Bug 33714 - UI Warning Box is an annoyance on export to CSV
Summary: UI Warning Box is an annoyance on export to CSV
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: target:25.2.0
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: CSV-Export
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2011-01-30 04:29 UTC by daniel.oconnor
Modified: 2024-09-14 10:09 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
The annoying dialog. (13.40 KB, image/png)
2016-04-17 15:49 UTC, mahfiaz
Details
Video demo of patch. (3.07 MB, image/gif)
2020-07-05 18:54 UTC, Martin van Zijl
Details
Current dialog on my system (Ubuntu 18.04). (13.84 KB, image/png)
2020-07-05 18:56 UTC, Martin van Zijl
Details
Proposed new dialog. (14.71 KB, image/png)
2020-07-05 18:56 UTC, Martin van Zijl
Details
Proposed new option in the preferences window. (89.81 KB, image/png)
2020-07-07 17:55 UTC, Martin van Zijl
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description daniel.oconnor 2011-01-30 04:29:34 UTC
Was http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=62729

"When I save a spreadsheet to CSV, only the active sheet is saved. The first time
I ever did it, I might have cared about the warning, but now I do not.

Please allow me, in a similar fashion to firefox, to elect to never see this
message again via a checkbox. It should, ideally, default to checked."

The dialog show to you just previously covers off much of the warning needed when it asks me if I wish to save in an open document format instead.
That dialog has a 'never show me again' feature.

If any warnings that were needed could be shown at that stage; this would remove one annoyance.
Comment 1 Björn Michaelsen 2011-12-23 11:46:32 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 2 daniel.oconnor 2011-12-25 18:05:16 UTC
I can verify this behaviour is still a problem with 3.4.4 at the very least.
Comment 3 sasha.libreoffice 2012-04-05 08:23:14 UTC
in 3.5.2.2 checkbox for disabling this warning not added yet
Comment 4 Pablo Beltran 2012-06-19 02:33:15 UTC
Neither fixed in 3.5.4

This more than annoying is a BIG bug: it avoids to transform documents into PDF from batch processes.
Comment 5 steve 2015-04-17 07:52:34 UTC
I'm not sure I can still reproduce this with LO Version: 4.5.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: 09a1e4f36128f64029d45a38d9b059bf11ea0821
TinderBox: MacOSX-x86_64@49-TDF, Branch:master, Time: 2015-04-15_23:40:09
Locale: de_

Please add exact reproduce steps for this bug and add a screenshot of the dialog which you do not want to see (or be able to "never show again").

Once the additional info has been provided set this bug back to NEW please.
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2015-10-14 19:51:11 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 mahfiaz 2016-04-17 15:49:11 UTC
I can confirm this on 5.1.2.1.
A warning dialog still shows up when saving to CSV from document with multiple sheets with no option to never see it again.

The text is as follows. Title: "LibreOffice 5.1.2.1"
Message: "Warning saving the document testfile:
Only the active sheet was saved."

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create a new sheet inside spreadsheet document (so you have at least 2 sheets).
2. File → Save as
3. Pick .csv as file format.
4. Save
5. The annoying dialog shows up.
Comment 8 mahfiaz 2016-04-17 15:49:34 UTC
Created attachment 124435 [details]
The annoying dialog.
Comment 9 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-05 18:48:15 UTC
I am working on a patch for this.
Comment 10 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-05 18:54:51 UTC
Created attachment 162665 [details]
Video demo of patch.

Here I have saved a document with 2 sheets as a CSV file. I re-save it, and it shows the warning dialog. I uncheck the checkbox and click OK. The next time I save the document, it does not show the warning.
Comment 11 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-05 18:56:10 UTC
Created attachment 162666 [details]
Current dialog on my system (Ubuntu 18.04).
Comment 12 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-05 18:56:42 UTC
Created attachment 162667 [details]
Proposed new dialog.
Comment 13 Laurent Balland 2020-07-06 15:04:13 UTC
That sounds interesting :-)
Is this option available only for current file, or is it for all next CSV files? I would prefer only for current file.

Text "Warn me about this in the future." may need some rewording:
"Warn again for next saving"?
Comment 14 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-07 17:13:18 UTC
(In reply to Laurent BP from comment #13)

Thanks for the suggestions.

> That sounds interesting :-)
> Is this option available only for current file, or is it for all next CSV
> files? I would prefer only for current file.

It applies for all files. I think this is required to fix the batch process issue in Comment #4 above.

To be clear, it applies when saving from ODS to CSV as well as re-saving the CSV.

> Text "Warn me about this in the future." may need some rewording:
> "Warn again for next saving"?

t actually applies to all future savings, so I prefer the original wording. I copied the text from the "replace existing content" dialog, which occurs when you paste into a cell where there is already something, so it is consistent.

I'm planning to request feedback from the UX team, so let's see what they say.
Comment 15 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-07 17:55:11 UTC
Created attachment 162768 [details]
Proposed new option in the preferences window.

This is the corresponding new option in the Preferences Dialog. It's currently under "Calc --> General --> Input" which is probably the wrong place, so should be moved somewhere better.
Comment 16 Martin van Zijl 2020-07-07 18:10:32 UTC
UX Team -- please take a look at this enhancement. Thanks!

The attached screenshots and video show my proposed patch.

In particular, the option I propose to add in the Preferences Dialog should be moved to a different section than "Calc -- General -- Input". What section should it be moved to? (https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=162768)

Also note the suggestions in Comment #13 and Comment #14.
Comment 17 Heiko Tietze 2020-07-08 11:15:18 UTC
Not perfectly sure how it works. Save on a sheet that has been saved as CSV only or also for every new document and/or session. The first doesn't need a global option. The other can be with "Show override warning" but ideally we create an extra section. Most input settings could go into Default or warnings to View.

The text itself better align with the checkbox on the dialog. Something like "Show warning when saving only the active sheet". You label the checkbox "Warn me..." which is a bit uncommon. How about "[x] Show this warning when saving only active sheets". The checkbox is typically left-aligned placed at the very bottom of the dialog. See the tip of the day dialog what I have in mind [1] (first idea was to create a generic "extended" confirmation dialog, which could be used for other messages too).

[1] https://design.blog.documentfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/spectacle.png
Comment 18 Mike Kaganski 2020-07-14 15:34:21 UTC
(In reply to Pablo Beltran from comment #4)
> This more than annoying is a BIG bug: it avoids to transform documents into
> PDF from batch processes.

(In reply to Martin van Zijl from comment #14)
> It applies for all files. I think this is required to fix the batch process
> issue in Comment #4 above.

I'm sorry, but I don't see comment 4 relevant to this "Export to CSV" RFE at all; and so I don't see how this is necessary for batch-process.

We definitely need some centralized infra for disabled dialogs - possibly per-module, like dedicated options tab under each module... but that's a separate task.
Comment 19 Buovjaga 2020-09-12 10:22:07 UTC
Martin's patch: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/98174
Comment 20 Xisco Faulí 2021-02-09 14:09:10 UTC
Dear Martin van Zijl,
This bug has been in ASSIGNED status for more than 3 months without any
activity. Resetting it to NEW.
Please assign it back to yourself if you're still working on this.
Comment 21 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-11 08:07:25 UTC
Noel, you did a lot effort in https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/157440. I could imagine a more flexible solution with a list that picks up all strings from sc/inc/scerrors.hrc showing the list at the options dialog, plus a checkbox on each messagebox to disable the warning. Or just individually suppress the warning as Martin did (comment 19)?
Comment 22 Noel Grandin 2024-09-11 08:22:20 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #21)
> flexible solution with a list that picks up all strings from

I dont think that is a very good idea. There are only a few warnings that can usefully be suppressed, and they should each be carefully examined to see if it is a good idea.
Comment 23 Commit Notification 2024-09-14 10:09:10 UTC
Heiko Tietze committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/dbd851c35720ac6f0ebea8a212fa54e79259e36c

Resolves tdf#33714 - Option to disable "only active sheet"

It will be available in 25.2.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.