User friendly Quick Connect

[bigstar]

there still seems to be some confusion with the quick connect, I have encountered several emails from people confused about entering a ftp:// url and not being able to fill out the other fields.

The quick connect works like this.

If the user enters a url ftp:///user:pass@host:port/path that url is passed to the connect method.

If the user enters seperated details "host", "user", "pass", etc. a url is generated and passed to the connect method.

Now it's impossible to have both.

in v1.4 if ftp:// was detected we disabled the seperated fields, however it was pointed out that if the user entered host:port the seperate fields were enabled even though they weren't used.

I have since addressed that problem but in my opinion this still isn't very user friendly.

One consideration was to detect if the url pasted a ftp:// url and automatically chop it up, filling in the seperate fields.

Of course this wouldnt work if the user manually typed a ftp:// url.


What other solutions can you come up with?

[Linkster]

I think the way it works right now is fine...if you have to use a username pass other than anon, just take out the ftp://. I really don't see what all the fuss is about

[bigstar]

Not quite linkster, you have to take out the ftp:// and seperate the host:port most people have been forgetting to do the last part.

[Linkster]

well, then i guess having it auto parse it out to the correct fields would be good. if they are entering it in manually then they could fill it out correctly anyway

[Slinger]

I did not really read the article, too tired!

but i did read enough to know that I like that feature like it is!

[Fusion]

Originally posted by Linkster
well, then i guess having it auto parse it out to the correct fields would be good. if they are entering it in manually then they could fill it out correctly anyway

Another solution to manually typed urls, is to wait for the separators (:, @ and /) and simply parse each field as the user is done typing that portion. It would work, I just did a quick test locally. ;)

[MxxCon]

if i follow you correctly...

you could automaticaly chop up url when user click on another text box, instead of adding another button...or you could add another button :)

or you could disable username/pass fields if you detect "@" char instead of "ftp://"
this way i can paste in ftp://ftp.uu.net/tmp and still be able to enter username/pass