Bug 164290

Summary:	KUrlNavigator should always show the mode switcher UI, not just when it's in edit mode
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] frameworks-kio	Reporter:	Maciej Pilichowski <bluedzins>
Component:	general	Assignee:	David Faure <faure>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	a.samirh78, kdelibs-bugs, nate, tyrerj
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Maciej Pilichowski 2008-06-17 14:47:44 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 4.0.82)

file dialogs: disable "smart" switch for path mode

Bug because it is usability abuse -- you can go from A to B, but you cannot go back from B to A in the same manner. Regular users would be really confused.

Switch path mode to navigation, now move your mouse over the last part of path, the caret should appear. If you manage to click on it (or on right), mode will be switched to edit. Now, to get back to navigational mode it is another story, you have to place mouse somewhere else (yellow arrow) and click on it.

This is bad:
a) two different ways to switch
b) it is too easy to switch this accidentally, A11Y abuse 

Please keep the switch all the time (on the right) in both modes, remove the "smart" switch.

This way -- switching will be explicit, the same way for both modes (consistent UI matters). Thank you.

(and thank you for providing navigation mode, this is a tremendous help for weekend users!)

Comment 1 Maciej Pilichowski 2008-06-17 20:02:39 UTC

PS. I discover this now -- the same wish goes for those arrows between path parts.

Comment 2 James Richard Tyrer 2009-06-22 20:57:53 UTC

Yes, I agree.  The way it was in version 0.8.2 was better.  There was an on/off icon button with the tooltip: "Edit Location/Browse" to the left.  This is very easy to figure out.  You click it and you have the Location widget; click it again and the Breadcrumbs are back.

Comment 3 Ahmad Samir 2020-03-30 09:35:41 UTC

- Switching to edit mode is accessible via the Ctrl+L shortcut
- Moving the pointer over the url navigator while in breadcrumb mode shows a caret, which indicates that the url can be edited and there's also a tooltip "click to edit", both of them show how to switch modes

This means that switch from breadcrumb to edit mode can be done easily and without cluttering the gui with an extra button.

I'll close this as worksforme, feel free to reopen if you disagree.

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2020-04-02 15:13:46 UTC

(In reply to Ahmad Samir from comment #3)
> - Switching to edit mode is accessible via the Ctrl+L shortcut
> - Moving the pointer over the url navigator while in breadcrumb mode shows a
> caret, which indicates that the url can be edited and there's also a tooltip
> "click to edit", both of them show how to switch modes
> 
> This means that switch from breadcrumb to edit mode can be done easily and
> without cluttering the gui with an extra button.
> 
> I'll close this as worksforme, feel free to reopen if you disagree.
UI changes are being discussed in https://phabricator.kde.org/T11662 and https://phabricator.kde.org/T11663. We can continue there.