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I see a vast the amount of use cases for programmable buttons. I expect that, with a community as active as this one, there will soon be a loaded repository with programmable buttons.

Would be great if we could place these buttons in various folders. So besides making a programmable button, you can also place it in a (virtual) folder.
That way, in the toolbar you can have a folder named 'tweaks' for all UI tweak buttons, an 'AI' folder for all AI related stuff etc etc. It would be like the overflow menu.
The selection of the folder could be done in the 'edit' window. I see there is space enough for another drop down to select a folder.

  • Vlad replied to this.

    janpeeters Hm I was thinking overflow menu would do. Some mockups would be helpful. There is no concept of button folders that I recall in browsers.

    Lets discuss more your use cases. What buttons you expect to be using?

        @Vlad I expect that a lot of buttons will be created by the community. A bit like I've seen happening with Raycast. Hundreds of extensions in mere months.

        Use cases are…
        Folders for:

        • UI modifications (like done with Tampermonkey)
        • Specific AI prompts (to run on the website your visiting)
        • Bookmarklets
        • Menu items

        The overflow menu is a good place if you use just a few action buttons.
        In cases where you collect a lot of them you might want more granular organisation.
        You could even use these for extensions (imagine you could put all sharing extensions like Notion, Roam, Obsidian, Bear into one folder).

        Longely
        That looks really nice.
        One thing we have to find a solution for, is how to differentiate different folders. Colors don’t fit the UI.
        An option would be to use different icons (that represent the content for the user) but then you’d need something like a reversed caret under or besides it to indicate it can be opened.

            janpeeters

            yes I was thinking the same thing, I'm not sure whats the best solution is for that

                janpeeters

                As I see it, everything in the browser is a button as well as a text. Let the browser treat buttons the same way as bookmarks in the bookmarks bar, where people already have folders and bookmarklets. Folders can live in the bookmarks bar.

                    @carl, yes that would work for some, but I don’t use the bookmarks bar. I use the sidebar with pinned bookmarks at the top. I like to save the extra screen estate for the webpages I visit.

                    • carl replied to this.

                      janpeeters Doesn't it work the same way? Or do you mean you keep the sidebar hidden?

                          @carl I don't hide the sidebar. But do I understand you well that you mean to put the action buttons in the sidebar? I am not convinced that's the right place for action related stuff. I would think the toolbar is better suited for that.

                          • carl replied to this.

                            janpeeters

                            Yes, that's what I was thinking, to let the user put action buttons in the toolbar as a button with an icon, or in the bookmarks bar as a text link. Then you could make folders just as usual.

                            What I'm not really grasping is what kind of user uses so many actions so frequently that they'd want to put folders for buttons in their toolbar?

                                carl in the toolbar as a button with an icon

                                I presume you mean sidebar? Because the toolbar is what I'm suggesting.

                                I might be totally wrong with my intuition that a lot of action buttons will be made and that there should be a way to organize these in the toolbar. Like 10 different ChatGPT prompts to do an action on your webpage. I mean even if you put all the currently available buttons in the toolbar it is already getting quite crowded. And then you would need place for extensions.

                                Maybe we just wait if Action Buttons as a concept take off. If they do, and lots of different ones are created by the community then people will come and ask for folders. Maybe it's too premature now.

                                • carl replied to this.

                                    Im not sure i understand this conversation, like nobody is forcing anyone to use folders if they dont need/want them.

                                    It can also be a simple matter of not wanting 3 different buttons that you use rarely, to take up 3 slots, but still want acces to them in the cases they are needed.

                                    or to bassicly organize them into different function groups. AI etc....

                                    Same goes for extensions as janpeeters also mentioned could be included

                                    So essentially toolbar folders? It is a bit hard to differentiate between what would be a folder and what would be a button.

                                      There's this design pattern for toolbar folders in the finder. A reverse caret beside an icon could make it clear that it's a folder. It would need user defineable icons though.

                                      On the other hand, the overflow menu button also is a folder but uses only an icon. I could get used to just an icon.

                                        janpeeters

                                        Im also not sure you can call that dropdown arrow a "folder indicator". as in all your examples they are for a dropdown menu with settings

                                            @Longely You looked deeper than what my example was intended for. I just meant it as an example of how you could indicate that it was something that had more content, more than just being an icon.

                                            There is a lot of work to make this happen. I am wondering do you really think that programmable buttons will be such a big thing to invent a new paradigm in browser UX? Or can we just maybe allow programamble buttons to live in a menu (Under Tools -> Programmable Buttons).. but not sure how to achieve that either.

                                              @Vlad As I suggested a few posts back it might be an idea to just wait and see how action buttons take off.
                                              I saw a possible need, because the current action buttons already fill up my toolbar, and shared it.
                                              Time will tell if I saw it correctly.