[wp-hackers] Autosave

[Jeff Minard]

Robert Deaton wrote:
>>I considered this but it runs up against the issue of the needlessly
>>autoincremented post ID. Plenty of people rally against this effect
>>whenever it occurs.
> 
> I'm not suggesting we insert a new row for every save, but rather the
> initial autosave creates a draft, that draft can be converted to
> published or whatever it need be when the user finally publishes, the
> draft shows alongside other drafts when you visit the write screen. It
> wouldn't really run IDs up higher than someone who writes drafts would
> anyways. Potentially complicated, but I like it more than a single
> save slot that could easily be unknowingly overwritten, perhaps by
> someone working on two posts at the same time, or someone who takes
> too long to click the link to the recovered draft on the post page,
> and accidentally overwrites it with nothing (although, this could be
> addressed in other ways).
> 
> --Robert Deaton

I concur. I like the idea that, while I am working, I can hit the "Save" 
button and NOT need to refresh the page. It's just saved!

I also like the idea that the draft I am working on is *automatically* 
saving every 1/2/3/whatever/never minutes -- whichever my paranoia calls 
for.

When I read the "one bucket at a time" thing, I too said "well, that 
works in a world where you only have one input, but the web is a 
multi-access media!" Would each user get thier own "bucket"? Can a 
higher access user edit/view/delete other people's buckets?

The concern was raised that auto drafting would cause post ID bloat. To 
be blunt, "So what?" Does your posts ID being out of sync (say, if you 
really didn't want that Cat Masterpiece) really going to be a problem? 
So it goes /post/11/ then /post/15/ (it was a very bad Masterpiece) -- 
what would that break?

Someone else raised the concern "Hey, maybe I don't want all these daft 
drafts sitting around" -- we have delete buttons for this. Wordpress is 
good, but it is not a mind reader. Either it save all your work 
automatically, or none of it. Not just "the good ones".

Amit mentioned that this could be done as a plugin -- probably. But if 
the focus of WP (as iterated many times) is to make a bloggers life 
easier ... well, life is a lot easier when you're not worried about 
whether you should be saving or not and you get to focus on just writing 
your piece.

Jeff