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Astela

0039. Downloads without a question, and a list in the profile

Status

Section titled “Status”

Accepted.

Date

Section titled “Date”

2026-11-09

Context

Section titled “Context”

Electron asks where to save every download unless the browser chooses a file, and it keeps no list of downloads. The browser had no handler: each download opened the system’s save dialog and could not be found again afterwards.

Decision

Section titled “Decision”
  • No question: downloads of web pages go to the downloads folder of the system. A name that is taken there, also by a download that still runs, gets a number before its extension, such as report (1).pdf.
  • A list in the profile: the list of downloads is a table of profile.db in the data service, from schema version 3. It keeps the most recent thousand downloads with their address, file, size and state; downloads that ran when the browser stopped count as interrupted.
  • Panel and button: a button in the toolbar appears with the first download and shows the progress of the running downloads around its icon. It opens the list in the overlay (ADR 0034), where a download can be paused, resumed, canceled, opened, shown in its folder, tried again or removed from the list; Ctrl+J, or Command+Option+L on macOS, opens it too.
  • Loads on demand: only choosing the file is part of the start; the list, the panel and the button’s progress load with the first download or the first opening of the list.

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”

Positive:

  • Usual behavior: downloads start at once and can be found again, also after a restart.
  • Start-up: the list costs nothing until the first download.

Negative:

  • Older versions: a profile that this version migrated opens read-only in an older version, as after every migration (see data storage).
  • No choice of folder yet: the folder and a question for every download come with the settings of 0.1.0-beta.5, and the policies DownloadDirectory and PromptForDownloadLocation with them.

Alternatives considered

Section titled “Alternatives considered”
  • The system’s save dialog for every download: what Electron does by default; other browsers ask only when the user wants them to.
  • A list in memory: simpler, but the downloads of a session would be lost with it.