Autosave does not begin autosaving until after the user has first done a manual save.

steveparks commented 1 month ago

Bug description

Yet many editors will simply create a new entry and start typing, without thinking to do a manual save before they're done — which is kind of the user need for autosave!

So it's important for autosave to either start autosaving straight away, or to clearly inform the user of the need to do a manual save first.

Immediate autosaving approach

The preferred approach would be for autosave to immediately start autosaving, without the need for the user to do the first save manually.

This of course brings some issues:

1. What to do about required system fields, such as Title Autosave could use a title_format approach until the user has entered a title, such as "Autosaved blog post {hash}'

2. What would happen with the creation of the slug? Autosave could bypass creation of the slug, leaving that for a manual save

3. What to do about other user-defined required fields Could autosave bypass validation, that would then only be done on manual saves of the entry?

Inform the user approach

If the above is not possible, or until it can be implemented, the autosave feature could trigger a banner at the top of the entry creation form to say something like:

Activate Autosave Enter a title (even a placeholder) and click 'Save and continue editing'. After that your content will be autosaved while you work

I understand Autosave is currently experimental, so am opening this issue to contribute to the discussion and refinement. I completely understand if you want to move this discussion somewhere else.

How to reproduce

Enable autosave in config/statamic/autosave.php
Enable autosave on a collection, as described in autosave.php
Create a new entry in that collection. Enter a title, and type in the text field for at least 10 seconds or more to allow for one or two autosaves happening.
Refresh the page.
See that the content has gone, it's not listed anywhere in the collection, and git hasn't identified any file changes
Now repeat the steps, but before refreshing the page click Save once.
Then type some more text for at least 10 seconds to get one or two autosaves happening
Now refresh the page, and see that the text you typed since the manual save has been autosaved.

Logs

No response

Environment

Environment
Application Name: Convivio
Laravel Version: 11.17.0
PHP Version: 8.3.9
Composer Version: 2.7.7
Environment: local
Debug Mode: ENABLED
URL: convivio.test
Maintenance Mode: OFF
Timezone: Europe/London
Locale: en

Cache
Config: NOT CACHED
Events: NOT CACHED
Routes: NOT CACHED
Views: CACHED

Drivers
Broadcasting: log
Cache: file
Database: sqlite
Logs: stack / single
Mail: smtp
Queue: sync
Session: file

Livewire
Livewire: v3.5.4

Statamic
Addons: 11
Sites: 1
Stache Watcher: Enabled
Static Caching: Disabled
Version: 5.17.0 PRO

Statamic Addons
goldnead/statamic-toc: 1.5
jonassiewertsen/statamic-livewire: 3.6.0
mitydigital/feedamic: 2.4.1
statamic/wikilinks: 2.1.0
stillat/relationships: 2.2.1
studio1902/statamic-peak-browser-appearance: 3.5.0
studio1902/statamic-peak-commands: 8.4.0
studio1902/statamic-peak-seo: 8.15.3
studio1902/statamic-peak-tools: 6.3.0
tv2regionerne/statamic-passport: 1.4.1
tv2regionerne/statamic-private-api: 1.15.0

Installation

Existing Laravel app

Additional details

No response

duncanmcclean commented 1 month ago

I understand why you want this... but until you actually create the entry, there's nothing actually in Statamic to "autosave" to, apart from what's in your browser.

steveparks commented 2 weeks ago

Yes, I understand the underlying constraint.

But at the moment, that's not clear to editorial users if they believe there is an autosave feature.

So that's why, at the least, it might be user friendly to have a message to prompt them to make the first save.

duncanmcclean commented 2 weeks ago

Yep, I agree.

statamic / cms