User:P.A./Panel-based Download Manager/Status

This is your friendly feature status page!

If you want to help with testing the Downloads Panel, you're in the right place!

Read this page in detail first, because it tells what you can expect from this experimental feature.
Then feel free to share your ideas with us, with the modalities indicated below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The old, separate window for managing downloads has been replaced by a simpler, unobtrusive Downloads Panel integrated in the main browser window.

When you start a download, it appears in the panel, and the progress is shown in the navigation bar. When the file finishes downloading, you are discreetly notified. A single click on the finished download in the panel opens it.

The panel shows only your recent downloads in the current browsing session. Older downloads are accessed through the Library window, in the same way as your browsing history, and with the same search and display capabilities.

The feature is still in development and has several known issues.

More details

The Downloads Panel is based on an original design by Alexander Limi, who is a specialist in user experience design in Mozilla. The design has since been adopted by the Safari web browser for Mac as well.

The design, and the brief description above, show how the feature should work in common cases, but a lot of other use cases and solutions were discussed. The feature page is the place where all the design details are noted, and links to all the other technical details can be found.

You can read more about our design goals in the feature page.

STATUS OVERVIEW

Where to find the feature

We recommend testing from the Nightly channel with a clean user profile.

Release status as of April 20, 2012:

Nightly channel	Feature is present and enabled by default. Has known issues, detailed below.
Aurora channel	Feature is not present.
Beta channel	Feature is not present.
Release channel	Feature is not present.
UX channel	Feature is present, but not always the latest version.

Projected release status as of May 1, 2012:

Nightly channel	Feature is present and enabled by default. Has known issues.
Aurora channel	Feature is hidden, disabled by default. When enabled, has known issues and makes some data inaccessible.
Beta channel	Feature is not present.
Release channel	Feature is not present.
UX channel	Feature is present and enabled by default. Has known issues.

How to enable or disable

To control whether the Downloads Panel is enabled, navigate to about:config and switch the preference named browser.download.useToolkitUI.

The browser should be restarted after switching the preference.

The Library window interface is always enabled and its behavior is not controlled by this preference.

KNOWN ISSUES

The panel won't work with custom themes

This is expected. Theme authors will have to update their themes to include the new stylesheets and icons.

Note: The structure of the theme and required icons will change for sure in future versions of the feature.

Downloads that finished in previous sessions can't be opened

The panel is designed as a temporary notification area for downloads in the current session only. Only in-progress downloads are preserved across browsing sessions.

For downloads made in previous browsing sessions, shown in the Library window, at present you won't be able to open the target file and go to the page from which the download started.

The data required to perform these commands is just hidden, and these commands will be available in future versions. See bug 675902 for details.

Very old items in the Downloads window will be cleaned up automatically

Historical downloads data was collected in the Library window, in addition to the Downloads window, starting from Firefox 11 (released March 13, 2012), and partially in Firefox 8 (released August 11, 2011). This data is separate from the list in the Downloads window.

In case you made downloads before you started using Firefox 11, and you haven't already cleaned them up in the meantime, Firefox will clean up those old downloads for you.

You'll start with an empty Downloads Panel in any case, as the panel only contains temporary notifications for the session. Historical downloads will still be visible in the Library window, when you select "Show All Downloads" from the panel.

The panel should display a limited number of downloads, but it doesn't

When the feature is used for the first time, the panel should be empty, except for active downloads. Sometimes you can see all the downloads from the old Downloads window instead. See bug 746756 for details.

The panel should never extend to the full screen height

The panel should never extend to the full screen height, even if you have many active downloads. When this happens, the panel's arrow disappears and the panel is not positioned correctly.

Peculiar toolbar customization behavior, and several appearance issues

Customization of the Downloads button position doesn't work as expected. See bug 746772 for one instance of the problem.

There are also several other issues related to style and appearance. See bug 726447 for details.

HOW TO SUBMIT FEEDBACK

1. Read the feature description and the known issues.
2. If you've experienced one of the known issues, you might find more information in the linked bug, if any, and contribute to the existing discussion in Bugzilla.
3. If you've found what you think is a new problem, or you have a suggestion, first take a look at the the full list of Downloads Panel bugs to see if it's already been reported.
4. If there's a new issue, file a new bug in the Firefox / Downloads Panel component, and if you can, mark it as blocking bug 564934. Note that we will update the bug to block the appropriate tracking bug as we categorize it.
5. If none of the above works for you, post a comment in bug 564934. We'll probably ask you to file a separate bug anyway ;-)