Bug 177121

Summary:	File Already Exists dialog box overhaul
Product:	[Applications] dolphin	Reporter:	Todd <toddrme2178>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Peter Penz <peter.penz19>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	angel_blue_co2004, faure, razielmine, sreich
Priority:	NOR
Version:	16.12.2
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Compiled Sources
OS:	Unspecified
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Initial dialog box Dialog box after changing the file name Dialog box after checking the "Apply to All" checkbox New Initial Dialog Box New Dialog Box After Changing the File Name New Dialog Box After Checking The "Apply to All" Checkbox

Description Todd 2008-12-07 07:26:37 UTC

Version: (using Devel)
Installed from: Compiled sources

In the "File Already Exists" dialog in Dolphin, there are currently 6 options, "Rename", "Skip", "Auto Skip", "Overwrite", "Overwrite All", and "Cancel". There is also a button to "Suggest New Name", which will automatically generate a new name by adding a number on to the end.. After clicking this you then have to click the "Rename" button for anything to actually happen. This is a problem in and of itself since "Suggest New Name" and "Rename" buttons are at opposite ends of the fairly large dialog box, requiring moving the mouse a long way to click both. Having the buttons close together would seem logical, since "Suggest New Name" requires that you click on "Rename" for it to do anything.

But even without this issue, there is no way to automatically generate new names for all the files you are moving. So if you are moving, say, 100 files from one folder to another folder with the same file names, you have to click 200 buttons, moving back and forth across as much as half the width of your screen for each button click. This is a serious problem with, for instance, a program that generates files with the same names automatically in a new folder every time it is run. If you want to consolidate the files there is no way to easily just drag them over and then have it automatically add an incremental number to the end of every conflicting filename. It makes moving large numbers of files around extremely difficult. There is already an option to automatically skip all conflicting files, and an option to automatically overwrite all conflicting files, but no way to avoid the conflict entirely by renaming them all automatically. It shouldn't be an issue with the rename leading to conflicts, if there is already a file with, say, _1 added to the end the "Suggest New Name" button will just add _2 to the end of the conflicting file. So the rename system must be set up to automatically check if it is causing a new conflict.

I know this is getting to be a lot of options for one dialog, but at least for me this is a very common problem and it makes it extremely tedious to do any sort of large movement of files between folders. Perhaps a general improvement of the dialog box would be in order. For instance an "apply to all" check box would allow you to have just "Suggest" "Rename" "Skip" and "Overwrite" buttons. If you want it to apply any of these options to all files, you check the box.

I also cannot think of a use case where someone would want to click "Suggest New Name" more than once, nor is it possible to click the "Rename" button without the name first being changed in same way, so perhaps combining the "Suggest New Name" and "Rename" buttons would work. You start out with a "Suggest New Name" button. If someone presses that button, it adds the counter to the name in the dialog box and turns into a "Rename" button, which can then be clicked to apply the change. If someone types their own name in the text box it also changes to "Rename", allowing you to apply that change. If someone deletes the changes they made to the filename (or hits Ctrl-z to undo) it goes back to "Suggest New Name". If someone checks the "Apply to All" check box it also changes to "Rename" (since "apply to all" implies that a new name will be automatically generated). Clicking "Apply to All" should also gray out the filename edit text box, to prevent people from editing that name and then being surprised by it not doing anything.

Having the buttons change when the "Apply to all" check box is clicked may also be worthwhile, although I do not know if this violates standards or rules of interface design. If it is an acceptable way to do things, check the box will change the text in the "Overwrite" button to "Overwrite All", the text in the "Skip" button to "Skip All", and the text in the "Suggest New Name/Rename" button to "Auto Rename All".

With this setup you would have four buttons, "Cancel", "Skip", "Overwrite", and "Suggest New Name/Rename", plus one check box "Apply to all". This is considerably less complicated than the existing 7 buttons without a major increase in complexity or any increase in difficulty for the user. As for locations, I would put the "Suggest New Name/Rename" button where the "Suggest New Name" button currently is, and the rest at the bottom.

Comment 1 Todd 2009-01-18 03:00:15 UTC

Created attachment 30368 [details]
Initial dialog box

Based on my idea in the above bug report.  This is what you would see when the "file already exists" dialog box first opens.  Clicking the "skip" button would skip this file.  Clicking the "overwrite" button would overwrite the existing file.  Clicking "Suggest New Name" and the "Apply to All" check box have more significant effects and will appear in the second and third mockups (respectively).  If there is only one file being copied then the "Apply to All" checkbox and "Skip" button should be either grayed out or absent entirely, since neither has any meaning when only working with one file.

Comment 2 Todd 2009-01-18 03:02:58 UTC

Created attachment 30369 [details]
Dialog box after changing the file name

This is how the dialog box would look after either typing a new name in or clicking the "suggest new name" button.  Either way, since suggesting a new name is no longer relevant that button has become a "Rename" button.  Putting the name back as it was originally would make the button revert to "Suggest New Name".

Comment 3 Todd 2009-01-18 03:08:50 UTC

Created attachment 30370 [details]
Dialog box after checking the "Apply to All" checkbox

This is what would happen if you checked the "Apply to All" checkbox.  First, the "Overwrite" button changes to "Overwrite All", to make it clear that this task will apply to all subsequent files.  Similarly "Skip" is replaced with "Skip All".  The file name dialog box is grayed out since changing the file name manually is no longer a reasonable thing to do (since it would only apply to the current file).  The "Suggest New Name" button then becomes "Rename All".  Since suggesting a new name is required for a batch renaming, having the "Suggest New Name" button would be redundant.  Another thing to notice is that none of the shortcuts have changed.

Comment 4 Ismael Barros 2009-01-23 01:10:16 UTC

The main problem I see with this dialog is there's no instant way of telling which picture is the new one and which is the one that's going to be overwritten.

The only help you get is a verbose message in small letters: http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/4061/bugreportla7.png

As the file overwritting is often a very delicate process, you have to read the message carefully and then process the information until you're sure what you're about to do.

It'd be better to show this information in a more graphical way, like: http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7801/bugreportfix2wx3.png
or even better: http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6478/bugreportfix1zy6.png

This way, any user that's not used to this dialog can instantly understand what's going to overwrite what.

Furthermore, I think it would be even better place the new one to the left of the old one, so that instead of "old <- new" we could have "new -> old", which feels more "natural", considering the occidental way of reading.

Comment 5 Todd 2009-01-23 17:44:27 UTC

I like the arrow idea, although with the arrow I would just have the two pictures normally.  Having the picture itself change would make it harder to tell if the two are the same or different.  It should also probably be language-dependent.  Left-to-right languages should probably have the new picture on the left and the old one on the right while right-to-left languages should be the opposite.  

Another useful thing may be a check box for "delete identical files", which would check if two files have the same name and the same content and if they are just delete one of them.  It would probably be best to do a file name and type check first, if they match do a file size check, if that matches do a checksum, if that matches do a byte-by-byte comparison, and if that matches delete the one being moved.  That way most false positives can be cleared quickly but there is no chance of file size or checksum collisions deleting different files.

Comment 6 Todd 2009-03-17 16:59:25 UTC

Created attachment 32202 [details]
New Initial Dialog Box

Based on my idea in the above bug report.  This is what you would see when the
"file already exists" dialog box first opens.  Clicking the "skip" button would
skip this file.  Clicking the "overwrite" button would overwrite the existing
file.  Clicking "Suggest New Name" and the "Apply to All" check box have more
significant effects and will appear in the second and third mockups
(respectively).  If there is only one file being copied then the "Apply to All"
checkbox and "Skip" button should be either grayed out or absent entirely,
since neither has any meaning when only working with one file.

This is a new version that includes an arrow showing which file is being moved.

Comment 7 Todd 2009-03-17 17:02:27 UTC

Created attachment 32203 [details]
New Dialog Box After Changing the File Name 

This is how the dialog box would look after either typing a new name in or
clicking the "suggest new name" button.  Either way, since suggesting a new
name is no longer relevant that button has become a "Rename" button.  Putting
the name back as it was originally would make the button revert to "Suggest New
Name".

This is a new version that includes an arrow showing which file is being moved.

Comment 8 Todd 2009-03-17 17:04:22 UTC

Created attachment 32204 [details]
New Dialog Box After Checking The "Apply to All" Checkbox

This is what would happen if you checked the "Apply to All" checkbox.  First,
the "Overwrite" button changes to "Overwrite All", to make it clear that this
task will apply to all subsequent files.  Similarly "Skip" is replaced with
"Skip All".  The file name dialog box is grayed out since changing the file
name manually is no longer a reasonable thing to do (since it would only apply
to the current file).  The "Suggest New Name" button then becomes "Rename All".
 Since suggesting a new name is required for a batch renaming, having the
"Suggest New Name" button would be redundant.  Another thing to notice is that
none of the shortcuts have changed.  

This is a new version that includes an arrow showing which file is being moved.

Comment 9 Angel Blue01 2009-03-17 18:24:11 UTC

Nice mockup but there's still no date showing which is the more recent file!
(In reply to comment #8)
> Created an attachment (id=32204) [details]
> New Dialog Box After Checking The "Apply to All" Checkbox
>

Comment 10 Shaun Reich 2009-03-18 23:13:55 UTC

OK, first of all... I like this idea, but, for future reference, please separate issues by separate bug reports, otherwise this thing was blended with quite a few it was hard to tell what it was about... and just think about the people that look back at this....

I like the green arrow mockup... however, I think there has to be an icon that is more applicable to this situation, just using this icon seems to be unfitting for the context of this dialog.

I would therefore, feel like requesting an oxygen icon to signify the replacement of the one file, with the other... I don't feel that the arrow represents this as clearly, and it does not seem it is meant for this purpose.

Just my opinion...