Take a peek at Firefox 3's new download manager

Filed under: Design, Internet, Productivity, Mozilla

Take a peek at Firefox 3's new download manager

by David Chartier Aug 12th 2007

Mozilla Links has posted details and a few screenshots of how Firefox 3's new download manager will look and function. In general, users will gain more control over their downloads, actions such as opening a file have been changed from text links to icons to comply with the rest of Firefox's design paradigm of buttons for actions, words for website links. Users will also be able to click an (i) icon on completed downloads to view details such as the website the download came from, the location of the downloaded file on local computer and when the download finished. Chronic downloaders will also appreciate a new search box, and an option to show the download manager in the status bar or sidebar is also being considered.

Overall these look like some strong features for a much-needed upgrade to the download manager, but we would still like to see a little more innovation here. For example: the download manager in Camino, a Mac OS X browser that uses the same Gecko rendering engine as Firefox, can not only clear the download manager's list of files, but also move those files to the trash. And what about actual download file management features, such as moving files to specified folders or importing into apps based on file type (ZIP, audio, video, etc.)?

If you're itching to try out these new features, Mozilla Links says this new download manager should be available in tonight's nightly build.

Tags: download managers, DownloadManagers, downloads, Firefox, Firefox 3, Firefox3, Mozilla

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mark said 11:07AM on 8-12-2007

Can it pause downloads? It's so stupid that Firefox has always had a pause button in the download manager that doesn't even do anything.

David Chartier said 11:36AM on 8-12-2007

#1: The Mozilla Links post didn't specifically mention a pause button, but the screenshot I borrowed for this post has one next to the active downloads at the top of the window. This leads me to speculate that yes, it certainly looks like it will have true pause/resume capabilities.

jumanji said 1:06PM on 8-12-2007

The download manager should be a swappable component, trivially replaced with third party replacements. The download manager included with Firefox is woefully inadequate and 'extensions' don't integrate tightly enough.

realmccoy01 said 1:53PM on 8-12-2007

nice

Percy Cabello said 3:11PM on 8-12-2007

Firefox currently has partial pause/resume: you can pause a download provided that the server supports this feature and the resume happens within the same session.

Resume across sessions is currently under development as a summer of code project (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=377243).

While it is not sure if it will make it for Firefox 3 (I'd say if it's not in by beta 1 we can all wake up) a recent report says it's progressing pretty well.

PS_4 said 7:43PM on 8-12-2007

As far as I'm concerned, Download Manager Tweak 0.7.2 is Firefox's download manager -_-

Steve said 1:18AM on 8-13-2007

Wow that looks really IE like. boo for this design.

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http://www.GeekEnough.com

ebil said 4:27AM on 8-13-2007

I wouldnt mind seeing the download manager as another tab in firefox browse, maybe have it as the default first tab if a download is activated. that why they have a whole page to list details and have searches etc on downloads. would be nice.

but love firefox.

Peter said 8:40AM on 8-13-2007

I can't believe people have such strong opinions about an interface you hardly ever see. For me, the download manager appears in the background and does its thing while I'm doing something else in the main browser window. Eventually the download finishes and I can work with the downloaded item. Who spends that much time looking at the download window or monitoring it? I'd rather see Mozilla spend time working on the main browser functions than wasting time on making the download window prettier.

Dan said 10:20AM on 8-13-2007

Ok, Here's my wish list...
#1 A tab not an annoying popup (same with themes/addons)

#2 status of overall download progress (eg generalises over many downloads) - in status bar

#3 BitTorrent support (go on)

#4 search box that shrinks downloaded list as you type (like itunes)

Yeago said 10:31AM on 8-13-2007

Amazing!

...just joking.

gnuyou said 11:19AM on 8-13-2007

>>9. I can't believe people have such strong opinions about [Insert *whatever* here]...

That's where you went wrong ;)

Jarrett Kaufman said 11:39AM on 8-13-2007

Hopefully they rework the database used to store the download entries so it doesn't take as long to open the download manager as it does to open Windows Media Player, even when it has only five or six things in it.

Jake T said 5:13PM on 8-13-2007

maybe one day FF's d/l manager will be like Opera's and actually be functional rather than just a giant notification window. Doesn't look like this is the day.

Daniel Spisak said 1:13PM on 8-16-2007

Text function links are being replaced with buttons in Firefox 3? Has anyone given thought to how this will affect blind users? Will there be a workaround for those users?

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