Firefox:Download Manager:Scratch Pad

When the user is downloading, we should only display a link to pause a downloading entry. The cancel link shouldn't be displayed on a downloading entry since the user might accidentally click on it and cancel the download. Instead Cancel should only appear on a paused entry.

However, all of the download control commands (pause/resume, cancel and restart) should be available on the context menu and the user should be allowed to select multiple entries and apply actions on them.

There should at least be an option in about:config to restore the Cancel button, since to many Firefox users this is not a major problem.

One more important thing: Do NOT restart the download of a currently downloading entry if the user clicks a link and saves it _again_. For example, start downloading file A. Click on the link to download A again, save it, and your download will restart from 0%! This should be handled in a better way... (Maybe changing the target path of the currently downloading file?) --Caleb 12:01, 6 Nov 2005 (PST)

Comments Patrick Garies

Some features I think the download manager could use are:

• Allow the user to specify directories and criteria by which files should be put into these directories. For example, file of X type should go into X directory or files from X website should go in X directory. You could have options for either:
  • automated download to the specified directory
  • to have that directory be opened by default in the save file dialogue so that if there was an exception, the user could easily choose a different directory. This would be helpful to users that save a lot of files or have complex file organization systems
• Add a display for the entire source URL and entire destination directory; preferably they would be displayed in a manner that allowed copy and paste.
• Allow the download manager UI to be accessed via a tab instead of through a new window.
• Allow manual copy and pasting of URLs into the download manager. This allows users to download files that are normally viewed by the browser. Examples include files with the *.js, *.css, *.html, and *.txt extensions. It also allows exception downloading of files that are normally set to be viewed by the browser through plug-ins without changing the actual download actions for the relevant file type. For example, I may normally want to render *.pdf or *.mid files in the browser but occasionally want to download them instead.
• Separate files that have been successfully downloaded into a separate area. This keeps the active download area clean and lessens the desire to want to constantly remove completed downloads to keep the download area clean since these have reserved a separate area; being able to go back and retrieve old download URLs or see what files have been downloaded can be quite useful but it's second to organization (for me anyway).
• Allow the user to set a maximum bandwidth consumption for downloads so the user can still browse on slower connections.
• Allowing the user to add a download progress meter or download speed meter (so they know how much bandwidth is being consumed) to the toolbar in the same manner as buttons and widgets could be helpful.

There's a whole bunch of extra stuff that could be added as well such as:

• anti-virus scanning (using existing AV software)
• *.zip integrity check (for file corruption)
• support for torrents
• acceleration
• mirror searches
• computer shut-down or disconnect on download completion
• download scheduling
• et cetera

Hope I did this right. First time posting here. ;)

Comments TheWakeUpCall

I think it definately needs to have a shutdown option on download completion.

Comments : Details dialog

The download item options dialog:

• make it larger than in FF1.5, preferably resizable, so that I can see more than 10% of the displayed data
• display more info, like file size, percent complete, status (downloading/finished/paused/interrupted/...)

--Xerces8 01:38, 26 October 2006 (PDT)

Comments : Download directory

Patrick Garies writes: Allow the user to specify directories and criteria by which files should be put into these directories. For example, file of X type should go into X directory or files from X website should go in X directory.

Hear, hear! For me, one of the most inefficient aspects of web browsing is navigating to the right download directory (which usually depends on which site I'm downloading from).

--Neatnate 20:56, 12 November 2006 (PST)

I can't agree more! This is the one of the biggest things I could ask for from Mozilla, and would make my day to day usage and downloading much quicker and much more efficient.

--Haplo12345 21:18, 13 April 2008 (EST)

Comment DonGato

20:11, 17 November 2006 (GMT)

Maybe is not related to this but I think is the best place to post/discuss it. I think that a simple support for external download helpers would be a nice addition to a future release of Firefox:

• Download helper: a couple of options for using a download helper can be added to about:config (enable/disable, location of exe file, and method of passing the url parameter) so people can add a third option to downloading files dialog that uses their favorite download tool.

Comment Nontitle

I have read through these suggestions, and it seems that most of these can be achieved through firefox add-ons. We should probably leave the more advanced features to add-ons and add only the simpler ones. For example, the "Download URL" suggested by Patrick sounds like something that should be added, as it would be quite simple in nature to insert. Also, I think adding in the shutdown after download option should be left to an add-on, because not all operating systems shut down the same way.