[Ext] Download Manager Tweak extension

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John Liebson
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Post by John Liebson »

Alas, when I copied the new files into my Firefox folder, per the instructions in the zip file, I got a fatal error message, using the latest nightly version of Firefox, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040213 Firefox/0.8.

I should have done a screen shot of the error, but failed to do so, and reinstalled the release version of Firefox so that I could get back to bothering the world on-line. If you (El Author of the files) need me to, I could recopy the files, get the error, copy same, etc.

However, I suspect that there's some change from release to nightly that is causing the problem, so perhaps it would be simpler for you to download the nightly, and find the error yourself? (Which, of course, would be easier for me...).
andman42
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Post by andman42 »

Yeah, I'll download the nightly and see what the problem is. I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks.
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porker
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Great work, but needs one icon change.

Post by porker »

Excellent work, sensible and very efficient.

My only suggestion, which I believe is pretty reasonable, is to replace the open folder icon. Currently, it's the New Window icon. There already exists an Open Folder icon in the Qute theme, which I believe would be more appropriate. You can download the entire icon set from http://www.quadrone.org/graphics/ .

Anywho, keep it up. It looks great.
andman42
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Post by andman42 »

porker, that was a good suggestion. I just changed the open folder icon to the correct Qute theme icon.

An updated screenshot can be seen here: <a href="http://fire.prohosting.com/andman42/downloadmgr.html">http://fire.prohosting.com/andman42/downloadmgr.html</a>
Last edited by andman42 on February 17th, 2004, 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sboulema
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Post by sboulema »

thanks, this is a huge improvement over the default download manager :D
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porker
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Post by porker »

Actually, I was referring to 'Open.ico', not 'Folder Open.ico'. Not that it there's much difference. I guess the arrow makes it a bit "Quter."
Ivens
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Post by Ivens »

Hallo good job !!!
Is it possible to build in a automatic virusscanning after the download?
TheOneKEA
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Post by TheOneKEA »

OMG! I want to use this NOW!

But I have two questions before I install the jar files:

1. Has anyone tried this on the trunk with a theme other than the default?
2. Has anyone filed a bug in Bugzilla?

If no one has filed a Bugzilla bug yet then I think someone needs to NOW!
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jsebrech
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Re: new download manager?

Post by jsebrech »

andman42 wrote:I was not a big fan of the new download manager in 0.8, so I decided to try and improve it. I wanted to make the download window a little smaller and more aesthetically pleasing. I thought the original wasted too much space, and I didn’t like the URLs for Cancel, Retry, etc.
...
Let me know what you think. Any comments or suggestions?


I have a number of comments. I seem to be the only one here who thinks this is not an improvement over the current download manager.

First of all, I think it's way too cluttered. I appreciate wanting to waste less space than the standard dl manager on individual entries (it is a bit of a spacewaster I admit), but it just gets too close up. I don't think the current dl manager is not dense enough. It shows 5 entries easily without being huge, and that's more than the majority of users would dl at the same time, even those on broadband. Maybe if the entries in the current dl manager were made slightly less tall...

Secondly, the toolbar like button area at the top. Don't like that. It has duplicate functionality, and it is less of a "standard" look than all the buttons at the bottom. I'd rather see the launch button added to the regular download manager at the bottom.

As for using images instead of text for the pause and delete... I'm curious what the impact would be wrt screen readers. Do the buttons get spoken aloud like the text links for the blind? Also, they don't look like buttons (do they have a hover state?). Links have affordances which tell you they perform actions. Those images don't have that. I'm not opposed to the idea of using buttons, but they should be buttons, not clickable images. I'm also not convinced that the resume and cancel images clearly portray what they do to everyone. You can't go wrong with text, as long as your user can read.

OK, let me sum up how I would like the download manager changed:

- Make the entries slightly less tall.
- Allow execution of downloaded exe's from within the browser. This blends into my next criticism:
- Makes show actually do what it says. Show does NOT show you the file, it shows you the directory the file is in. This is not obvious, and kind of confusing for novice users. I don't have a suggestion here. Maybe there should be an open link instead, but how does one go straight to a file explorer view of the file then? Maybe both a show and an open link, but that would get confusing. It wouldn't surprise me if I'm just rehashing a private firefox developer conversation here. This isn't obvious, and the current solution is a nice compromise, given that it still allows you to easily write a document explaining how to execute a newly downloaded exe, while still not being confusing.

Otherwise the current download manager is exactly what I want. Clean, functional, no duplicate functionality. Easy to use, even for a non-techie. And most importantly (if we want to win over the IE crowd): not intimidating.
intatia
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Post by intatia »

Hrm, doesn't seem to work too well under linux..:)
TheOneKEA
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Post by TheOneKEA »

intatia wrote:Hrm, doesn't seem to work too well under linux..:)


You noticed that too, huh? :(
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intatia
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Post by intatia »

No, not really, btw your location details are a bit off.. Just a bit.. Or is England really that far behind in movies..?

I also disliked the lack of padding around the edges at the buttons at the top instead of the bottom, ah well, guess I wait till the next person with enough knowledge takes up the challenge for us linux users, or make seperate linux/windows versions.
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MoNkaholic
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Post by MoNkaholic »

andman42 wrote:You can download the .jar files for the new Download Manager here:
<a href="http://fire.prohosting.com/andman42/downloadmgr.html">http://fire.prohosting.com/andman42/downloadmgr.html</a>

Have fun. Try it and let me know what you think.


(Entirely based upon the screenshots)

The buttons are too large and too complicated for the task. I know your trying to use Arvid's icons to keep it consistant with the theme, but for such a widget, a smaller and simpler icon would be best.

As would keeping the filename and the progress bar on seperate lines.
TheOneKEA
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Post by TheOneKEA »

intatia wrote:No, not really, btw your location details are a bit off.. Just a bit.. Or is England really that far behind in movies..?

I also disliked the lack of padding around the edges at the buttons at the top instead of the bottom, ah well, guess I wait till the next person with enough knowledge takes up the challenge for us linux users, or make seperate linux/windows versions.


Nonono, I'm waiting for my own copy ;)

I really really want to use this on Linux, but until the original author is able to figure out why it breaks I guess we'll have to wait.
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MechR
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Post by MechR »

Hmm, I actually like the original's spaciousness, but with all the positive returns, it's good to have this available :)
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