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File Chooser Portal Scope

With Nautilus becoming the new file chooser we need to decide which features from it we want in the file chooser mode, and which we don't. This has technical implications (e.g. single vs. multiple processes), so we need at least a general direction soon.

Open Questions

  • How much "file managing" should the chooser do?
    • Is there a risk that people start just using the chooser to do general file management and forget they're in the file chooser? How can we avoid this?
  • Which features are expected from a file chooser, and which aren't?
    • Do we allow renaming files, batch-rename, undo-redo, compressing, etc.?
  • How much parity should the portal have with the existing GTK filechooser?
  • What behaviors to keep from Nautilus? What needs to be different in a file chooser?
    • Type to search? Key focus behaviour?
    • Consistent renaming/replace behavior?
    • Drag and drop
  • Does Recent/Starred make sense in a "Save" dialog?
  • Should we have an "escape hatch" button to open the current location in "real" Nautilus?

Feature set comparison

Legacy Design discussions

Mockups

Edited by Sam Hewitt