File chooser sidebar should better match Files [$15]

[Nine-H]

The file chooser is a module version of the file browser, and the filebrowser represents the primary way that users interact with the file system, and as such should reflect the design of the file browser in terms of views, and sidebar padding and order.

For image focused tasks list view is so bad that I open files because dragging and dropping is faster than the filechooser, this wouldn't be the case with an icon view because in icon view having meaningful names for images doesn't matter at all.

The sidebar design in filechooser should be copied directly from files, I've spent a long time in files and my bookmarks are muscle memory at this point.

--- There is a **[$15 open bounty](https://www.bountysource.com/issues/49167244-file-chooser-sidebar-should-better-match-files?utm_campaign=plugin&utm_content=tracker%2F65602118&utm_medium=issues&utm_source=github)** on this issue. Add to the bounty at [Bountysource](https://www.bountysource.com/?utm_campaign=plugin&utm_content=tracker%2F65602118&utm_medium=issues&utm_source=github).

[jeremypw]

Agreed, but not as simple as it sounds unfortunately

[ernstki]

@danrabbit I have an earnest question: why is it not possible to see mounted network locations in the GTK3 pantheon-file-chooser module? I verified that this was the case as far back as Freya. They show up fine in the GTK2 version, which I checked with GVim and LibreOffice.

I can't seem to find this discussed or reported as an issue anywhere (Stack Exchange, the forums, Reddit). Is that a design decision, or a long-standing bug?

Update: See #261.

[danirabbit]

@ernstki I’m not sure why you’ve pinged me specifically on this issue. I don’t know the answer. The file chooser comes from Gtk3. We carry a module to modify it a bit, so if you don’t see an issue report for the problem you encountered, I would open one :)

[ernstki]

@danrabbit OK, sorry to bother you. It fit with the "file chooser doesn't have feature parity with Files" theme, so I assumed this was the correct place to discuss this.

[ernstki]

@jeremypw What do you think is the path forward? Is this anywhere close to a reasonable "beginner" project, or would it amount to just about a complete rewrite of the upstream file chooser from GNOME/GTK?

[jeremypw]

@ernstki: Currently Files intercepts the FileChooser dialog created by Gtk and swaps out certain widgets like the location bar and filechooser for custom versions (in a rather clunky way). I guess, in principle the same could be done with sidebar but the existing File widgets are not drop in replacements - you should create a "basic" version which implements the correct interface for the filechooser sidebar and then subclass that to create the Files sidebar (in the same way as was done with the location bar) rather than maintain two separate sidebars. If you swap out more widgets it may become cleaner to recreate the whole dialog. Not a beginner's project I would say. I have held back from attempting it because there was some talk of rewriting the Files sidebar anyway.

[arshubham]

Any update on this? The style diverged a lot in juno and looks out of place from the whole os.

[jeremypw]

I believe the intention now is to provide a complete native filechooser and update elementary apps to use the Gtk.FileChooserNative object. Non elementary apps may still use the GtkFileChooser however.

[skewty]

For all those interested in seeing this, where is your bounty offering?

[jeremypw]

@skewty https://www.bountysource.com/issues/49167244-file-chooser-sidebar-should-better-match-files

You should be able to find bounties by pasting the web address of the issue report into Bountysource search bar, if it has not been given.