've noticed that the dialogue had changed, I hadn't noticed that any actual functionality had been removed.

I feel this lack of function in Firefox and especially Thunderbird will be a MAJOR source of complaints and bad reviews should they be released like this.

You'll forgive me if I'm sceptical of this, given that this issue has hardly dominated reviews of the browser in the last two years. Files sent with content-disposition:attachment from webmail apps will always bring up the confirmation by design, and this has been the case since before Firefox 1.0 was released.

For the record, it's usually best to just ignore people who get defensive or post unconstructive comments. Replying to them simply bogs threads down.

- Chris

It isn't that the dialog popped up, it did that before. But what is different now is that the only choice available is to SAVE the file, there is no way to just let it open with the default application as before. For instance, in my operating system I have .NFO files set to open with Notepad.exe. That "mimetype" is set in the OS itself. Previously in Firefox, if I clicked on an .NFO file, I'd get the dialog but could choose to OPEN the file. Now, however, I must SAVE it, then go to the saved folder and open it, which consists of unnecessary steps and complexity. I had to install an extension which allows me to edit Firefox's mimetype table, add the NFO extension, in order to return to similar function as before.

As someone else in another thread pointed out, Thunderbird now has this behavior as well, they must now SAVE attachments, navigate to the saved folder and open them instead of just clicking on the attachment and having it open in the default application.

What might "dominate reviews" is when people lose functions that have been the default behavior for such a long time that they've become commonplace and expected. How do you think people are going to feel when they click on a file type that currently isn't in the Mimetype table (which is anything but standard image/video/audio types) and see they can't open them anymore, but must go extra steps to get them?

I asked about filing a bug, but was told "this is a feature, not a bug".

[Rigido]

I asked about filing a bug, but was told "this is a feature, not a bug".

I was complaining about that little, almost meaningless, window some days ago (someone wrote it appeared on trunk builds on 06/27).
If this is a feature for Safe-Browsing I hope on a Option dialog redraw with a "Safe-Browsing" tab where I can choose FF not to interpret filetypes and let me do what I like to do with it (open, save or whatever).
Right now I can't use Flashgot anymore to download some "setup.exe" files...maybe >300MB!

[daledude]

I dont like being forced to only 'save as' either. I hope they reconsider this intrusion. Right clicking to save isnt that big of a hassle, but I do want my "Opening..." options window back regardless of the file type considered.

[pikaunforgiven]

personally i dont have a problem with it at all, i consider it more of a security feature than anything. then again im the semi-paranoid type and prefer to scan anything i download before opening it or trusting the browser to execute it. if anything i would want a way to have firefox tell an antivirus scanner that doesnt waste computing power by running in the background (such as clamwin) scan things i download before executing the file. then again im just a lowly power user.

[Thumper]

It isn't that the dialog popped up, it did that before. But what is different now is that the only choice available is to SAVE the file, there is no way to just let it open with the default application as before.

I'm not seeing this except on files which are being sent with application/octet-stream. Firefox should never be letting you open that kind of file directly, confirmation or not, and the previous dialogue shown for application/octet-stream files which happened not to have a Windows executable extension was broken.

- Chris