Inkscape 0.92 does not open external links to SVG-files (v. 091 does) [Inkscape Stable PPA; Ubuntu 16.04]

[Zhart]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Copy link to external svg-file (for example https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Tux.svg )
2. Open Inkscape 0.92
3. Activate "open file" dialog (Ctrl+o)
4. Paste link (Ctrl+v)
5. Press "Enter" (or click "Open" button)

Expected result: background downloading and opening external file (as it does with Inkscape 0.91).
Actual result: nothing happened.

Inkscape: 0.92.0+66~ubuntu16.04.1
OS: Ubuntu 16.04.1
Locale: English

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

Not reproduced on Windows 10 x64 with Inkscape 0.92.0 r15299 (64 bit).

However you have to distinguish between different implemetnations of the of open/save dialog (see Options "Interface -> Windows -> Desktop Integration":
- With the native open dialog it works fine on Windows, but I guess downloading of the file is handled by the OS / Internet Explorer here (and it's obviously not available on Ubuntu - don't know what's used there?)
- With the GTK open dialog I get a dialog that does not even allow me to type ":" into the location field, so URLs seem not to be allowed to start with.

[Zhart (zhart)]

Eduard, it's definitely Inkscape problem, not OS. Because Inkscape 0.91 behave as expected on the same system.
And as you can see on attached screenshot, default Ubuntu open file dialog allow to set filepath manually.

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

not reproduced on Windows 10, Inkscape 0.92.0 r15299 (32 bit build) using native Windows open dialog

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

reproduced, I think, when I use the gtk dialog. I click on the upper left symbol to get the Location text box. Then I try to paste the address and it fails. Then I try to manually type the address and the best I can do is the attached picture with 'https'. When I try to type in ":", it refuses to accept the colon.

[Zhart (zhart)]

Any Ubuntu users?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Opening files directly via http/https links in Inkscape uses gnome-vfs (a deprecated library). The dependency on gnome-vfs
1) is a build-time configure option, and
2) has runtime requirements (daemon) if used via GUI (IIRC)

Inkscape 0.92 for 16.04 is provided via inkscape-devs PPA (the distro still has 0.91):
https://launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/+archive/ubuntu/stable

From the build log of 0.92 for 16.04:
> WITH_GNOME_VFS: OFF
https://launchpadlibrarian.net/302219305/buildlog_ubuntu-xenial-amd64.inkscape_0.92.0+66~ubuntu16.04.1_BUILDING.txt.gz

The Inkscape 0.92 package for Ubuntu 16.04 as offered via PPA was configured and compiled without gnome-vfs support, thus this feature is not enabled.

Progress to migrate from gnome-vfs to GIO is tracked in
* Bug #715215 “Port from GnomeVFS to GIO”
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/715215
(so far, no activity on this, will likely happen at some point for >= 0.93 (GTK3))

[su_v (suv-lp)]

It appears that gnome-vfs support was intentionally disabled:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/debian-packaging-stable/revision/60#control

@Alex - do you recall the reasons why this was disabled for stable releases?

[grey tomorrow (gtomorrow)]

Hi - thanks for reporting this bug, I've manually migrated it to Inkscape's new bug tracker on GitLab, and closed it here.

Please feel free to file new bugs about the issues you're seeing at
https://inkscape.org/report .

Moved to: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/issues/3634
Closed by: https://gitlab.com/greytomorrow