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Download Behaviour Design Review

This is work in progress. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

This is a design and usability review of Epiphany's download functionality. I wrote it because I've often found this functionality to be confusing in the past.

Current behaviour

1. Preferences

EpyPrefs.png

'Automatically download and open files' checkbox:

2. Automatic download behaviour

When automatic downloads are enabled and a known mime type is selected for download:

  1. The file is downloaded without requiring user intervention.
  2. The file is saved to the download directory and then opened using the default application for that mime type.

Download.png

3. Non-automatic download behaviour

When automatic downloads are disabled or the file is of an unknown mime type, the following dialog is opened:

DownloadOptions.png

'Save As...' opens a save as dialog. 'Download' downloads the file to the download directory. If the Download option is selected, the download directory is opened in Nautilus once the file has been downloaded (unless the download directory is the Desktop, in which case it isn't: see bug 383698). This is done in order to alert the user to the location of the downloaded file (see bug 138876).

4. General comments

Proposals

Change the Download section of the preferences to:

Mockup.png

When 'Save files...' is seleceted: files are downloaded without a dialog opening.

When 'Always ask...' is selected: a 'Save As...' dialog is opened for each download.

If the file in question is potentially unsafe inform the user and ask for confirmation (using GtkInfoBar): 'You are trying to download a potentially unsafe file. <'Download anyway'> <'Cancel download'>

If 'Download anyway' is selected, the file is either downloaded automatically or the 'Save as' dialog is opened, depending on the prefs. The save as dialog should default to the last used directory.

Display a notification bubble when each download has finished. This would inform the user of the location of the downloaded file: '<file name> has finished downloading to the <Download directory>'. It would also provide buttons to allow the user to open the file (this would only be displayed for known mime types) or to open the download directory.

Overall, this approach has a more transparent relationship between interface and application behaviour. It would also have the following advantages:


2024-10-23 10:58