After an evaluation, GNOME has moved from Bugzilla to GitLab. Learn more about GitLab.
No new issues can be reported in GNOME Bugzilla anymore.
To report an issue in a GNOME project, go to GNOME GitLab.
Do not go to GNOME Gitlab for: Bluefish, Doxygen, GnuCash, GStreamer, java-gnome, LDTP, NetworkManager, Tomboy.
Bug 129421 - need way to easily drag folder represented by current window
need way to easily drag folder represented by current window
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: general
unspecified
Other All
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
: 40218 140370 166926 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2003-12-16 01:05 UTC by Joao Victor
Modified: 2008-12-10 02:09 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: Unversioned Enhancement


Attachments
image referred to by reporter (14.93 KB, image/png)
2004-02-21 04:43 UTC, Matthew Gatto
Details

Description Joao Victor 2003-12-16 01:05:36 UTC
Description of Problem:

Suppose i've got 2 folder's, A and B, opened in 
2 Nautilus windows. Now, if i want to move/copy A 
into B, i need to go to A's parent folder, and 
then move/copy A to B.


Suggestion of solution to the problem:

It would be great if the Nautilus window 
had an icon representating the current opened 
folder, like this:

http://www.iscomputeron.
com/files/TrackerFolderIcon.png

(see the little icon on the right upper corner)

So now if i want to move/copy A into B, i just 
need to drag the little icon into B - no need to 
go to A's parent directory first.
Comment 1 Matthew Gatto 2004-02-21 04:43:35 UTC
Created attachment 24622 [details]
image referred to by reporter
Comment 2 Matthew Gatto 2004-02-21 04:45:20 UTC
That's a cool idea, especially for spatial. I attached the screenshot
referred to by the reporter so it's not lost, and I'm changing the
Summary.
Comment 3 Matthew Gatto 2004-04-21 14:43:31 UTC
a related way to accomplish this (only if there's a location bar though I guess)
is bug 40218.
Comment 4 Matthew Gatto 2004-05-15 00:15:12 UTC
*** Bug 140370 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Matthew Gatto 2004-05-15 00:27:28 UTC
bug 140370 points out that there is a real problem in that the only way to a)
drag the current folder, or b) get the current folder's properties, or c)
perform an operation on the current folder: you have to go to the parent
directory and find it, which is annoying and breaks the spatial metaphor.

I mentioned in reply that it was touched upon in this thread:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2004-May/msg00032.html
Comment 6 Joao Victor 2004-07-31 18:10:15 UTC
So, how is this bug going on? I think that's a very important thing to have on
Nautilus Spatial, it makes it much more usable.
Comment 7 Elijah Newren 2004-10-15 00:38:01 UTC
See also bug 145400 and bug 152697.
Comment 8 Vincent Noel 2005-02-10 18:24:17 UTC
*** Bug 166926 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Vincent Noel 2005-02-10 19:42:12 UTC
A cool idea that was proposed by Christian Neumair is to use the bottom-left
drop-down menu that represents the folder in a spatial window.
A patch to allow drag-n-drop of the current folder using this button can be
found at :

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2005-February/msg00030.html
Comment 10 Maurizio Colucci 2005-02-22 14:27:27 UTC
IMHO you are making a mistake concentrating on dragging alone. The real problem
is that you cannot INTERACT with open folders. Please let me explain in detail
by copying a message I just posted to the gnome-usability mailing list.

---

Gnome should allow interacting with open folders. What does it mean? In real
life, if I see an open box of chocolates on my table, I can still act upon it: I
can move it into a drawer, on in another box, or throw it in the trashcan. The
fact that it's open does not limit my actions in any way.

OTOH, in gnome, if I see an open nautilus window/folder on my desktop, I cannot
act on it. I can only act on its *content*. If I want to act on the folder
itself, I must go to the parent folder.

What we need IMO is

1. Introduce a way to act on the open folder itself. Mind you: not only to drag
it, but also to copy it, move it, delete it, create a link to it, etc. Simply
adding a drag handle is not enough.

2. do it in a way that does not lead to menu item duplication (e.g. one menu for
the folder and one for the contents).

The cleanest and simplest way to fulfill the requirements is to add a way to
*select the open folder itself*. Then, the "edit menu" could continue to work
unmodified.

For example, we could add a *button* which, once pressed, selects the folder
itself. Then you keep using the existing edit menu.



So we should be able to select the folder itself. But in spatial nautilus this
means selecting the window! (since folders and windows are strongly indentified)

So, what we really need is a button to select the open window.

Where should this button be? Logically, it should be in the window's title bar.

But then, we have the problem that the edit menu is located inside the window
frame. To a user, it would not be intuitive what the scope of the menu is. A
menu cannot act on something that is outside of it.

So my proposal is:

1. add a "select this folder" button in the window frame;

2.  move the nautilus menu, (at least the "File" and "edit" items) OUTSIDE the
nautilus window. So the user can select the window and/or its contents, and then
use the edit menu on the selection, without any logical problems.


Comment 11 Maurizio Colucci 2005-02-22 14:40:06 UTC
A small consideration:

The day you decided that Spatial Gnome should identify windows and folders (with
a bijection), you did not realize the harsh implication of this choice: THAT THE
USER SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACT ON WINDOWS JUST LIKE HE ACTS ON FOLDERS.
Just as completely.

So, for example, we should be able to *select* windows. Also, we should be able
to *delete* them, or *rename* them, as we do on folders. By means of some kind
of *menu*, not only via dragging.  Possibly the *same* menu we use on folders!

These requirements that clash with the current tecnhical limitations of the
window manager.

So the day you decided for spatiality, in some sense you condamned yourself to 
the problem of having to rewrite the window manager itself to make the system
logically sound once again.
Comment 12 Lionel Dricot 2005-04-13 13:03:37 UTC
*** Bug 40218 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 13 Christian Neumair 2005-06-03 19:20:07 UTC
Thanks for reporting this!
With spatial Nautilus, you can drag the location button and with navigational
Nautilus, you can drag the "Location:" label in the location bar. Also, both
have a context menu which allow you to do actions on the open folder. This will
at least work with Nautilus 2.12. Please file any remaining suggestions as new
bug reports, each feature request a separate bug report.