GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 623574
No way to cancel dnd of apps to the dash
Last modified: 2010-12-01 19:21:19 UTC
Steps to reproduce: 1. Activate the overlay 2. Click Applications 3. Drag an application from the applications menu. The applications menu disappears. 4. Decide you don't want to add that app to the dash anymore. There's no way to cancel the operation.
(In reply to comment #0) > Steps to reproduce: > > 1. Activate the overlay > 2. Click Applications > 3. Drag an application from the applications menu. The applications menu > disappears. > 4. Decide you don't want to add that app to the dash anymore. There's no way to > cancel the operation. Drop it anywhere like at the top panel or hit Esc. (should be kind of more obvious though).
(In reply to comment #1) > Drop it anywhere like at the top panel or hit Esc. (should be kind of more > obvious though). And that's the problem - the current solutions aren't discoverable. What about continuing to show the application popup menu when doing drag and drop operations? That way the user can return the icon to where it came from.
(In reply to comment #2) > What about continuing to show the application popup menu when doing drag and > drop operations? That way the user can return the icon to where it came from. Right now, the menu is closed to allow dropping the icon on a workspace covered by the open menu(*). If we leave the menu open, we'd have to find some other way to achieve this. Maybe we can find a good metaphore for an explicit cancel-drag target instead? (*) e.g. on netbook resolutions, the menu covers more than half of the available workspaces area - this means that in grid view, applications can no longer be dropped on half the workspaces.
Leaving the all-apps menu open seems fine to me. We don't want grid mode anyway and the "menu" doesn't obscure the entire screen on purpose. We are missing some important interaction here that makes this stuff click for the user too. Things in the app well don't make room for the new item. We may want to consider making reorganization and repositioning a separate mode. Phones already do this. I think I already have a bug open for this for the window positioning too.
Though the specifics have changed since the overview relayout branch landed, this bug is still a problem. Once a drag has been started, the user is faced with a choice between dragging to dash or opening a window, but they don't have an option of cancelling the operation. One indirect way to fix it would be through the approach described in bug 636122.
The user can cancel an app dnd by hitting Esc or by dropping an app outside of the dash or the workspace. It's true that now that the outline around the workspace has been removed (for a good reason), it's unclear what is the neutral area where the app can be dropped to just cancel the dnd. Perhaps we can have the trash bin labelled "Cancel" show up during the app dnd. Similar to how a trash bin labelled "Remove" shows up during the favorite app dnd.
Currently, dragging a launcher can be canceled anywhere where the mouse pointer doesn't change to indicate a drop zone. This is currently anywhere outside the dash and the window picker area. Right now it is problematic that we indicate to the user that they can drop an app onto a window - primarily because it isn't dropping onto the window but the "space beneath it". I think moving forward we should disallow dropping apps on the window picker but still allow dropping apps on the workspace switcher drop zones.