Periodically Auto Save

[coe]

Creating a lot of content on each post can be problematic if there are issues with the browser (crashing browser).

This would be a useful additional feature.

Benefits:
1. Recoverability from a browser crash.
2. Reducing concerns in creating large posts.
3. Always having a recoverable scenario for posted content.

This feature would be ideal for communities where posts can be upwards of 500 to 600 words.

thanks..

[Connor T]

Only happened to me once when I was typing a long tutorial, adding in images and what not and it crashed due to running too many programs.

I was mad, but it only happens a few amount of times so does that actually warrant an addition? Possibly 3.1 request?

[ᴡᴅツ]

Gmail has this feature. But then again, Gmail is hosted by Google, which costs an average of $2,000,000 in hosting to operate. Unless this can be done efficiently without increasing the server load to dangerous zones, I do not see this as a reasonable addition. I usually make a backup copy while typing long entries in notepad, microsoft word, or in html. Maybe this should be a feature that should be implemented in browsers such as Firefox.

Although I do recall firefox "remembering" some of the things I had entered in the text field. (Hallucinations maybe?)

[bfarber]

Gmail has this feature. But then again, Gmail is hosted by Google, which costs an average of $2,000,000 in hosting to operate. Unless this can be done efficiently without increasing the server load to dangerous zones, I do not see this as a reasonable addition...

This is the problem. Yes, it can be done. Is it worth it for the average site however? Probably not.

Perhaps a better solution is a manual "Save" button that a user can click if they're worried about losing their post? I like the idea of "drafts" which is basically the same thing (where someone starts writing something up and has the ability to save it so that they may finish the post later).

[Connor T]

There were drafts for phpBB3 (which I used for awhile)

However, if you attached an attachment it wouldn't bring it with your draft. So in all, it sucked.

Theres an idea, if you think of it for 3.1

[AtariAge]

If I'm writing a long post on a forum, I typically type the post in a text editor (such as TextEdit in OS X), which I can use to periodically save what I'm working on. It's too easy to accidentally close a browser window or tab, or go back to the previous page and potentially lose the text you've typed. Then when I'm done I paste the text into the browser window.

Auto-save would be a very cool feature to have, and I don't think it would be a big hit on server performance if done every 30 seconds or so. The post would not have to be saved to the posts table--a simple table for storing the text temporarily would suffice. But it could be a fair bit of work to write the pages that would allow you to restore your post text should you lose it. I suppose maybe just having a "Restore" button near the editor, if auto-save text is available, could suffice. With a warning, of course, that you will lose your current text upon confirmation.

..Al

[coe]

thanks for the feedback. To have this feature would help users save the frustration of the dreaded lost page. True you can use external word processors. But the convenience of having the ability to create content. Especially formatted content on the web is much much easier on the web browser.

IT would eliminate the following issues:

1. creating content on the word processor
2. not adding any special formatting (bold, italics, embedded urls, etc) since it won't be able to saved in the IPB editor.
3. Bringing content to IPB.
4. Formatting content in the window.
5. Browser crash
6. content is lost, formatting is lost
7. start over
8. curse the software and hope it doesn't happen again

or
1. create content
2. periodically saves as draft 30 secs
3. crash
4. reopen.
5. continue where you left off.
6. appreciate the tool and continue to come back to it.

Sure it'll be an effort to incorporate but is it worth it. Most definitely