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“Right click and save as” needs to go away

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Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#181
post #178
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means Chrome comes with a built-in pdf reader that, when you decide to save the file you're looking at, does not re-download it. This is significant when dealing with large files, and not a feature present in all competing products. However, I would recommend re-downloading any pdf files instead of saving them from Chrome's reader, since I've encountered a couple that Chrome corrupted upon saving.

It seems kind of silly that certain browsers download it again. Isn't it stored as temp data somewhere? They should only have to rename it. I'm actually happy with the way Chrome handles downloads in that it starts the download before you confirm if you want it, then deletes it should you decide you don't. It's cool clicking the "Download" link, navigating to the folder, renaming the file, and seeing the download is…

Netscape (IIRC) would do another GET (or POST!?) when doing a view-source, which NEVER EVER made sense to anyone I would demonstrate it it. I want to see the source of the page that's currently rendered, not the source of another POST request. That behaviour thankfully seems not to be present in any modern browsers.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's so ... yellow .

I was kidding , jeez. I'm a big fan of SumatraPDF and use it everywhere I can. However I have actually heard people complain about its yellowness when started without a document. I don't care Sumatra, keep it yellow.

Seriously though, why all the yellow?

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#184
Doesn't this break the XHTML serialization?

IIRC, the HTML 5 `foo` is equivalent to its XHTML representation `foo`. The implicit value of the attribute is duplicated in the attribute value.

In this case this would lead to `download="download"` as if the suggested filename is "download", not "use the filename found in the URL".

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#185
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems kind of silly that certain browsers download it again. Isn't it stored as temp data somewhere? They should only have to rename it. I'm actually happy with the way Chrome handles downloads in that it starts the download before you confirm if you want it, then deletes it should you decide you don't. It's cool clicking the "Download" link, navigating to the folder, renaming the file, and seeing the download is…

Netscape (IIRC) would do another GET (or POST!?) when doing a view-source, which NEVER EVER made sense to anyone I would demonstrate it it. I want to see the source of the page that's currently rendered, not the source of another POST request. That behaviour thankfully seems not to be present in any modern browsers.

I may be misremembering, but didn't NN also re-GET on RESIZE EVENTS? I'm sure there was a very clever reason for doing so, but it sure did piss me off at the time.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#186
post #115

off-topic, but got to say it: > lots of people are literally afraid of the right mouse button ...c'mon, when will people grow out of this? and by people I mean GUI designers! One of the reasons I hate the guts of Unity for example is that I can't simply 'right click' -> 'customize/properties/setting' on anything I want to change in the UI. I don't want to go to a 'control/settings panel' (that may not even have the o…

I think perhaps there is an increasing tendency to design one UI for every platform (touch screen tablets, desktops etc.) and to favour consistency across platforms rather than proper integration within each platform. So if right-click is difficult to emulate on a touch screen, then often the desktop version of a program available for touch-screen devices won't make good use of right-click either.

It is perhaps part of a larger trend to try and solve UI problems for tablets and phones, then push the solutions back to the desktop, despite the fact the desktop didn't suffer from the problem they attempted to solve.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#187

There are already ways to force browsers to download using HTTP headers. The author says this is a "server-side solutions to front-end problem", okay. But anyways, when pages use this already, it OFTEN pisses me off, when I want to look at a PDF in browser, but the web app/page is forcing me to save it to disk and then re-open it in another app. What we _really_ need, that we _don't_ have a way to do right now -- is…

That's a pretty good idea -- perhaps a "prompt" attribute instead of a "download" attribute. Lends itself reasonably well to a JS-only implementation, too: http://jsfiddle.net/FLa8P/1/

Nice, that JS is a great idea, thanks.

And of course it relies on the download attribute. So, okay, I guess the `download` attribute DOES make this possible with a bit of JS, where it wasn't before, okay, one step forward.

One nice feature of your solution is the user can still skip the prompt with a right-click or modifier-click 'save as' or 'open in new tab'.

Nicely done. I'm gonna use that in the future. To be more strictly legal, I'd use a `data-prompt="true"` attribute or something, instead of a not entirely legal made up 'prompt' attribute.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#188

There are already ways to force browsers to download using HTTP headers. The author says this is a "server-side solutions to front-end problem", okay. But anyways, when pages use this already, it OFTEN pisses me off, when I want to look at a PDF in browser, but the web app/page is forcing me to save it to disk and then re-open it in another app. What we _really_ need, that we _don't_ have a way to do right now -- is…

Good point, but such a prompt would be similarly annoying (i.e. annoying to a similar number of users). The way I've done this in the past has been to provide two links, one of which triggered the inclusion of HTTP headers at the server, to trigger the Save dialo). Assuming the download attribute is supported, it's even easier:

  File (Download)
This could impact visual design in a negative way. A download icon[1] could be used instead.

  File Download this file
CSS would be used render an icon and to make the text of .download-icon conveyable only in non-graphical browsers.

[1] http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/#icon/icon-downloa...

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#189
post #179
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the sha1sum of the document. Thanks.

That would probably scare most users, to see a long filename full of gibberish.

Could, but putting it at the end of the document would seem pretty normal given what a lot of users get when downloading stuff. I think url shortners and tublr image urls probably paved the way.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#190

There are already ways to force browsers to download using HTTP headers. The author says this is a "server-side solutions to front-end problem", okay. But anyways, when pages use this already, it OFTEN pisses me off, when I want to look at a PDF in browser, but the web app/page is forcing me to save it to disk and then re-open it in another app. What we _really_ need, that we _don't_ have a way to do right now -- is…

The option approach with the ability to set a default is the best approach. Then depending on the default, the right click will show the non-default option.
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