Save Opened files in Temporary Folder

ukanuk

@molnart said in Save Opened files in Temporary Folder:

to my knowledge none of the chromium based browser do this, but i surely hope it's not an engine limitation. firefox, edge and old presto based opera support this.

You made me curious, so I just tested with old Microsoft Edge and the new chromium-based one. The new chromium-based Microsoft Edge ... drumroll ... automatically saved the file to the Downloads folder, just like Google Chrome. Yuck. Old Edge had it the way we want it, chromium-based Edge has apparently regressed on this. I've added a comment about this on the new Edge forums, maybe Microsoft will have the bandwidth to make whatever changes are necessary to Chromium for this?

Old Edge presents this dialog with the PDF configured to download like a normal file:

I tested each option, and these were the results:

Open saves file to tmp folder and the system default PDF reader opens it. In my case, it saved to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\TempState\Downloads
Save puts file directly in Downloads folder. File is not automatically opened.
Save As opens a Windows Explorer window to select the folder for saving the file (this option is hidden by default, it's shown by clicking arrow next to Save button). File is not automatically opened.
Cancel stops the download

ukanuk

A commenter in this other thread on the Microsoft Edge forums inspired me to do some additional testing, exposing additional behavior I'd like Vivaldi to implement:

Delete all files in the temp downloads folder every time the browser closes, as long as they're not being actively viewed which prevents file deletions on Windows anyway. (This is the current behavior of legacy Edge.)
An option (in the spirit of Vivaldi) to move files to the Recycle Bin by default rather than permanently deleting them. Edge doesn't do this, but enabling this option by default would help avoid users losing work by opening a file (clicking Open not Save), making edits to it, saving it, and closing it without ever realizing where it was saved. And then when the browser automatically cleans up after itself, the user loses their work because it was in a temp folder.
If the download happens to be an executable like an *.exe, change the Open button wording to Run instead.

romulo.godoi

This is a great idea

TsunamiZ

if you like the idea, please add a vote to the first post.

ukanuk

FWIW, Microsoft has officially recognized this feature request for their new Edge browser. Although, it's been on their list and in community discussion for 32 weeks with no official updates, so it seems they have other higher priorities for the time being.

If/when it is addressed, hopefully that makes it easier for Vivaldi to implement as well. Unless the Vivaldi team is already working on it, and beats Edge to the punch

molnart

it blows my mind that now vivalid has a built-in customizable clock (as apparently there's no clock feature in the OS or anywhere in the real world nearby), but still no at least half-featured download function.... my only reasonable explanation is that this must be serious chromium limitation that cannot be easily changes in vivalidi...

Christoph142

@molnart This is actually exactly what it is. The Chromium download system is very complex in determining these paths (e.g. by extensions) and altering it may open up security vulnerabilities. So it really needs a very careful hand there. That doesn't mean devs aren't looking into it...

molnart

@Christoph142 thanks for the explanation, i hope with microsofts help this can be addressed rather sooner than later. i still can't understand how people can live with this limitation and using chrome happily...

jeffprater

I just posted a question about this here: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/47378/is-there-a-way-for-vivaldi-to-open-files-directly-instead-of-downloading-them

I work with Citrix regularly and when opening a Citrix application from the browser, it sends an ICA file. Now on Firefox and IE, I can just click Open and it just saves the file to a temporary location and opens the file. However, with Vivaldi, I end up with 20 ICA files in my Downloads folder at the end of the day. Sure would be nice if Open meant "save to a temporary location and open". Maybe include a "Save and Open" button which does the current behavior of downloading the file to the Downloads folder then opening the file, then a "Open" button which saves the file to a temp location and opens it.

pedrosilva

Upvoting this feature request and commenting here that Advanced Chrome (https://browser.taokaizen.com) manages downloads the desired (and to me as well, the optimal) way:

Download Shelf that allows the following options:
Save: Downloads to default folder or prompts user for location.
Open: Downloads to temp folder and opens download when finish.
Discard: Cancel download.
Up to 999 downloads can be handled at the same time, they will stack and wait for user action.

Therefore it is certainly not impossible and apparently not that difficult to override Chromium default behavior.
Source code available https://browser.taokaizen.com/download/patch.txt

Hope this request gets the required attention and look forward to see this improvement implemented.

TsunamiZ

@pedrosilva

it would be helpful to also show the screenshot of Advanced Chrome's "Download Shelf" feature...

alt text

molnart

@Gwen-Dragon said in Save Opened files in Temporary Folder:

I reported that as a request in Vivaldi bug tracker:
VB-68172 "Patch for better download"

Is there any relevant update in the bugtrucker on this request?

ukanuk

Looks like Microsoft Edge now has this feature in their beta builds, see discussion at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/good-news-the-new-downloads-ui-asks-to-whether-open-or-save-the/m-p/1602206

pedrosilva

Bumping, any news? This would be a great add to Vivaldi.

JevgeniM

@pedrosilva

Totally agree. This is the only thing I currently miss in Vivaldi.

Pesala

With over 2,900 feature requests, and a small team, those needed by few users or difficult to implement may have to wait for a long time. Wherever you see that a feature is tagged as In Progress, it may get done this year rather than next.

@Christoph142 said in Save Opened files in Temporary Folder:

@molnart This is actually exactly what it is. The Chromium download system is very complex in determining these paths (e.g. by extensions) and altering it may open up security vulnerabilities. So it really needs a very careful hand there. That doesn't mean devs aren't looking into it...

astro46

Funny. I would think of getting vivaldi to simply open (and not save) eg pdf before opening, rather than save them before when asked to open would be a fix, not an added feature.

Admittedly I haven't been paying attention to requests as a whole so missed the swell of asks for the new 'black and blue color theme" or the new "custom private browsing theme" option.

my guess is that new features, some cool sounding, that may bring new users is a priority over responding to fixes for current users. New users won't know about flaws in some of the current features till they have already spent time with vivaldi, and perhaps won't even be using the current features that need more work.

Microsoft has always used this approach in software development.

Ayespy

@astro46 Well, it's impossible to open a PDF without downloading it - and while most browsers save in the Temp directory, the Chromium engine is designed to save it in the Downloads directory, which it turns out is a really, really, really difficult thing to redesign without breaking a bunch of stuff. On the other hand, there were multiple requests for a default "different" private theme, and that was quite doable. Sometimes something takes a long time because it is hard.

That said, new features and options do attract eyeballs, and without new eyeballs, Vivaldi is dead. So....

astro46

@Ayespy off topic: one new feature is 'break mode' which blanks all windows on screen. i don't get it. why not just close the browser if you don't want to be distracted/take a break?

Ayespy

@astro46 It pauses everything with a single click and no need to reload the browser to pick up exactly where you left off. On some slower machines especially, this would be a godsend. This rig loads Vivaldi in 3 seconds - but I have some that take 40 seconds or more. And then you would have to re-find you position on the page, your spot in the video, or whatever else was relevant to the time you shut down. And if you have to reload the tab you were using, it could be the content you were in the middle of is no longer there. The "break mode" button effectively freezes time.