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Topic: Confirm before leaving post page with content (Read 5063 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Confirm before leaving post page with content

Reply #15 –

Drafts do save on a timer (if the text has been altered)  and lost focus of the editor window (if the admin has drafts enabled and autosave enabled as well.)

I'm not sure having a setting for autosave on/off  is needed, should just be on to avoid confusion, but thats what I did :P

Anyway when this specific error occurred, the saved draft should have been available, but this issue was that it really did appear like you had successfully posted.  Really was a usability issue, type in a longish post, hit post, it appeared like you had returned to the thread and were viewing your new post, when in fact you were looking at the preview and the post error box was off screen.  It was not until later when you would return to the thread to catch up that you may realize your post was not there.

Yes autoload of a draft, or a popup that one was found, do you want to recover it, may be pretty cool.

Re: Confirm before leaving post page with content

Reply #16 –

I forgot about the time... ::)

Save on char typed looks a bit... expensive. Yes, the average user may not type that fast, but on certain systems (somehow old) just the presence of the editor may make the typing a not so nice experience, if on top of that we add several ajax calls it may quickly become a mess.

One additional (and hopefully cheap) option could be to use local storage:
http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html
there it would be pretty easy to save the typed text and represent it in case of unexpected exit (maybe less easy to detect the unexpected exit, but that's probably part of the game :P).
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Re: Confirm before leaving post page with content

Reply #17 –

Quote from: Spuds – Anyway when this specific error occurred, the saved draft should have been available, but this issue was that it really did appear like you had successfully posted.  Really was a usability issue, type in a longish post, hit post, it appeared like you had returned to the thread and were viewing your new post, when in fact you were looking at the preview and the post error box was off screen.  It was not until later when you would return to the thread to catch up that you may realize your post was not there.

So the fix here is making the preview page most instantly recognisable? Perhaps move the warning dialog to the top of the page, above the preview, and maybe add a "Message Preview" header or similar above the preview body?

Quote from: emanuele – Save on char typed looks a bit... expensive. Yes, the average user may not type that fast, but on certain systems (somehow old) just the presence of the editor may make the typing a not so nice experience, if on top of that we add several ajax calls it may quickly become a mess.

But with a timeout, it should be less expensive than saving on a regular period, since it would only commit an AJAX call once the user has paused or finished typing.

Quote from: emanuele – One additional (and hopefully cheap) option could be to use local storage:
http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html
there it would be pretty easy to save the typed text and represent it in case of unexpected exit (maybe less easy to detect the unexpected exit, but that's probably part of the game :P).

Only scenario where I can see server-side drafts being superior to this is if you're quickly whisked away from your current browser and want to continue with your post on another; for example, if you've begun typing on your desktop but need to dash and the auto-save feature will sync your post to the server, which can then be picked up on your mobile device, as per @Spuds' suggestion of an info box appearing to ask if you'd like to load your latest draft for that particular topic.
Last Edit: July 27, 2015, 09:30:59 am by ant59

Re: Confirm before leaving post page with content

Reply #18 –

QuoteSo the fix here is making the preview page most instantly recognisable? Perhaps move the warning dialog to the top of the page, above the preview, and maybe add a "Message Preview" header or similar above the preview body?
Basically yes that was the fix, I think it was done in 1.0.4 ...  So now when you hit post, and there is an error (the someone else posted while you were typing thing), it does not return you to a preview page but just shows the error notice and of course the editor with your text.  The only way you see preview now is if you hit preview. 

I looked at leaving the preview in place and adjusting the error box position, or even using a modal error box, but there were other useability issues which I  can't recall right now ... sometimes my mind retains as well as  a sieve.