User Interface - File Properties Dialog

The File Properties Dialog is used to display the properties - like name, location, type, size, permissions, etc. - to the user, and in addition, it allows the user to change certain properties, like the name and the permissions, if he/she is allowed to do so.

This draft is based on the properties dialogs as used in Nautilus and ROX. The dialog needs some corrections concerning layout and spacings ( check the Gnome HIG!).

Having the MIME application chooser tied to the file properties dialog is based on the new ideas realized in Nautilus recently. Unfortunately, this solution is still not perfect (in Nautilus), as it exposes the implementation details (the MIME typing) to the user interface.

This is the current attempt, which now includes all required fields (atleast for a regular file):

While e.g. Nautilus lists both the MIME-type and the MIME comment, Thunar doesn’t do that, but instead sets the MIME-type as tooltip for the Type field.

Design hints for the Size field in case of a folder:

• Make heavy use of the stat()-cache here!
• Do the calculation asynchronously in a separate thread.

The older attempts looked like this:

The current approach for the Permissions tab looks like this:

As you can we’ve dropped the advanced permission bits (suid/guid/sticky) from the UI, because the usual users will most likely never ever touch one of these bits, and the advanced user that needs these bits will know how to change it from the CLI.

The previous Nautilus-like Permissions tab looked like this:

This tab is pretty similar to the Open With tab in Nautilus, but I think that the term Application is better suited than Open With, although its confusing as well. Ideas? Anyone?

Since we are able to learn from history, lets see at how other projects’ File Properties dialogs look like.

This is how the File Properties dialog looks in Konqueror:

The General tab (the MIME type and application handling is available from the MIME preferences button):

The Permissions tab (all-in-all a bit confusing and it takes some time until you realize how this dialog is meant to be used):

This is how the File Properties dialog looks in Nautilus (only the relevant tabs):

The Basic tab:

The Permissions tab:

The Open With tab:

This is the File Properties dialog in ROX, which has everything in one tab, but does not allow the user to rename the file system entity.

File Properties in Midnight Command:

File Properties in Windows Explorer (german):

File Properties in GNOME Commander:

The General tab is very brief here, not even the icon/thumbnail is included. I think this is a good idea, concentrate on the important information.

File Permissions in GNOME Commander:

Very brief again. Even the sticky/guid/suid buttons are missing.

File Properties in Aqua’s Finder:

The overall dialog looks a bit overloaded with all those expanders, and its only resizable in vertical direction.

On the plus side, there’s:

• Integrating the user/group owner selection with the user/group permissions makes sense
• Using a simple combo box for the MIME application selection is a nice idea.
• Using the term Kind instead of Type to refer to the document’s MIME type sounds better to me.