ListView - Context-menu options missing when pointer is above files/folders

Bug #51043 reported by Michael Heimann
222
This bug affects 37 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Nautilus
Fix Released
Medium
Nominated for Main by Wendell Nichols
One Hundred Papercuts
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
nautilus (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned
Nominated for Lucid by mati

Bug Description

What I did:

- Nautilus is configured to show listview, and the directory-tree on the left ( just checked, symbolview has the same issue )
- right-click on a file/folder and clicking on copy
- change to the folder where the file/foldershould be copied to
- rightclick anywhere in the listview of the contents of that folder

What happened:

- When rightclicking on a folder, there is the option to insert into that folder ( which is nice ) and cut and copy - no paste
- When rightclicking on a file the only options are cut and copy - no paste
- When actually rightclicking on the actual folder from the tree-view, paste into that folder exists, but is inactive (!!!) - so no workaround available

What I expected:

a past option that pasts the "files/folders" I've "copied" before into the folder at whichs contents I'm looking.
and a paste into that folder option in the treeview

What I found out :

when there are very few files/folders in a folder, and the list is shorter than the nautilus window could show - the whitespace below the list has this option. This should simply be added to the files and folders.

P.S: please do not remove paste into that folder - its nice actually, but not all I expected...

Tags: nautilus
Revision history for this message
Christoph Wolk (spikespiegel-gmx) wrote :

Good idea. I think this is upstream http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94618

Revision history for this message
Daniel Holbach (dholbach) wrote :

Thanks for the bug report.

Changed in nautilus:
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Untriaged → Low
Changed in nautilus:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Changed in nautilus:
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

The problem is that the menu that shows up when right clicking is that it's related to the selected file and not the directory. So not only paste is missing, but all other options too - create new directory, zoom, etc...

To fix this, right clicking should not select files.

Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

I have read the comments at http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94618 and it's really a shame that they still haven't fixed that bug in all those years! (the bug was first reported in 2002)

I really don't know why are they complicating it so much.
Like I said, the easiest solution in my opinion would be if right-mouse clicking would not select files. Left-mouse click selects file, right-mouse click brings up the context menu. If no file was selected before right-clicking, then the context menu is directory related, otherwise it is file related.

Revision history for this message
yacahuma (devx) wrote :

This bug still open on ubuntu 7.10. I agree with the proposed solution of not selecting a file on right click.

Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

looks like someone implemented the same idea i sugested:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94618
(look comment #51)

will this patch be included in the next ubuntu version? or even sooner?

Revision history for this message
Pedro Villavicencio (pedro) wrote :

The patch needs to be reviewer before it can be committed or used by Ubuntu.

Changed in nautilus:
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
André Klitzing (misery) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

Could this bug be fixed, please?

Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

in ubuntu 9.04 list view is still unusable because of this bug.
almost 7 years have passed since the bug was first reported. way to go gnome...

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

I couldn't agree more, lenooh.

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

BTW, thsis bug is rated "low" despite all the rumble about it.
Could we please set it at LEAST to "medium"?

IMHO this is "high", because it's a major usability problem of a modern file browser. I think in Windows 3.1 this was already possible.
My 20 cents to fix THIS bug instead of urging Plymouth or another compiz effect.

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

True, Christian. Some bugs are still present in Ubuntu, even after many years have passed. Nautilus' List View has always had these kind of bugs. These bugs were already reported in 2001, but instead of fixing bugs they keep on adding new features. Can't they spend their time fixing those way too old bugs instead of adding new features?

Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

I agree with Christian and Patrick.

Please do something to fix the problem. This is a basic feature, much needed, with numerous patches already contributed.

It seems to me that the maintainer of nautilus is just like the maintainer of glibc, Ulrich Drepper, not willing to accept any patches. Maybe he should be replaced?

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

could people stop adding random comments and wrong statement on this bug? Upstream is friendly and responsive

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

Shouldn't this be added to One Hundred Paper Cuts?

Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

I think it should. It fits the description perfectly. But it would probably be marked as a duplicate and not accepted? Should it be moved from here to one hundred paper cuts?

pranith (bobby-prani)
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
roffik (roffik) wrote :

I think adding some empty space (lets say 15-20px) to the left of the list view would solve this and many more usability issues with list view.

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

I think List View should work the same as Compact View. Isn't it possible to replace some code of List View with the code of Compact View? In Compact View everything works as it should be. Only the filename is highlighted when selecting files, you can use rubberband selection and a secundairy click on a filename gives another menu than a secundairy click in white space. You can even do a secundairy click in the white space between two files.

Revision history for this message
wgaa (e-janssen-whv) wrote :

Full ACK. Patrick's suggestion sounds good to me. Selecting multiple files in list view without a keyboard is not possible at the moment. I often miss that function. Compact view behavior would be what I need.

Revision history for this message
Frédéric Delanoy (frederic-delanoy) wrote :

Yeah. I totally agree.
Fixing such annoying bugs should be priority #1 above making new feature.

It's just an annoyance for people coming from Windows... last time I was trying to convert someone from windows, and that made a bad impression on him... it was just an annoyance

Revision history for this message
Jossele (jossele) wrote :

Yes! Please fix it in anintuitive way.
My mom was totally confused when the "paste" action did no show up in the context menu as soon as the nautilus window was full. She thought the folder was full because she couldnt paste anymore.
This is totally counter-intuitive.
It would be a big usability improvement.

My proposal: show "paste" and "create new folder" etc even if you click on a file in the view.

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

This would be just another bad workaround.
Fix it once and for all times by having free space clickable -> context menu, and as drop target.
"paste" in context menu of files is completely against all usability concerns. I wether want to paste a file into another nor create a folder inside a file, so I don't agree with you, sorry.

This has been discussed many times before.

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

I agree with Christian A. Reiter. Having "Paste" and "Create new folder" always in the context menu is a bad workaround for the reasons Christian A. Reiter gave. A secundairy click should give a different context menu as when clicking some space next to, above or beneath the filename. Just like when doing a secundairy click on a hyperlink on a website. You only get the conext menu to open links in a new tab when clicking the hyperlink. Doing a secundairy click only 1mm next to, above or beneath the hyperlink gives you a completely other context menu. The same goes for Icon View and Compact View in Nautilus. A secundairy click on a filename gives you a completely other context menu compared to the context menu you get when doing a secundairy click next to, above or beneath a filename. The same goes for all views of the Explorer in Windows.

Attachment: Current situation.

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

Attachment: How it should be.

A secundairy click on the filename or the icon should give the same context menu as in the current behavior. Clicking on a filename or the icon only selects the brown in the screenshot. A secundairy click anywhere else should give the same context menu as when clicking in white space. Left clicking anywhere else shouldn't select any files.

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

I'd say mark the whole line from top to bottom, so it does look better when more than one items are selected

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

Compact View has some white space between filenames, so I also added some white space in my screenshot. Your version indeed looks better, although it isn't possible to get the context menu when clicking between two filenames. Is it really needed to be able to click between filenames? I don't think so. Everything is better than what we have at this moment.

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

It's not necesary to click on the few pixels "between" two items - there's plenty of space on the right side of the file name. MS Explorer does this, Konqueror/Dolphin does this, and as you said, nautilus in it's other view does this as well.
And AFAIK this is a GTK+ problem, this "whitespace" is not implemented yet.

I would say, reimplement GNOME in Qt now that it's LGPL ;-)

Revision history for this message
Satish (satish-jeswani) wrote :

Is this bug handled in Konqueror??Can one paste files into folder by right-clicking in dest folder even if the space in dest folder is full??

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

don't exactly know what you mean with "space in dest folder is full" - disk space? no, please explain.

in Dolphin/Konqueror you can right-click on the whitespace right to the file names in detail view or anywhere in between the files in the symbols view, and choose "Paste", when you right-click on a folder, you can choose "paste into folder".
IMO this is the way nautilus should do it as well.

Satish, does this answer your question?

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

"don't exactly know what you mean with "space in dest folder is full" - disk space? no, please explain."

Of course he isn't talking about disk space. Is it so difficult to understand? What he means:
In List View each row contains one file. Let's say, there's enough room in the window to fit 40 rows in it (so 40 files can fit in this window).

Now you copy a file and you try to paste it in the destination foler. If the destination folder contains less than 40 files, there are some empty rows left, so you can use this empty space to paste the file. If the destination folder contains 40 files or more than 40 files, there's no more space left to do a secundairy click to be able to paste the file, so the "destination folder is full" (not in terms of available bytes, but number of empty rows a.k.a. whitespace).

"in Dolphin/Konqueror you can right-click on the whitespace right to the file names in detail view or anywhere in between the files in the symbols view, and choose "Paste", when you right-click on a folder, you can choose "paste into folder".
IMO this is the way nautilus should do it as well"

I also did a test and you're completely right. This is the way Nautilus should work. This is the way all file managers (except Nautilus) work.

Joslyn (pgw)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
wribeiro (wribeiro) wrote :

I'm very sorry to say that this bug is still present in:

- Nautilus 2.26.2, Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
- Nautilus 2.28.0, Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala - Beta Release

Please, solve this problem as soon as possible. Listview mode in Nautilus is almost unusable because of this limitation.

Thank you!

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

 importance "Low"?
I think this is one of the most hated bugs in Nautilus/GNOME, people just resignated to report it further...

This SHOULD definitely be more important.

Revision history for this message
wribeiro (wribeiro) wrote :

More than 3 years since this bug was first reported, and the only thing to do is make background clickable when Nautilus is in listview mode, but until now nothing was done.
Maybe Nautilus team should review the importance of this bug and change its priority because a solution is really necessary for users who manage large folders and depends of listview mode to manage lots fo files.
Home users, like most part of Gnome users, maybe don't feel affected by this problem, but enterprise users are!
How can Gnome substitute Windows in enterprise environment if a single correction like that take such a long time to be implemented?

Thank you!

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

The change might not be trivial but the code is opensource and anybody could give it a try

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Note that the issue could be that the gtk widget used does select the line when clicking on the background and need a new widget

Revision history for this message
wribeiro (wribeiro) wrote :

Should'nt this bug be assigned to GTK bugs?

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

wribeiro wrote on 2009-10-20:

"More than 3 years since this bug was first reported, and the only thing to do is make background clickable when Nautilus is in listview mode, but until now nothing was done.
Maybe Nautilus team should review the importance of this bug and change its priority because a solution is really necessary for users who manage large folders and depends of listview mode to manage lots fo files.
Home users, like most part of Gnome users, maybe don't feel affected by this problem, but enterprise users are!
How can Gnome substitute Windows in enterprise environment if a single correction like that take such a long time to be implemented?

Thank you!"

I couldn't agree more. The same goes for the non-functional copy/paste in Ubuntu (Linux in general). Developers just don't care. They don't want to fix bugs, they only want to develop new features. Stop developing Gnome Shell, another Login Screen and such new features. First fix all of those existing bugs!

It's the problem I see with all kind of open source software. Developing new features is fun, but fixing bugs isn't. So, the developers only want to develop new features, but they really don't care about existing bugs. First complete your existing project, before moving on.

Then there are those people who keep on saying "Fix it yourself if it bothers you." and "The code is opensource and anybody could give it a try". Those people think everyone in the world knows how to write programs and how to fix bugs. I really want to fix those bugs. If I was able to fix bugs, this bug was already fixed, but I'm not a programmer. I know a little PHP and that's it. All other languages are way too complicated for me. I've tried C, C++ and Phython, but I'm not able to produce something usefull. The only thing I can do in C, C++ or Phython is a CLI application which asks for two numbers and then says "Number 1 + Number 2 = Answer". I just don't have enough skills to do more advanced programming.

Who's going to fix all of those bugs if the developers don't want to fix them and those who do want to fix them have not enough skills to fix them?

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Those comments are not constructives and you are not commenting at the right place anyway, ubuntu distribute those software and is not writing those

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

I can understand that, yes.
But this is just an expression how _important_ it is to fix this bug.
It's not funny for users to _want_ to help, but being not able to program, many have to wait, and see things evolving like UbuntuOne (when there's Dropbox already) and another compiz effect, when some of the very basics are not fixed.
This is frustrating for the community as well and therefore not less important.
But you're right, Ubuntu is only partly the right place to speak here.
As mentioned above,
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94618
is the main discussion.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

The reasoning you use doesn't stand, you can't dictate people to work on nautilus, the one working on compiz or ubuntuone would probably not fix this bug either if they were not doing that, they do things they are motivated doing or would do nothing

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

You're right, sorry. And that's the wrong place too for discussions like that...

Revision history for this message
wribeiro (wribeiro) wrote :

Please set importance at least to "medium"

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

Sebastien Bacher wrote on 2009-10-26:
"The reasoning you use doesn't stand, you can't dictate people to work on nautilus, the one working on compiz or ubuntuone would probably not fix this bug either if they were not doing that, they do things they are motivated doing or would do nothing"

And that's the problem of open source. There's no one telling dictating developers to fix bugs. What you're saying is completely right: "they do things they are motivated doing or would do nothing" and that's the problem: Developers want to develop new features as that's way more fun than the boring work of fixing bugs. That's why there are so many bugs in our operating system that exist for more than five years, but still aren't fixed. The developers who wrote those applications just don't want to fix those existing bugs, because it's boring. Instead they just develop some new features, because it's fun.

But who's going the fix those bugs? The developers don't want to fix them. It's right, developers of Compiz of Ubuntu One are not going those bugs, as they are working on their own applications. What's left? Those people like me, who are not a programmer and aren't able to fix those bugs. But if you ask the developers to fix the bugs in their application, they just say: "If it bothers you, fix it yourself." I'm not a programmer. How am I going to fix those bugs? Besides that, why SHOULD I fix the bug myself? It their application. They released an application with annoying bugs, so it's their task to fix those bugs.

But the developer isn't paid and he does what he likes to do, which is developing new features. That's the problem: there's no one who tells those developers: "Go fix those bugs." That's problem of software developed by people who aren't paid.

Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

there were and are patches for this bug, but the problem is that the maintainer is holding them back for whatever philosophical reasons... any solution would be better than no solution.

Revision history for this message
Pedro Villavicencio (pedro) wrote :

If you want this bug to be fixed, then talk with the upstream maintainers, best way is to comment on the upstream report and raise that on their mailing list. Discussing unrelated things only creates more noise into the bug tracking system which makes the work of developers and triagers even harder. Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

Pedro Villavicencio wrote on 2009-12-14:
"If you want this bug to be fixed, then talk with the upstream maintainers, best way is to comment on the upstream report and raise that on their mailing list."

You've got to be kidding. Those people at Gnome just don't want this bug to be fixed. It doesn't matter if you talk to them or if you create patches. Some patches are already SIX YEARS old, but Gnome just doesn't cooperate. I've seen people got banned, because they were asking to finally fix this bug. Really, it doesn't care what you do. They just don't want to have this bug fixed.

Vish (vish)
tags: added: nautilus
Revision history for this message
Ludwig Weinzierl (weinzierl) wrote :

I don't use nautilus because of this bug. Should be high priority in my opinion.

Revision history for this message
Ludwig Weinzierl (weinzierl) wrote :

I don't use nautilus because of this bug. Should be high priority in my opinion and we can't count on upstream in this case.

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

Updating bug title as the duplicates are for other context-menu options as well[paste included]. All the bugs are due to the same problem.

summary: - "rightclick -> paste" missing in contextmenu when pointer is above
+ ListView - Context-menu options missing when pointer is above
files/folders
Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

The one hundred paper cuts project wants to improve the File management user-experience in Nautilus for Ubuntu 10.10.

How about finally fixing this bug? This bug is bothering people for years now.

Changed in nautilus:
importance: Unknown → Medium
Revision history for this message
wribeiro (wribeiro) wrote :

Please, fix this bug....

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

@wribeiro:

They won't. That's why open source software sucks. Someone or some people start a project and then release something which is full of bugs and then they have some great ideas they want to work on and start developing those great features, but they don't like to fix bugs and because it's open source the developer(s) just say: "It's open source, so fix it yourself if it's bothers you."

I hate that mentality of open source developers. They only care about the features they want to see implemented, but they really don't care about fixing bugs, even if those bugs still aren't fixed after ten years. The bugs don't bother them, so they just don't fix them. If you want them to be fixed, then you'll have to do it yourself.

Do they really think everyone has programming skills? Besides that: If you develop something, then release something usefull or don't release anything at all. If you don't want to listen to your users and don't care about fixing bugs, then just keep the software and code for yourself. Just use it on your own computer and don't release anything at all. Only release your software to the public if you're willing to listen to the people who use it and are willing to fix the bugs they report.

Revision history for this message
thet (thet) wrote : Re: [Bug 51043] Re: ListView - Context-menu options missing when pointer is above files/folders

What you are complaining about applies to closed source. Ever tried to convience microsoft to fix anything?
The open source model is superior to any other - IMO. Most of development happens for customer projects because OS devs also have the neeed to make a living.

Are you using gnome or any other OS software at all?

----- Original message -----
@wribeiro:

They won't. That's why open source software sucks. Someone or some
people start a project and then release something which is full of bugs
and then they have some great ideas they want to work on and start
developing those great features, but they don't like to fix bugs and
because it's open source the developer(s) just say: "It's open source,
so fix it yourself if it's bothers you."

I hate that mentality of open source developers. They only care about
the features they want to see implemented, but they really don't care
about fixing bugs, even if those bugs still aren't fixed after ten
years. The bugs don't bother them, so they just don't fix them. If you
want them to be fixed, then you'll have to do it yourself.

Do they really think everyone has programming skills? Besides that: If
you develop something, then release something usefull or don't release
anything at all. If you don't want to listen to your users and don't
care about fixing bugs, then just keep the software and code for
yourself. Just use it on your own computer and don't release anything at
all. Only release your software to the public if you're willing to
listen to the people who use it and are willing to fix the bugs they
report.

--
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of a duplicate bug (389606).
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/51043

Title:
  ListView - Context-menu options missing when pointer is above files/folders

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

"Are you using gnome or any other OS software at all?"

Yes, I've been using Gnome / Ubuntu for three years now. In those years I've experienced a lot of bugs and I haven't seen any of all those bugs being fixed. A lot of those bugs are really serious bugs (contents of clipboard being lost after closing the source application, anyone?) and / or bugs which were reported almost TEN YEARS ago, but still there isn't any progress. That's just completely ridiculous.

Then why do I use Gnome / Ubuntu? I hate Microsoft and don't want to support them in any way, so that's why I don't use Windows. The most common alternatives are Mac OS X and Linux. For Mac OS X you have to buy a Mac, so I can't run it on the PC I already own. That's why I installed Linux. When I had enough money, I bought a Mac. Linux was just a bridge between the Windows era and the Mac era, but it was a very rickety bridge. I've still got my PC with Ubuntu on it, but my Mac is so much better.

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

Irrelevant comments in any bug report make the bug less likely to be fixed. Please post them elsewhere.

Revision history for this message
Tralalalala (tralalalala) wrote :

It doesn't matter what kind of comments are being posted. The bug won't be fixed anyway.

Changed in nautilus:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :
Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
assignee: Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs) → nobody
Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

Finally :-)

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package nautilus - 1:3.2.1-2ubuntu5

---------------
nautilus (1:3.2.1-2ubuntu5) precise; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/git_listview_context_menus.patch: git fix for list view,
    "Show background menu when clicking on blank space" (lp: #51043)
 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:31:25 +0100

Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
lenooh (lenooh) wrote :

This bug is present again in the current version of Nautilus (now called Files) 3.6.3. in Ubuntu 13.04. Exactly the same symptoms.

Revision history for this message
Walter Ribeiro (wribeirojr) wrote :

This bug was solved after function "gtk_tree_view_is_blank_at_pos()" be created in GTK+ TreeView component.
We waited for this for many years.
(https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94618)
I hope not to have to go through this problem again.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

@lenooh: if you have an issue with quantal open a new ticket rather than commenting on an old closed one

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