[request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

Gocom · 2013-10-23 05:56:12

mrdale wrote:

Everyone survived how terribly ugly it was because it was very useful.

Nobody has said we aren’t adding more buttons to the interface because it would be ‘ugly’. But we aren’t going to add an array of buttons. If you can come up with useable menu system that works on different platforms well, go ahead. For instance there could be an arrow attached to the save button that shows more additional options. Now, doing that is rather complicated for the value it adds compared to static elements.

Telling editors exactly how they should work instead of embracing a variety of uses of a system is just short-sighted.

Textpattern is as open to different uses as it can be (plugins, templates etc). Now there is even duplication option for articles, as there is for forms, styles and pages. All working through ‘duplication’ pattern, rather than ‘save new’.

Example: Let’s say you have six car profile product pages… Now my guess is that most of them are going to have similar sized wheels, a motor and a windshield. Those common elements may be (gasp!) custom fields!

I either don’t use Textpattern (using a framework, not CMS), or write a custom platform on it on top of Textpattern, which uses multi-level product groups, which is what I’ve actually done. We don’t write down anything else than a title, rest of it is inherit from the closest parent.

Agreed, why would you do that?

Most here do.

Now you’re just giving up…

The article list is a refined mass-editor and list for articles. Its not comparable to FTP; its not separate from the system.

wet · 2013-10-23 06:07:22

Gocom wrote:

We don’t write down anything else than a title, rest of it is inherit from the closest parent.

Have you ever thought about the possibility that not all content can be normalized, yet contains similarities in existing articles to take advantage of while one drafts a new one?

philwareham · 2013-10-23 07:45:56

Perhaps you can run through how you’d envisage a ‘save as…’ button would work exactly. Save as what? What happens to the original article? What happens if you’ve typed extra content into the original article but now saved it before you do a save as? Is that lost? Can the original be saved as well after save as? Does it clone into a new window? What happens if you’ve written a new article but never saved before doing save as?

So this simple button isn’t as simple as you think it is. By having the duplication option on a list page at least you are ensuring an article has been saved to the database beforehand.

I’ve loaded up Drupal and WordPress to see you they handle duplication of articles in core. They don’t basically – for Drupal it’s a ‘clone’ module you need to install as an extra.

wet · 2013-10-23 07:52:05

Save as what?

A new article, in “Draft” state, with all fields populated from the current article form.

What happens to the original article?

Nothing.

What happens if you’ve typed extra content into the original article but now saved it before you do a save as?

It is saved to the original article.

Is that lost?

No.

Basically it would replicate the semantics of File > Save As… as known from many desktop apps. I am aware that MacOs worsend these semantics in one of their last versions but I cannot recall the details.

colak · 2013-10-23 07:59:30

What happens if you’ve typed extra content into the original article but now saved it before you do a save as?

It is saved to the original article.

I think that the changes should not be saved in the original article but appear in the new “unsaved” one. It makes more sense to pen an article, do changes and “save as” to create a new “unsaved” article with the “Publish” button appearing instead of the “Save” one.

wet · 2013-10-23 08:03:58

colak wrote:

I think that the changes should not be saved in the original article but appear in the new “unsaved” one.

The “Save” button would save to the current article in-place just like it did for ages, while the “Save As” button would create a new article and then save the content there.

colak · 2013-10-23 08:10:49

wet wrote:

The “Save” button would save to the current article in-place just like it did for ages, while the “Save As” button would create a new article and then save the content there.

Agree:)

Algaris · 2013-10-23 09:05:01

These days I mostly use Textpattern to produce a daily bulletin which is linked to from our Intranet. I use articles to display each notice on their posted date and sometimes I need to show a notice (article) on more than one date. For this I use upm_savenew to duplicate the whole article and change the posted date and URL-only title. I use this plugin multiple times everyday and my job would take a lot longer without it.

A Save As feature which duplicates the whole article would be very useful for me so that I don’t have to worry about upm_savenew breaking in the future.

—Edit—
I pretty much agree with everything Wet said. If it could duplicate the whole article including custom fields I’d be happy.

wet wrote:

bq. Save as what?

A new article, in “Draft” state, with all fields populated from the current article form.

What happens to the original article?

Nothing.

What happens if you’ve typed extra content into the original article but now saved it before you do a save as?

It is saved to the original article.

Is that lost?

No.

Last edited by Algaris (2013-10-23 09:13:28)

sacripant · 2013-10-23 12:09:04

I don’t know if good term is model or template or pattern ?

BUT

In this debate, we must also think of the model system :

For exemple add a new status to articles : Model / Draft / Hidden / Pending / Live/ Sticky

And when you click on “write a new article” you can choose a pre-filled model.
And it may be an early approach to manage content-types in Textpattern :)

This is my contribution, if someone understands something :)

philwareham · 2013-10-23 13:46:40

How is the URL managed? How is the article title managed? Are they affixed with something to differentiate them?

colak · 2013-10-23 14:57:23

philwareham wrote:

How is the URL managed? How is the article title managed? Are they affixed with something to differentiate them?

When a new populated unsaved page opens, maybe two of the things which do not transfer through is the title and the urls.

mrdale · 2013-10-23 15:42:18

Here’s how I would envision “Save New” working. Not terribly complicated.

Open “My Article”
Make some edits
Save (state #1)
Make some more edits
“My Artice” remains unsaved but the write page is at (state #2)
Save as (has the following effect)
- “My Fruity Article” is created (state #2) with the following field variations (everything unedited remains the same)
  - Status: Draft
  - Timestamp: either “Now” or offset by 1 second from the original (for time based lists)
  - Url Title (method #1)
    - Simply appends “-copy” (unless you override the url title, you might end up with “my-article-copy”, “my-article-copy-copy”)
  - Url Title (method #2)
    - Candidate is obtained from the Title
    - If a duplicate URL Title Exists compared to candidate, append “-N” (you might end up with my-fuity-article-1,my-fuity-article-2, etc…)
“My Article” remains at (state #1)

Last edited by mrdale (2013-10-23 15:47:43)

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#25 2013-10-23 05:56:12

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#26 2013-10-23 06:07:22

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#27 2013-10-23 07:45:56

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#28 2013-10-23 07:52:05

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#29 2013-10-23 07:59:30

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#30 2013-10-23 08:03:58

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#31 2013-10-23 08:10:49

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#32 2013-10-23 09:05:01

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#33 2013-10-23 12:09:04

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#34 2013-10-23 13:46:40

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#35 2013-10-23 14:57:23

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

#36 2013-10-23 15:42:18

Re: [request] Save As, Save New button for 4.5+

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