Improve behavior/messaging when deleting a place from the library

[guiweber]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. When trying to remove an item from the library, the message “you can’t delete the selected place” will be displayed if the place that is being deleted is selected in the list of places.

This message is misleading as "selected" can be seen as "selected for deletion" and the message interpreted as "The place that you're trying to delete cannot be deleted for some unspecified reason".

This is confusing for users unaware of the limitation. It is likely that the user will select the place in the list before deletion to confirm its content, and run into this issue when trying to delete the place. It can also happen if the user has removed the other places and has only one place left, which becomes impossible to remove.

Steps to reproduce

1. From the Import module, click on Add to Library.
2. In the Add to Library window, click on the + icon next to "places" in order to add a new place.
3. Select any folder and add it as a place, this will bring you back to the Add to Library window.
4. In the list of places, you should see the newly added folder. If it's not already selected, select it with the left mouse button.
5. While the folder is selected, right click on it to delete it.
6. Notice that the folder is still present in the list and that a message saying “you can’t delete the selected place” appears at the top of the main Darktable window.

Describe the solution you'd like I think the best solution would be to allow deleting a place while it is selected in the list. Is there a reason why that's not allowed?

Alternatives Clarify the message so that there is no ambiguity. For example: "You can't delete a place while it is selected in the list"

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been marked as stale due to inactivity for the last 60 days. It will be automatically closed in 300 days if no update occurs. Please check if the master branch has fixed it and report again or close the issue.

[guiweber]

go away stale-bot...

[0x6d64]

+1. The behavior is surprising and conflicts with the mental model that users have. Expected behavior when right clicking an openend/marked entry is: remove the entry, after that no entry is selected or the previous entry is selected.

[wpferguson]

@guiweber you've not included the steps necessary to reproduce your issue. I can't figure out what your issue is from the description, so maybe if we had steps to reproduce, then we could figure this out.

[guiweber]

@wpferguson I've added steps to the issue description

[wpferguson]

@guiweber thanks. Now it makes sense. What operating system are you on. I know that in the past we've had problems with places on windows.

[zisoft]

I can reproduce this on macOS as well as on Windows. This has nothing to do with the filesystem used, I think this is only a UI glitch.

[guiweber]

I can also reproduce it on Fedora Linux and on Windows.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been marked as stale due to inactivity for the last 60 days. It will be automatically closed in 300 days if no update occurs. Please check if the master branch has fixed it and report again or close the issue.

[guiweber]

go away stale bot...