Re: ftp and Nautilus

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Mon, 2004-05-17 at 11:23, Alexander Larsson wrote:

> I don't think this is quite right. We shouldn't be trying anon before
> asking for user/password.

Silently trying to do an anonymous login first somehow doesn't sound
like the best idea to me either, usability-wise.  (Popping up a password
dialog that defaulted to, but wasn't restricted to performing an
anonymous login wouldn't be unreasonable though.)

> Given this, I think the model we want is:
> * On a protected share, always pop up an authentication dialog
> * If the user didn't fill out the dialog, but clicked ok (and not
> cancel), try to do an anonymous login using the methods availible
> protocol

Hmm, I think this could be a usability issue-- I don't believe many
people would equate an empty login dialog with "try anonymous login",
even if they knew that such a thing was possible.  Most people are
inclined to hit Cancel if they encounter a dialog that they don't know
how to fill in.

Expecting users to understand the use of "anonymous" as a username is
certainly a usability issue too, though... perhaps you might add
something clearer like a "Try to connect without a username" checkbox,
which would disable the username field, but still send "anonymous" to
the server when appropriate.  (It could even change the Password label
to "Email address" for ftp URIs while it was checked, although
dynamically changing labels isn't usually great for accessibility).

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems