How about a downloads toolbar? w/ mockup

velcrospud · Post by **velcrospud** » February 4th, 2003, 3:42 am

Just an idea...
Why not have a downloads toolbar?
I, like many people, hate the sidebar and never use it. Takes up too much space.
I don't think a downloads tab is very intuitive. Tabs should stick to being webpages.
Extra windows take up space, so a toolbar could be the way to go.

The normal download windows could minimize to this download toolbar instead of the windows taskbar. (or just start in the minimized state)
This way you could keep track of your current downloads and browse without having to switch back and forth between windows or tabs.
It could auto hide if there are no active downloads going on.
A right click context menu could provide all needed functionality.

I made a quick mockup:

<img src="http://members.accesstoledo.com/devjen/images/downloadsidea.jpg"></a>

aspr1n · Post by **aspr1n** » February 4th, 2003, 3:52 am

Nice idea, and it would still allow the page in that tab to be scrollable.

The only question becomes, how the interfaces deals with multiple downloads from the same tab, when they fill the available space. Guess, you could design it as scroll bar type widget.

Perhaps, it could be put up on main toolbar next to the drop down menus after Help, as most people seem to have loads of space there.

asp

velcrospud · Post by **velcrospud** » February 4th, 2003, 4:34 am

aspr1n wrote:Nice idea, and it would still allow the page in that tab to be scrollable.

The only question becomes, how the interfaces deals with multiple downloads from the same tab, when they fill the available space. Guess, you could design it as scroll bar type widget.

Perhaps, it could be put up on main toolbar next to the drop down menus after Help, as most people seem to have loads of space there.

asp

I suppose you could use a scroll bar, but you could also have each download block autosize to make room. (in the same way that tabs change their width as more are added)

agamid · Post by **agamid** » February 4th, 2003, 5:09 am

more like a download status bar... but that's an excellent idea. it takes up little space and is still visible at all times. I almost never download more than about 6 things at once so it's adequate in size.

radTube · Post by **radTube** » February 6th, 2003, 4:56 am

Sounds like a really good idea. I've always found the sidebar an annoyance at best. This status bar thingy would give me the same functionality without sacrificing too much space. I hope the devs agree.

Post by **tve** » February 6th, 2003, 5:16 am

indeed, sounds great, I would like to see that :)

*waits for smartass 'maybe good as extension' reply* :-p

Nostromo · Post by **Nostromo** » February 6th, 2003, 5:43 am

two legged freak wrote:indeed, sounds great, I would like to see that

*waits for smartass 'maybe good as extension' reply*

Yes, an EXTENSION indeed.. :mrgreen:

Well done velcrospud, you had a GREAT idea!
I would love a dockable toolbar, so that I could move to the bottom of the page, or, if I am doing only few downloads, move it beside the main menu.
The only drawback it would be the information that you can display..
probably only the percentage of the download, but I guess that it would suffice (as it is in the sidebar, anyway).

I am looking forward to see it implemented in the next 'Phoenix' release.
Nostromo

MoNkaholic · Post by **MoNkaholic** » February 6th, 2003, 7:39 am

I don't know, a toolbar is just like a sidebar but with a smaller footprint. I'd rather the download window be more intuitive. Maybe show a few recent downloads vertically with multiple progress bars for instance?

But as an extension why not? Everyone seems to like toolbars.

Stefan · Post by **Stefan** » February 7th, 2003, 3:55 am

This indeed sounds like a really good extension. I would probably use it.

Hope someone makes it

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » February 7th, 2003, 9:56 am

Excellent idea.

To get fancier, maybe have the basic block/tab space for each download display all pertinent info. As more downloads are started, they resize as mentioned above. This of course reduces the amount of info that could be displayed, but then have it where if the mouse is hovered over the resizeable block/tab space for each download, it would bring up a text box with the full detailed download info (like how hovering the mouse over the time on Windows brings up the date).

And if you click on the download bar space you get the download page that others prefer. This is also good for when you have so many downloads going that the block/tabs are reduced to nothing useful (like my windows task bar before Mozilla came along and eliminated the need for me to have fifteen IE windows open.)

velcrospud · Post by **velcrospud** » February 8th, 2003, 1:34 am

Lurker wrote: have it where if the mouse is hovered over the resizeable block/tab space for each download, it would bring up a text box with the full detailed download info (like how hovering the mouse over the time on Windows brings up the date).

That sounds good.

Lurker wrote:And if you click on the download bar space you get the download page that others prefer. This is also good for when you have so many downloads going that the block/tabs are reduced to nothing useful (like my windows task bar before Mozilla came along and eliminated the need for me to have fifteen IE windows open.)

This would be great but probably harder to implement.

I don't know if the details that Ben mentioned in this thread:
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewt ... 27&start=0
have been finalized, but guess he plans on putting all the downloads in one window. Better than what we have now but still rather clumsy. It would be pointless to start an extension until this is all figured out. (Although I think this feature should be worthy to include in Phoenix itself, we want to be innovative, right?)

I don't have experience making extensions, but I have been able to hack certain parts of the downloading process to make my own downloading more convenient. For instance, I have certain mime types that always go to certain folders, and I have the process check if there is already a file of that name in the folder. So, if I "save as" an .avi file, it will automatically start downloading to my movie directory without asking for a filename (unless there is a duplicate) Probably not for everyone, but it makes my browsing experience much better.

Chasm · Post by **Chasm** » February 10th, 2003, 12:14 am

IMHO, the status bar in Phoenix is rather bare and underused, most of the time all it does is display "Done", and that annoys me, it's kinda a waste of space. I'd like to see some useful info on it, like maybe the dockable downloads, etc.

jreyst · Post by **jreyst** » February 10th, 2003, 8:51 am

velcrospud wrote:I don't have experience making extensions, but I have been able to hack certain parts of the downloading process to make my own downloading more convenient. For instance, I have certain mime types that always go to certain folders, and I have the process check if there is already a file of that name in the folder. So, if I "save as" an .avi file, it will automatically start downloading to my movie directory without asking for a filename (unless there is a duplicate) Probably not for everyone, but it makes my browsing experience much better.

I'd like to see how you did that, cause it would be really useful!

velcrospud · Post by **velcrospud** » February 10th, 2003, 11:39 am

jreyst wrote:
velcrospud wrote:I don't have experience making extensions, but I have been able to hack certain parts of the downloading process to make my own downloading more convenient. For instance, I have certain mime types that always go to certain folders, and I have the process check if there is already a file of that name in the folder. So, if I "save as" an .avi file, it will automatically start downloading to my movie directory without asking for a filename (unless there is a duplicate) Probably not for everyone, but it makes my browsing experience much better.

I'd like to see how you did that, cause it would be really useful!

First I added 3 lines to my user.js in my profile folder. These are the different folders for the different types of files.

Code: Select all

//*Other default download directories
user_pref("browser.download.picdir", "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Me\\My Documents\\My Pictures");
user_pref("browser.download.movdir", "D:\\Program Files\\mov");
user_pref("browser.download.progdir", "D:\\Program Files\\INSTALL");

Then I added some code to contentAreaUtils.js in "d:/program files/phoenix/browser/content/browser/"
I uploaded my altered file:

here

The lines in that file that I changed are from 217 to 249 and 298. Starting at line 217, you can see which mime types I'm testing for.
For instance, here you can see the mime types for pictures that will be saved to the picdir which was defined in user.js.

Code: Select all

if (defaultExtension == "jpg" | defaultExtension == "gif" | defaultExtension == "jpeg") {
dir = prefs.getComplexValue("picdir", nsILocalFile);

Feel free to change or delete any of these entries. If you are going to use this new file, you should back up your current contentAreaUtils.js.

This could be an extension someday but I'm quite busy at the moment. If someone else wants to make it into an extension, be my guest.

prgnrtdchrctr · Post by **prgnrtdchrctr** » February 10th, 2003, 12:10 pm

MoNkaholic wrote:I don't know, a toolbar is just like a sidebar but with a smaller footprint. I'd rather the download window be more intuitive. Maybe show a few recent downloads vertically with multiple progress bars for instance?

But as an extension why not? Everyone seems to like toolbars.

I agree. Maybe developers should consult some commercial download managers out there, learn their layouts with its bells and whistles, then make a non-bloated version of it, make it built-in or just as an extension (I for one really like to have multiple file part download feature).

IMHO download window should never be a sidebar, there are much better ways of showing it.

How about a downloads toolbar? w/ mockup

How about a downloads toolbar? w/ mockup

Good one!

Underused status bar