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Bug 42749 - Remove Apply button from properties window
Summary: Remove Apply button from properties window
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: java
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Unsupported (show other bugs)
Version: 4.x
Hardware: All All
: P3 blocker (vote)
Assignee: Petr Hrebejk
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: 41835
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Reported: 2004-05-03 22:51 UTC by David-john Burrowes
Modified: 2007-09-26 09:14 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Exception Reporter:

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Description David-john Burrowes 2004-05-03 22:51:38 UTC 
The apply button (or the OK button) isn't needed
in the Project's Properties window.  JLF
guidelines say  the buttons shoudl be OK and
Cancel or Apply and Close.
Comment 1 Jesse Glick 2004-05-03 23:07:06 UTC 
I think the Apply button is intentional here; it is a nonmodal dialog,
and you may wish to make some changes and try them without closing the
dialog. However the J2SE UI spec currently does not show the button
row for the dialog.
Comment 2 jrojcek 2004-05-04 13:23:14 UTC 
Yes, "Apply, OK, Cancel" combination is against JLF. Please remove the Apply button.

In the usability study users very often clicked Apply before the OK button because they 
were not sure that OK meant "apply and close".

If we want the Apply behavior (apply without closing the dialog) then the button 
combination should be "Apply, Close".
Comment 3 Petr Hrebejk 2004-05-04 15:27:15 UTC 
Are you sure?
1) It was not easy to get the functionality there :-). 
2) Other project type providers e.g. web apps and J2ME have to remove it
   as well
3) If we implement notification about changes in separate categories (
   e.g. by badging the icon) the apply button can serve for splitting 
   the changes in project properties into parts
Comment 4 jrojcek 2004-05-04 15:48:30 UTC 
Yes, I know a lot of work, but it shouldn't be there.
Comment 5 Milan Kubec 2004-05-04 16:16:54 UTC 
IMO Apply button is huge step forward in terms of usability of more
complex dialogs with various properties. If there is only Apply a
Close, user will have to click both buttons as he would do (according
to UI Study) if there were OK, Apply and Cancel. 
I would personally have a problem to click Close, since I have no idea
if changes were applied or not. I'm not a UI expert, but just from
experience from various UIs, I'd decode buttons as:
OK - All changes applied, dialog closed (99% of UI behaves that way)
Apply - All changes applied, dialog stays opened
Cancel - All changes thrown away, dialog closed
Comment 6 Jesse Glick 2004-05-04 17:53:38 UTC 
I have no strong opinion on this, though note:

- "Close" also seems dangerous to me as its meaning is not obvious.

- Removing "Apply" involves some work but also makes the final code
simpler, I guess.
Comment 7 David-john Burrowes 2004-05-04 21:26:00 UTC 
The group of folks that worked on the JLFDG:AT book had the same
experience that Jano reports: when presented with both an Apply and an
OK button, users aren't sure what to expect and end up clicking both.
Comment 8 jrojcek 2004-06-07 16:42:14 UTC 
This should be fixed before the feature freeze.
Comment 9 Petr Hrebejk 2004-06-10 16:32:25 UTC 
Removed from J2SE and Freeform project
Comment 10 Quality Engineering 2007-09-20 09:50:23 UTC 
Reorganization of java component