Dropzone & dynamic bar for dolphin in plasma 6

[TexableMonk]

Concept:

Streamlining Dolphin’s UI with dynamic actions and an interactive two-way Dropzone in the sidebar.

Key Ideas:

Contextual Top Toolbar: Idle state shows only path navigation (home \ User \ folder). Selecting any file reveals configurable action buttons (Copy, Cut, Paste, Duplicate, Delete) next to the path bar.

Two-Way Sidebar Dropzone (Bottom-Left Area):

Side A (Drag In): Drag files from the main grid into this area to quickly stash, copy, or execute pre-configured actions.

Side B (Drop/Drag Out): Hold/retrieve stashed files from this area and drag them directly back into any folder or main grid view.

Mockup Layout Reference:

Top Header: Path bar + dynamic action buttons on item selection.

Left Sidebar: Quick links on top, split “Drag & Drop Area” at the bottom.

Center: Main file grid.

Customization:

Users can configure toolbar buttons and set default Dropzone behavior via Dolphin Settings.

[meven]

Or so reworded, it is about having a visual clipboard for files / file selection.

Remember dolphin UI is configurable, we have four built-in panels that can be moved by the user or hidden.

Also this kind of overlaps with the selection mode, activated with “Space”, making it easy to have incremental selections.

[TexableMonk]

But you’re talking about the clipboard, and I’m talking about the dropzone. I think the point is to reduce user fatigue and make things easier for the programmer. I think most of the KDE team would agree, so it’s more convenient and more fun, and if necessary, the dropzone can be hidden via settings. Think again, because it’s a decision worth considering and provides a lot of comfort.

[TexableMonk]

Edit: Thanks for the feedback, @meven!

You actually hit the nail on the head regarding implementation — making this a 5th optional panel (a visual staging area/clipboard) would fit Dolphin’s modular architecture perfectly.

While Selection Mode is great for fast multi-selecting within a directory, a visual Dropzone Panel would solve a different problem: holding temporary files across different folder navigations without losing focus on the current view.

Would implementing a lightweight ‘Staging Area’ panel be feasible from a developer perspective?

[jsswirus]

It’s an interesting idea. I have no idea if I would use it (never seen something like this), but may be useful sometimes, when you have to use multiple files.

But I’m more interested in the details how exactly it would work

• when moving file - would the file be removed from drop zone?
• Is it storing the entire file’s content or is it only storing a file path? This would change behaviour if I drop a file into a zone, then change it in it’s original placement
  • If storing path, moving original file would destroy connection
  • If storing data - changing original (dragged) file’s content may not be reflected in the dropped file
    • And this may or may not be useful/expected side-effect

[TexableMonk]

References Only: The Dropzone stores file paths/references only, never duplicate file data. This keeps RAM usage negligible and avoids disk overhead.

Live Sync;: Since it holds paths, editing an original file reflects changes immediately in real-time.

Lifecycle and Memory:

In-Memory Session Only: The contents of the Dropzone exist strictly during the active Dolphin session/tab.

Zero Trace on Exit: Closing Dolphin (or closing the tab) completely purges the staging list from memory—leaving no leftover configuration or cache files.

Broken Path Handling: If a original file is moved or deleted outside Dolphin, its entry in the Dropzone is simply marked as invalid/disabled.

Interaction and workflow

Drag In (Stash): Dragging files into the Dropzone stages their references.

Drag Out (Execute & Clear): Dragging staged files from the Dropzone into a target folder completes the operation (copy/move) and automatically clears those items from the Dropzone.

If you want: Manual Reset: A lightweight Clear All button allows manually wiping the zone at any moment without performing an action..

[skyfishgoo]

as a visual person, this idea of a visual clipboard or staging area for file management is very appealing.

i’ve sort of already done this using split windows and temporary folders while i gather and re-organize files in dolphin, but having and instant and dedicated area in the UI that i could pop in and out with a function key (similar to the info window) is a better UX than having to set it all up manual each time i need it the feature.

to point @jsswirus was making, i would view this as a temporary—visual only—interface of objects that represent the actual file but are not the content of the file.

until the user decides what to do with these objects and clear them from the staging area, the actual file would remain where it was and if you changed it or moved it the visual object in the staging area would update automatically (path, preview etc).

that’s probably the biggest ask right there, keeping the visual object closely tied to what it represents at all times.

[TexableMonk]

Spot on, @skyfishgoo! Adding a dedicated toggle shortcut F-key for this panel is a fantastic UX touch.

All the technical details about how references, lifecycle, and auto-clearing work are listed right in the post above if you’d like to dive deeper.

Thanks for validating the concept!

[TexableMonk]

EDIT / Multi-window behavior: The Dropzone state is global/shared across all open Dolphin windows and tabs. Adding an item in one window reflects instantly in others. Closing the window where the item was originally dropped will not clear the Dropzone, as long as at least one Dolphin session remains active.

[meven]

@TexableMonk

Would implementing a lightweight ‘Staging Area’ panel be feasible from a developer perspective?

That’s just a visual file selection in a panel, not very complicated.

“dropzone” does not sound descriptive to me, at least from a conception perspective might be suited for users.

From my maintainer perspective, this does not seem like a great feature, it does not extend what is possible already, does not make it so more efficient either and we already have options to make it easy to select files.

I would need some convincing.
My role as maintainer is to be conservative.

It has not been really wished for by users (except you) and Dropzone & dynamic bar for dolphin in plasma 6 - #8 by skyfishgoo to my knowledge (I might be wrong).

The shared state and file reference logic works like the clipboard. The difference is the action(cut/copy) can be decided after the selection, out of the window the selection was made.

That overlaps a lot with the selection mode or single click mode, or the selection marker (in settings) in ways to make fine-grained selections easily, adding visualisation is its main interest.
We already have tabs and split view features as well to help organize files…

To make a change you need to take into account the application and how the feature would feet with the others.

We don’t want to have all the features under the sun.

[TexableMonk]

Thank you for the detailed perspective, @meven! I completely respect the conservative maintainer approach to avoid clutter. However, let me present the exact workflow that current Dolphin features (Selection Mode, Split View, or Tabs) simply cannot solve effectively:

So special Yes, I specially improved the dropzone so that you don’t have to bother with coding.

Concept:

Think of this not as a duplicate selection tool, but as a Visual Multi-Source Collector.

Multi-Location Staging: You navigate to Folder A, drag File1 into the Dropzone. You then navigate deep into Folder B (or a different drive), drag File2 into the Dropzone. They accumulate together visually in one shared panel.

Batch Operation Anywhere: You navigate to your final destination (Folder C or an external drive) and drag the entire accumulated stack from the Dropzone into the folder. Both File1 and File2 are processed at once.

Frictionless Management: Want to remove an item from your staged list? Simply drag it out of the Dropzone panel (e.g., onto the main view area or desktop)—the reference vanishes from the Dropzone without affecting the original file on disk.

Standard Clipboard vs. Dropzone: The standard clipboard is blind and single-destination. You cannot visually verify what items are staged, nor can you incrementally append items from 5 different folders without over-writing or constantly pasting into temporary directories.

Split View / Tabs: Split view is fantastic for 2 locations. But when gathering 10 items across 6 deep directories, split view forces the user to juggle multiple tabs or open temporary staging folders on disk (creating unnecessary disk write I/O and manual cleanup).

This feature introduces zero disk overhead (it only holds file path references in RAM) and eliminates the need for users to create “temp folders” just to aggregate assets from various paths before a move/copy operation.

I hope this paints a clearer picture of the problem space it solves!

[TexableMonk]

Like this Meven

[meven]

@TexableMonk

Standard Clipboard vs. Dropzone: The standard clipboard is blind and single-destination. You cannot visually verify what items are staged, nor can you incrementally append items from 5 different folders without over-writing or constantly pasting into temporary directories.

The standard clipboard is not “blind”, well the application can know the clipboard state and it could display in fact it sort of does when you have two files your clipboard, dolphin will tell “Paste 2 files” in the context menu.
And the application can edit the clipboard after the fact.

The multiple source case, can currently be done with details view and the clipboard (and will with the column view), for files in a same hierarchy, and works with all the selection tools (selection marker, selection mode, or Ctrl + click, single-click mode).

So this “dropzone” idea has a very few advantage (visual selection using d’n’d), and a very few niche workflows it allows (post-selection pruning, moving files as you go/distributing selection, cumulative selection as you browse).

What is the usecase for it, in which circumstances ? to achieve what concretely ?
How often would it be potentially useful ?

[rodrigopedra]

Isn’t this what the stash option from the view menu already provides?

You might need to install a separate KIO package to have this option available.

On my install (openSUSE Tumbleweed), the package is called kio-stash.

[meven]

Thanks indeed we have Utilities / KIO Stash · GitLab I totally forgot about this one.

[jinliu]

And the fact that the project has been there for a full decade, and never officially released, might hint of its lack of popularity.

This kind of thing is supposed to be handy when gathering files from multiple directories. But one might just copy/move files to their final destination using split-pane (unless with a blocking KIO protocol like MTP).

[meven]

@jinliu

And the fact that the project has been there for a full decade, and never officially released, might hint of its lack of popularity.

It should be. It already has integration in dolphin even.

Ideally part of kde Gears or moved into kio-extras.

I suppose as for everything it lacks some more contributors.

[TexableMonk]

That’s actually a great discovery! The fact that kio-stash exists proves that the core concept of a file staging area is genuinely useful.

The main issue with kio-stash was its discoverability and UX. Transforming that backend concept into a modern, drag-and-drop Dropzone sidebar panel in Plasma 6 (via kio-extras) could be the exact UI overhaul it needs to finally become mainstream.

Thanks everyone for digging this up and for the great discussion!