Implemented Autosave post drafts

[Shamil]

How many times have you had the misfortune of navigating out from a page where you were previously writing a long-ish post and had to start again?

Would it help you if your post was saved at intervals as a draft?

 

[Paul B]

The problem with saving the draft server side is if the server is down or the connection is lost then so will the draft be once you click submit.

It needs to be locally saved.

 

[welshstew]

Great idea, would love to see this.

 

[moojiolu]

I think it should only be implemented in the 'advanced post' part. For the quick reply, it's not really needed.

 

[jmurrayhead]

The problem with saving the draft server side is if the server is down or the connection is lost then so will the draft be once you click submit.

It needs to be locally saved.

Why? The error will be handled and nothing will be submit. So you would still have the post in the editor on your screen.

 

[mrGTB]

I don't think the autosave is a good idea, wordpress uses it and there has been talk that it can fast bloat your database.

 

[jmurrayhead]

I don't think the autosave is a good idea, wordpress uses it and there has been talk that it can fast bloat your database.

If properly setup, this issue can be avoided.

 

[Andy.N]

Have my vote. Many people have said they gave up on a long post after this happens. This will in turn encourage more posting.

 

[jmurrayhead]

Have my vote. Many people have said they gave up on a long post after this happens. This will in turn encourage more posting.

Well stated! I've had this happen a few times, as well.

 

[Floris]

JS could detect how long/much there is, reaching a thresshold that's above what can be considered average, it can draft. The problem with WP is also that it has a history of the states. Which is not needed in a forum.

 

[Abdulaziz]

+1 for sure

 

[Ahmed]

+1 for this great idea.

 

[AlexT]

Deleted

 

[captainslater]

Absolutely a great suggestion! Love this feature within Google online services.

 

[James]

This would be nice but i think it's a resource issue.

Could be cookie-stored with the thread ID and if threadid is set in cookie, display draft...

Even better, make use of HTML5 local storage!

 

[Shamil]

James, that's a very good idea! Are there any developer comments on this?

 

[Enigma]

I'd prefer server-side storage so it would work across browsers/devices.

 

[James]

I'd prefer server-side storage so it would work across browsers/devices.

It'd have to only be stored for a set period though. I don't want post drafts stored for days on end... 60 minutes maximum. If a user doesn't come back to a post within 60 minutes, they don't want to reply to it.

 

[Shamil]

It'd have to only be stored for a set period though. I don't want post drafts stored for days on end... 60 minutes maximum. If a user doesn't come back to a post within 60 minutes, they don't want to reply to it.

Maybe an extension to that would be to either have a notes base system, as such present in the vBulletin AdminCP, so that user can store some stuff there, but also, give the user the option or reminder to clear the notes every 30 days?

 

[Enigma]

It'd have to only be stored for a set period though. I don't want post drafts stored for days on end... 60 minutes maximum. If a user doesn't come back to a post within 60 minutes, they don't want to reply to it.

I disagree. Sometimes I spend days working on writing something before posting it. If that could be done right on the forums by saving and working on a draft, I think that would be wonderful. So you might have a max quota on how many drafts a user can have, but I see no reason to limit their longevity.

 

[James]

If their "going off the page" is accidental, they'd come back online quickly to post it. After 60 minutes I can't see them wanting to reply (unless their ISP cut them off).