GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 137515
Need to grey out read-only locations in Save mode
Last modified: 2012-10-09 15:53:30 UTC
With the default GTK-2.4 file selector, one of the default "Save in folder" locations is "Filesystem", i.e. "/". However that directory is not even writeable to most users. For consistency, it should probably be in the drop-down list, but it should be greyed-out. It can still be selected if the dialog is opened using "Browse for other folders". In general, any location that is not user-writeable during Saving should be greyed-out in the "Save in folder" combobox, because there's no way to navigate away from that location, and you can't save there.
This needs a gtk_file_system_volume_get_is_read_only() API. Marking for the next API freeze, changing the title a bit. (It should definitely gray out CD-ROMs and other read-only media. I'm not sure it should gray out the file system root, as you could navigate to a writable location inside it.)
The reason I suggested graying-out *all* non-writeable locations when "Browse for other folders" is not opened is that you *can't* navigate away from that location unless you open the "Browse for other folders" widget. Once you open the "Browse for other folders" widget, of course the root directory should not be greyed-out, even if it's not writeable, so that you can navigate away from it. But perhaps the file list could be displayed with a somewhat darker (grayer?) background, so that the user knows they can't write to it, or at the least the "Save" button should be grayed-out. -- A slight aside, but: Note too that CD-ROMs themselves (e.g. /mnt/cdrom) should be grayed-out, but if gnome-vfs2 is installed, it would be nice if the CD Creator were accessible through the gnome-vfs2 backend/GtkFileSystem mechanism, so that you could save files straight to CD for burning. Should this be filed in a separate feature request? (You could also have it add the location automatically to the list of system locations on the left if there's a blank CD in the drive.)
IMHO, this is a NOTABUG: there is nothing wrong with selecting "/" and then going to a subdirectory of that. Maybe "Save" should be grayed, but not "/" itself. The situation for cdroms is a bit differently: the entire tree is read-only (and anyone with a cdrom containing links out of itself deserves what he gets).
OK, I agree with Morten's comments -- probably only "Save" should be greyed-out. CDROMs are read-only, but "burn:///" should be writeable. Except that I think that the way it is implemented right now is that burn:/// effectively contains only "links" to files. So saving to burn:/// probably doesn't work currently, but it would certainly be nice if it did. This is probably a separate issue, except that if the File Chooser is viewing burn:///, it should know that it's writeable, whereas /mnt/cdrom etc. are not.
*** Bug 155954 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is related to, but not the same as, Bug 160398.
*** Bug 164493 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I would propose (as I did in 164493) that the default locations should be customizable by the user. At the moment the user can add their own favourite directories but cannot remove the ones provided by default. In my case this gives me options that I will never use - I doubt I am the only one.
*** Bug 160398 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
An interesting very similiar bug has been reported in sound-juicer: 168415. Here I am using a file chooser in SELECT_FOLDER mode so this bug isn't exactly the same issue, but as SJ will obviously write to it, it has to be writable. Maybe there should be a SELECT_FOLDER_FOR_SAVE mode which would also disable read-only locations in the folder selector?
Beginner user experience is a bit different and (s)he will ask: "Why save is greyed out. It's a bug!" Improved proposal: For read-only devices, grey it out (maybe show no-write emblem or not show such device at all). For read-only directories, grey-out save and change icon look - write denied icon or emblem must appear. For no-access directories, item should be greyed out and icon look must change its look to no-access or add such emblem. Related for nautilus: bug 155474
I think your suggestions are good, but it's probably better to not remove read-only devices, because that could also be construed as a bug by non-technical users. ("Why is my CDROM not showing up?") The thing I would add is that it would be great to have a line that appears at the bottom of the save dialog with a little warning sign ("!" in a yellow triangle) whenever you're viewing a read-only location, and an explanatory message explaining why you can't save there. Reason being, if you're viewing a read-only location, you have an indication that you can't write to any of the files contained within the location, but the user has no clear indication that they can't save to the location itself. The warning would say something like: /!\ You cannot save to this location, because you do not have permission. or, if nobody has permission: /!\ You cannot save to this location, because it is read-only.
I think people are mixing some things up in here that don't necessarily need to be mixed up. First, we have the quick drop down list. It aims to be a) easy and simple, and b) quick (by providing access to the most frequently used locations). Then, we have advanced file choosing widget, accessible by pressing "Browse for other locations." In the drop down list, there is really no need to have "Filesystem" or any of the removable drives at all. They aren't the most frequently accessed ones, most of them are unusable, and they fill up a lot of precious drop-down-list space. By removing them, people will have more room for their own bookmarks instead of these places that don't serve any function at all. If they need access to any of those places they can use "Browse other locations". Non-technical users shouldn't have any problem figuring out that "if what I'm looking for isn't in this little bar, perhaps I can find it by browsing other locations.". In the actual file choosing widget (the advanced one), there can be talk about greying things out, polling for "mountedness" et cetera. The quick drop-down dialog should look like this: Home Desktop --------- Bookmark Bookmark (removed the version field on this bug, as it no longer applies only to gtk 2.4)
I agree... If you ever want to save to a non-default location that's say in /mnt/hdb5, you have to select "Filesystem" and then browse anyway... the Filesystem link could just be in the list of locations on the left-hand-side of the full dialog, and could be removed from the quick dialog -- it's useless there. Additionally, I would add at least "Documents" to the top of the quick list, along with "Home" and "Desktop". There's a bug to add items like Documents to the default list if "~/Documents" exists (bug 306363).
*** Bug 315575 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 168415 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 597909 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Does this bug related to Bug 601451 ?
Yes, bug 601451 looks as a duplicate.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 601451 ***