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Kleopatra: reduce the number of actions in the context menu
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Description

We need to reduce the number of items in the context menu of the certificates in the certificate list, it has gotten much to big/long.

Actions which are not often used should go into the main menu.
Where we might need to group them into sub menus or create at least one additional menu to get a clear structure.
-> for that see T7579: Draft: Kleopatra: improve menu items

Edit 2025-03-20: we decided to remove 5 entries as a trial run and see how user react.

Items to remove from the context menu:

  • Trust Root Certificate
  • Distrust Root Certificate
  • Delete
  • Print Secret Key
  • Publish at Mail Provider

Grouping should be changed as follows:

  • "Details" should be at the very top
  • try to keep actions which can be used on several certificates at once together
  • find an order where often used actions are not directly above or below one which is not well known and might confuse people (i.e. disable/enable)

Final decision after screenshot of layout is there for discussion.

Event Timeline

I'd suggest removing:

  • Revoke Certification
  • Change Certification Power
  • Enable/Disable Certificate
  • Change end of validity Period
  • Change passphrase
  • Add User ID
  • Create Group
  • Publish on Server
  • Publish at mail provider
  • Copy to Card

I'd suggest removing:

I fully agree to all except

  • Create Group

I think it could make sense to keep it in the context menu because this action is typically used after selecting a bunch of certificates. Many of the other actions are typically used for a single certificate and most of them can also be invoked from the Certficate Details window.

ebo triaged this task as Normal priority.Feb 11 2025, 10:52 AM

Regarding the suggest list I would change the following:

additionally remove from the context menu:

  • Trust root certificate
  • Distrust root certificate

but keep:

  • Enable/Disable Certificate
  • Create Group
In T7515#198012, @alexk wrote:

Regarding the suggest list I would change the following:
but keep:

  • Enable/Disable Certificate

I think the idea to remove this from the context menu was one reason which triggered the creation of this ticket. Apparently, the functionality to disable a certificate has already caused people to "lose" some certificates because they "accidentally" disabled some certificates. To me this feature sounds like a nightmare for support. I think "disable certificates" is a power user feature that shouldn't be exposed too obvious to every user via the context menu.

I would keep the "create group", too.

Regarding the "Enable/Disable Certificate" I would prefer to only have that action in the menu.
And I would add a confirmation dialog when using the feature for the first time.

Regarding "Change end of validity Period", "Change passphrase" and "Add User ID": Ok, as all of these can be done in the certificate details, too, additionally to the menu.
But I noticed that the "Change end of validity Period" only has an icon in the details behind the "valid until" date an no button spelling this out. I find that this is less discoverable.

In contrast the "Trust/Distrust root certificate" action is not available in the certificate details, that is only in the menu. To keep UX consistent, I would offer this action in the "Trust level" line in the S/MIME certificate details, too.

The publish options (I do not see "publish at mailprovider" and "copy to card" in my version) can be removed to, if the action is easy to find elsewhere. Here I noticed that I find it inexplicable why some of the items from the current context menu are in the "Certificates" menu and some in the "File" menu.

Another thing (should definitely go into a new ticket if we want to do something regarding this):

Main menu categories.
It is not obvious in which category an action regarding certificates may be found, this can be either below "Files" or "Certificates". Why is e.g. "Lookup on Server" below "Files"?
And why is the category "View" between those very similar categories?
And who needs the "Window" category? Which is not about windows at all but about tabs…

With my initial suggestions, modified by:

  • Keeping "Create Group"
  • Additionally Removing "Trust/Distrust Root Certificate"
  • And removing "Print Secret Key"

It looks like this:

Details should be the first action (since it's likely the most often used action by people who don't know about double-click). And I'd move the "destructive actions" to the bottom. And there are way to many separators.

ebo renamed this task from Draft: Kleopatra: reduce the number of actions in the context menu to Kleopatra: reduce the number of actions in the context menu.Thu, Mar 20, 3:57 PM
ebo updated the task description. (Show Details)