Re: Nautilus epiphany integration & file transfers

[Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Raphaël Slinckx wrote:
> ...
> I have been messing with nautilus sources to quickly hack a demo of
> nautilus-epiphany integration. The result can be seen on my blog
> (pictures+ a little video, the last two posts)

That's cool!

> ...
> * Epiphany for the moment must use the mozilla download engine for
> various reasons, mainly because you have to deal with cookies,
> POST-data, authentification, referers, etc when downloading things,
> which epiphany knows (since it's the browser) but not gnome-vfs.

I think that will always be the case, because new protocols that allow 
receiving of files will be implemented in standalone apps (e.g. 
filesharing clients, IM clients) faster than they can be supported in 
gnome-vfs.

> ...
> * Concerning file progresses dialogs, is it envisionnable to replace
> them by somthing like in the screenshots ? for all transfers
> (moving/copying from/to any kind of source/destination).

Not really, for a variety of reasons ...

> This has advantages:
>
> -Operations related to a folder only show up in that particular folder
> (goes along with spatial mode)

That doesn't work if the destination is closed. For example, you're at a 
cybercafe, downloading stuff to your USB key. You don't want anyone who 
happens to be walking past to see the existing contents of the key, so 
you have its window closed. At the same time, you still want to know the 
moment the copying is finished, because you don't want to pay for a 
minute longer than you have to.

> -No annoying un-closable popup for each transfer you start, they don't
> scale up.

As long as they close by themselves when finished, and as long as the 
Show Desktop button exists, I don't think this is an issue.

> ...
> - For every file transfer (not only download) show something, a progress
> bar, the icon changing from grey to color progressively, a pie filling
> up, on the particular icon representing the file. That way you can have
> a precise feedback for the progress of that file.

Excellent idea. (Internet Explorer for Mac, iCab, and Safari have been 
doing this since 2000.)

> ...
> - Provide a context menu item for an "active file" proposing to cancel
> the operation on that file (deleting it would result in the same thing)

Most people don't use shortcut menus, so you would also need a toolbar 
button somewhere. But Nautilus windows don't normally have a toolbar, so 
where would you put it?

If "Downloads" was a special folder in Nautilus for all downloads to 
appear (or to be symlinked during downloading if they had been directed 
somewhere else), it could have a custom, always-visible toolbar 
providing Stop and Resume buttons. See the second half of 
<http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2005-April/msg00017.html>.

--
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/