Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

hilltop_yodeler · 2018-02-14 19:03:14

Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: MX-17_x64 Horizon (Debian Stretch)
Chrome Version 64.0.3282.140 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Firefox Version 58.0.1 (64-bit)

Thunar works fine - that's not the issue (the setting for "Sort folders before files" does not fix the issue that I am about to describe).

The issue is with the Save and Open dialog and specifically with web browsers. For instance, if I am using my web browser (tested this with Chrome and Firefox) and I try to save a file to my hard drive, files and folder are all intermixed in the Save dialog (opening a file through the browser produces the same mixed up result). Let's say I want to save a photo from a web page to ~/pictures/trips/ - once in my "pictures" folder, I'd like to be able to type the letter 't' on my keyboard to send me all the way down to the folders that start with the letter 't', instead of having to manually scroll all the way down to find my "trips" folder. Instead, I see files intermixed with folders and to me this is just bad form. XFCE did not use to mix up files and folders like this, or at least not in any version that I recall using since maybe 2005... so that makes me wonder if this is related to the modern browser and that the issue is not with XFCE? Is there a setting that I'm missing somewhere?

The setting under Thunar > Display > Sort folders before files - this does not seem to have any impact on how the Save/Open dialog functions in the web browser.

The behavior that I've described above does not seem to take place in other applications. I've tested this by both opening and saving files in Gimp, Leafpad, and Geany, and none of those seem to mix up the files and folders - folders are always listed before files.

Does anyone know of a solution to my issue? Does anyone else have this problem? Thank you in advance for your help!

Jerry3904 · 2018-02-14 19:15:13

I have noticed that on MX-17 as well, but haven't taken the time to look into it even to the extent of checking another distro. Now I will, thanks.

BTW: we currently ship Firefox 58.0.2, and I wonder if this change came in with the big Firefox 57 release.

alcornoqui · 2018-02-14 19:35:00

I think you can right click and choose it as an option (my example picture is in spanish):

Last edited by alcornoqui (2018-02-14 19:36:03)

hilltop_yodeler · 2018-02-14 20:51:01

Jerry3904 wrote:

I have noticed that on MX-17 as well, but haven't taken the time to look into it even to the extent of checking another distro. Now I will, thanks.
BTW: we currently ship Firefox 58.0.2, and I wonder if this change came in with the big Firefox 57 release.

@Jerry3904, I recently gave Solus Linux about a 3-month long test-drive. It behaved in exactly the same way, and I was sure that it was the OS at the time; now I'm not so sure.

hilltop_yodeler · 2018-02-14 20:58:21

alcornoqui wrote:

I think you can right click and choose it as an option (my example picture is in spanish):
http://imgur.com/CmhAqtxl.png

@alcornoqui, either I have misunderstood your screenshot or you have misunderstood my initial post, I'm not sure. The idea is that when I go to save or open a file in any application (although my issue seems to be specific to the web browser), I want to see folders listed first, and then files listed below all of the folders. As it is now, folders and files are intermixed, which makes it difficult to navigate quickly down through sub-folders. It should look something like this:

-folder01
-folder02
-folder03
-folder04
---file-a
---file-b
---file-d

Instead, it looks something like this:

---file-a
-folder01
---file-b
-folder02
-folder03
---file-c
-folder04
---file-d
---file-e
---file-f
-folder05

alcornoqui · 2018-02-14 22:01:02

Sorry for not translating the text in the screenshot, but I meant exactly what I said.

The last line in the right click menu says "list folders before files" ("ordenar carpetas antes que archivos"), textually, and has precisely that effect.

You can see a similar question and answer here where they reference the exact commit where the feature was introduced, 3 years ago.

edit: Broken link
edit: The Firefox GTK3 integration came around Firefox 46, a year ago more or less, AFAIK

Last edited by alcornoqui (2018-02-14 22:09:42)

alcornoqui · 2018-02-14 22:37:32

Sorry for threadsitting, but I've taken these two screenshots for clarification:

Hope it helps, good luck!

hilltop_yodeler · 2018-02-15 00:24:12

That's interesting.... thanks @alcornoqui for the clarification. You are correct that if you right-click on the folder name that you can specify to sort folders before files. However, if I type in the first letter of the folder that I am looking for, it still behaves as before and lists a jumble of folders and files. It seems like what has changed is that instead of shifting down to the folder starting with the letter that you typed, it now seems to search for an exact name so if I want the "icons" folder, I can't just type 'i'... I have to type in "icons" or just manually scroll down and find it.

At least the sort option that you mentioned makes it a bit easier to find. Thanks!

alcornoqui · 2018-02-15 00:57:22

That's interesting, too! I'm writing now from Firefox 58.0.2 in MX-17 (btw, Jerry, if you're still reading, GREAT JOB!), but the previous posts were using Firefox Nightly (59.0b9) in Xubuntu 16.04.

So, in Nightly it does the incremental search by initial characters you want, but in Firefox 58.0.2 it does pattern matching of files and folders, including files inside subfolders, so when you type "i" it shows any file or folder with an "i" anywhere, then "ic", then "ico", etc...

I'm not sure what I prefer, now that I think about it the pattern matching is fine for me, so it seems that I'm screwed in the future, but you'll be alright!

Jerry3904 · 2018-02-15 01:31:47

@alcornoqui: many thanks!

hilltop_yodeler · 2018-02-15 16:47:50

@alcornoqui - that's good to know. I may reluctantly have to switch to using Firefox then if Chrome doesn't also make this change.

@Jerry3904 - yes, kudos to you if you are the one behind MX! Great job! Just sent you a PM.

Thank you both for your help! It'll be interesting to see how things evolve and change over time in regards to the search feature in the open/close dialog.

Jerry3904 · 2018-02-15 16:54:17

@Jerry3904 - yes, kudos to you if you are the one behind MX! Great job!

I am a member of the Dev Team, but there is no single person behind MX Linux. I just happen to have the biggest mouth...

big_smile

https://mxlinux.org/about-us

Last edited by Jerry3904 (2018-02-15 17:13:12)

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#1 2018-02-14 19:03:14

Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#2 2018-02-14 19:15:13

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#3 2018-02-14 19:35:00

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#4 2018-02-14 20:51:01

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#5 2018-02-14 20:58:21

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#6 2018-02-14 22:01:02

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#7 2018-02-14 22:37:32

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#8 2018-02-15 00:24:12

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#9 2018-02-15 00:57:22

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#10 2018-02-15 01:31:47

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#11 2018-02-15 16:47:50

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

#12 2018-02-15 16:54:17

Re: Save & Open Dialog Not Listing Folders Before Files - Web Browser Only

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