Limited functionality in Unity file browser

Bug #632803 reported by Sean Fitzpatrick
This bug report is a duplicate of:  Bug #633201: Provide an "open this folder" button. Edit Remove
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This bug affects 3 people
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Unity
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unity (Ubuntu)
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Bug Description

Binary package hint: unity

In the new unity netbook interface I'm able to get the file browser to show up when I click on the folder icon. (The applications button, on the other hand, doesn't work, due to Bug #629692.) Once I launch the file browser however, there is very limited functionality. I can left-click on a file or folder to open it, and the back button next to the search bar seems to work OK, but that's about it. Right-clicking has no effect on files or folders, so I can't do things like copy, cut, paste, or sort.
Also, if I move to another window, the unity launcher indicates that the folder view is still running (there is a triangle to the left of the icon), I can't go back to whatever folder view I had by clicking on the Files & Folders icon again. (The first click usually does nothing, and clicking again brings back the home screen.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: unity 0.2.34-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-20.29-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-20-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Sep 7 18:12:51 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429.4)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity

Revision history for this message
Sean Fitzpatrick (sean-fitzpatrick) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) wrote :

Thanks for your bug report Sean. The original plan for Maverick was to just land the "file browsing" feature, not full "file management".

For Natty we'll probably expand the scope to include a bit of file management features you request. To my knowledge there hasn't been detailed design thoughts on this yet. I think we definitely don't want to implement a full file manager inside Unity, that's just way too complex, just include the very basic tasks you'd expect to be able to do.

I can't promise on what we'll be able to deliver, but I'd like it if you'd share a prioritized list of the features you miss the most?

(regarding bug #629692 I am glad to say I pushed a fix to trunk just yesterday :-))

Revision history for this message
Sean Fitzpatrick (sean-fitzpatrick) wrote :

Thanks for letting me know, Mikkel. And thanks especially for the fix to bug #629692 - I'm looking forward to being able to try out the features in unity. (Also this fix will presumably make it easy for me to access nautilus when I need a full-feature file manager.)

As for the Unity file browser, I think it's probably reasonable to expect something to happen when you right-click on a file or folder. But the first thing I noticed was a lack of some way to sort files - I was browsing through my music library, which has enough folders to require alphabetizing if I want to find something easily. If there was a way to do a quick sort it would make things a bit more efficient.

Revision history for this message
Sean Fitzpatrick (sean-fitzpatrick) wrote :

First of all, I should mention that your fix for 629692 just came through in the last set of updates, and I can now access the applications browser - so thanks!
It occurred to me that adding one small piece of functionality would make the file browser work for me:
If I right-click on a folder, it would be great if an 'open in Nautilus' option came up. Then I could use the Unity browser when I just want to quickly access a file, and if I need further functionality, I'd have Nautilus at my fingertips.
(This would be especially useful at present since Nautilus is currently not something you can access via the applications browser - even using the search feature. I've worked around this by running it from the terminal and then pinning the icon once it shows up in the launcher.)

Revision history for this message
Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) wrote :

I am very glad you say that Sean - because we are in fact just talking about a missing feature adding a "Browse This Folder in Nautilus" button on the right side of the pathbar. Please see bug #633201, where we can continue this discussion.

Marking this bug as a dupe for now then.

Revision history for this message
Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) wrote :

(and wrt sorting I just reported bug #634769 to make sure we sort alphabetically by default - right now it's mostly "random" - or in fact by inode number I think...)

Revision history for this message
yjmalmsteen85 (nirvana705) wrote :

Actually i d love to have complete file manager in unity instead of nautilus. I mean....it would be incredibly integrated! I don't know how hard it can be but i ve been thinking about something like.....once the mouse moves on an icon you could choose to launch it (with normal left click) or select it (right click) or visualize a menù (what nowadays we see with 1 right click) by double right click (or holding right mouse button and select more than 1 item). So once an item (or more) is selected we could have all the functionalities we have in nautilus.
In my opinion (i know i know my opinion is nothing :D:D) it would be perfect if Unity could have basics operations completelly integrated. With basic operations i mean music player control (we already have it with sound menu) or (for ex) removing applications. In my opinion there's no need to open USC everytime i need to remove an app. We could have a button (in the dash) when the mouse is on the icon, that can let us to uninstall the app. We could just visualize the status of the operation (with a status bar) but, of course, we could also have a button to open the app in the USC for more informations.
That is my idea......i'd like to know what you think about that, cos maybe i didn't considered a lot of things. :)

PS: hope i explained myself in a good way! My english is not perfect :)

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