Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem

Now I'll have to start off by admitting I should have known better(TM) and it's all my fault(TM).

My experience: I was merely editing around in my scratchpad in one window while reading some nodes and adding the interesting ones to (you guessed it:) my scratchpad in another window... When I finally hit submit on the edit window, of course all the node-links I had collected suddenly were no more... Oh well, back to square one.

A possible remedy: I would like to suggest sticking a timestamp in the scratchpad and simply appending the edited content to the current content (and displaying a warning to this effect) if the timestamp in the submitted post information doesn't match the timestamp saved on the server.

After all, I'd rather manually remove some stuff that have to regather a bunch of links by re-reviewing the nodes from a whole lot of search-results.

Discussion: Opinions? Experiences? Other ideas?

Comment on Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem

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Re: Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem by demerphq (Chancellor) on Jun 28, 2004 at 23:17 UTC
Well, I personally think that this will be a long time in coming. I lean towards a different angle: AFAIK had you been adding to the nodelet this wouldnt have happened. Thus IMO a better solution is to add some controls to Personal Nodelet Settings that allow you to export your links to the scratchpad (private or public) from there. That way you get the safety that the controlled management of the Personal Nodelet has, with the flexibility of the scratchpad. How does that sound as an alternate? --- demerphq _{First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi}	[reply]
Re^2: Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem by mhi (Friar) on Jun 29, 2004 at 15:58 UTC
It might work, but I'm not so sure that that's not just adding another level of indirection to the problem, unless it's implemented with some type of safeguard. What I experienced was the following: add stuff to scratchpad by editing and saving once in a while view a bunch of nodes and add some of them to the scratchpad via the Personal Nodelet controls before closing the scratchpad editor click on save just to be sure not to lose the last edits call the scratchpad viewer and see it only as last saved in the edit window and with none of the added links With your Idea, just add the Personal Nodelet Settings page as an additional step. Hmmm. I'm just thinking: I like the way I can see the links in the personal nodelet, but don't want to clutter it with a bunch of newly colleted links... How about this: scrap the "Add to pub / priv pad" from the personal nodelet change the "Hide Links In Nodelet Viewer (Only use it to capture links)" to "Hide Links In Nodelet Viewer by default" in the Settings add checkboxes for "unhide" "add to priv scratchpad" "add to pub scratchpad" in the Settings and add a warning to the Scratchpad Editor as suggested by castaway Whaddaya think? Update: ~~Added form example~~	[reply]
Re: Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem by castaway (Parson) on Jun 29, 2004 at 07:06 UTC
Yes, you should have known better. A warning would probably be possible, and not all that difficult.. (I think, will check). However, automatically appending might not be the desired behaviour for some/most people (I usually prepend, for example). So one could warn at least, but what to do with the extra content? Assuming you have a decent browser, using the Back button and copying then might be possible.. Hmmm... C.	[reply]
Re^2: Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem by mhi (Friar) on Jun 29, 2004 at 16:09 UTC
Good point castaway! Here's what to do with the extra data when that happens: Simply show an edit screen with two forms: the current node content on top with a regular "submit" button and the rejected on the bottom with a "submit this instead" button or somesuch. That would make it very easy to eliminate the problem by cut-and-paste.	[reply]
Re^2: Scratchpad (Edit)/Personal Nodelet (add to scratchpad) : Lost update problem by ysth (Canon) on Jun 30, 2004 at 03:01 UTC
I'd lean toward just bailing out with a "Warning! Scratchpad has changed since editing began; return to display view or Submit again to override" if the update detects that the scratchpad was changed from how it was when the edit page was generated. Two ways to detect this: checksum or hidden field with the original content; which is better?	[reply]


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