Implemented Save as draft

[ibenick]

I would love it if users could save a Showcase Item as a draft, so they can work on it and refine it until it's ready to be published. The functionality is almost there now, if I create an item, then set visibility to 'moderated'. The only problem is that I have to save the URL to it to still be able to go and edit it. It would be cool if each user coud see their own drafts and work on them easily.

 

[Bob]

Something like this would require its own functionality along with a lot of added/modified functionality to other methods. What you are referring to as "almost there now" is Moderation Functionality and the two are completely separate from each other. Similar, but completely different at the same time. Its also not as easy or straight forward as you might think because of functionality like "Create Item as Moderated" permission which throws a big kink into the overall process. This is actually a pretty challenging bit of functionality to do "right". There are so many things that could go wrong if this isn't done correctly. I'd advise against attempting to do this on your own as there are a ton of things that you are probably not aware of that need to be dealt with properly.

All mark it as Future, but won't be any time "soon" as its a pretty large bit of functionality.

 

[Mouth]

It's a great idea and feature. Thinking out loud ...

When editing a showcase item, have a tickbox of "Hide this entry? (for draft purposes)"
Then when querying the DB for display of items (item itself, within categories and latest/popular, etc.) simply have a where clause for draft = n (unticked).

Feel free to remind me to get back into my box if this is not helpful and all the above challenges still apply regardless.

 

[Bob]

oh, I wish it were that simple There is a lot more involved than that, but I don't want to bore ya with techno geek details lol and I never tell anyone to get back in a box. I encourage people to speak their mind on what they want

 

[ibenick]

How about a permission controlled category so that we could limit who can see items in that category and who can even see that category at all. If that were doable, I could just make one called 'Items in progress' or something. Given how much information is potentially in an item, it's really a tough thing to not be able to create it and then finesse it a bit before it gets released to the public. Would that be any easier?

 

[Bob]

Permissions on Categories is no small thing either (actually larger and more complex) and with the new "nested" cats, it makes permissions on categories even that much more difficult. Some of the same issues for "drafts" are associated with permissions on categories. Someone already requested category based permissions btw..

 

[Bob]

I have a functioning prototype that will allow newly created Items to be saved in a draft state instead of being published or sent to moderation for approval. Items in "draft state" can only be accessed by the Item Owner (via a sidebar module on the "Your Showcase Items" page. This module displays only if you have an items in Draft Status and only the OWNER (not even super admins) can see these. Once published (either by the Owner or via moderation approval), an item can not be put back into "draft" mode again (this is not open for discussion).

 

[Bob]

prototype integrated with current version. All testing so far has passed (no glitches or bugs). Need to phrase it out and add some CSS to make "Drafts" stand out a bit as a reminder that what you are working on is in DRAFT mode.

 

[Bob]

This request has been fully implemented and will be available starting with the next version of showcase.