GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 565224
Give immediate feedback when typing an invalid or existing file name
Last modified: 2021-06-18 15:17:49 UTC
Please describe the problem: When a user tries to create a file name that contains an invalid character or already exists in the directory, she only gets an error message after laboriously typing a file name. Then she has to dismiss the error message. And now all her typing is lost because the file name has reverted to the original. Steps to reproduce: 1. Select a file in a folder 2. Press F2 to start in-place rename mode 3. Press RightArrow to move the caret to the end of the file stem. 4. Type "a very elaborate file name /" 5. Press Enter to accept the file name Actual results: The name reverts to the original; a modal monologue pops up away from the user's locus of attention, saying 'Sorry, could not rename "interesting.txt" to "interesting/.txt": Slashes are not allowed in filenames'. By now, the user's work of editing the file name, is lost. And now she has to click "OK", an operation that has GOMS efficiency of 0. Expected results: After the user types the invalid character "/", the character is not entered into the file name. A tool tip appears under the file name field, saying "/ < > are invalid characters in file names." (without the quotes). Does this happen every time? Yes. Other information: Similarly, when the user enters a file name that is already taken, a tool tip should appear under the file name field, saying "This file name is already taken.", and the file in question should be highlighted. Pressing Enter should have no effect.
Copying here from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1153271 ---- 1. Create a file 'Example' in any folder 2. Select it 3. Press F2 to allow changing its name 4. Replace by some invalid name such as "Example/Foo" (which contains a bar "/") 5. Confirm by pressing ENTER There will be this warning (in Portuguese): ---- Não foi possível renomear o item. Desculpe, não foi possível renomear "Example" para "Example/Foo": Barras não são permitidas nos nomes dos arquivos ---- and the new text "Example/Foo" will be gone. It would be better if after the warning is closed, nautilus would focus on the field for renaming the file, and not delete the new name so the user can easily fix the invalid character (e.g. replace "/" by "-"). This is particularly important if the new name chosen by the user is long, because in that case it would not be fun having to type it again. ----
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version of Files (nautilus), then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a new ticket at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.