Pro 6.0 Beta 1 - Working between header / footer / page / tabs

Beta
#1

If we are in the builder and accidentally click “Edit page” while working in the header the builder either jumps to the page tab or opens and jumps to the page tab.

This is fine if it isn’t accidental but a pain if you’ve done it by mistake.

In Pro 5 there is a prompt asking if you want to proceed. Even though we have all the tabs I think we need the prompt.

Working between various tabs
When working between tabs there is no prompt to save a given tab when switching to another tab. I would personally prefer there was a prompt to save. The only time you become aware of this is if you try exit the builder. At that time you are getting a browser prompt about possible unsaved items. With the ability to open multiple tabs this could become an issue.

#2

I have not tested yet, but what is the situation where you save a tab then refresh the browser window and you have other tabs open. do we lose unsaved changes on the other tabs? does it autosave and therefore push live changes that might not be ready yet?

#3

If you try to refresh the browser gives you a warning but I’ve been known to shut my browser down without exiting cornerstone and then you won’t get a warning. With multiple tabs I think it is critical to get warnings and prompts when switching tabs.

#4

maybe some colour change to the ‘page’ title if there are unsaved changes would work?

1 Like
#5

Something would be handy. Perhaps the tab heading is the same orange as the “save” button when things aren’t saved.

i would still like a prompt to save when switching tabs.

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#6

personally the prompt to save when switching tabs would quickly get tiring when you are copy/pasting elements between pages etc

#7

I guess so, so perhaps, as you suggested, some indication of tabs that aren’t saved would be helpful.

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#8

@urchindesign, the intent behind tabs is that you could have multiple ones open in various states of work without forcing users to have to save their work when switching tabs (as @scotbaston said, I believe this would get tiring over time and slow down productivity). You may just want to open an asset and tinker with it a bit, while tinkering with other things. Forcing a save would mean you have to make those ideations live, which reduces flexibility.

The tabs do currently show an "Edited - " prefix when they have unsaved changes. Are you saying that you’d like to have some type of modal appear if you’re trying to close down the browser completely without having committed to those changes?

For example, let’s say you have 5 tabs open, 2 of which are in an “edited” state (unsaved changes). You go to close down your browser…are you expecting some type of warning to appear? If so, I can really only see two options here:

  1. A general “save all changes” / “proceed, discard changes” binary choice that will force save all changes made across all tabs. I think this could get people into hot water potentially if they aren’t thinking of all the changes they made over time.
  2. Some type of stepped process that focuses a user to tab #1 with unsaved changes and gives them a prompt to save the changes of THAT tab only or discard changes…after that tab is complete, it focuses to the next tab and provides the same prompt…so on and so forth.

Would be curious on any thoughts people have here!

#9

Basically, I would suggest your option 1, with a third choice: “cancel” or “go back” or whatever a good name might be, which cancels the close action. You can then manually save those tabs you want to have saved. And then, when you close the browser again, you would then pick the “proceed” option.

#10

Thank you, @striata! Noted…I can see how at least the general warning would be nice, and then you can save your tabs as needed.

#11

@urchindesign / @scotbaston / @striata

Just had a moment to test this again after working through forum feedback all day and realized that we do currently have a native browser prompt that appears when trying to leave (which @urchindesign did mention earlier on in the thread). I know that @urchindesign mentioned that they’ve been known to shut down their browser without exiting Cornerstone, but that isn’t possible anymore with the new tabs feature. If any tab is counted as “edited,” the native browser prompt will appear and give you an option to stay and save any changes before leaving. If you leave, of course things will be lost, but at least the safety net is there.

I believe that this should more or less be taken care of as we do not have plans to introduce a prompt to save changes as you navigate tabs, and the general browser prompt should alleviate the concerns mentioned earlier. Definitely open to any contrasting feedback, but in general I do think we’re covered here.

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#12

I didn’t even notice the word “Edited”. I’ve gone and added the below CSS in the UI CSS.

.tco-document-tab .is-primary.is-edited i {
color: var(–c-text-as-warn);
}

It at least highlights the tabs better that haven’t been saved. Is it possible to add the “is-edited” class to the tab itself so it is possible for us to target the entire tab. That way I can edit the entire tab that isn’t saved to stand out slightly.

#13

Just the last thing on this. I think when switching between tabs by clicking the specific tabs or choosing pages, headers, layouts etc. in the cornerstone menu I’m 100% on board with not having a prompt.

Where I still think it is needed, even if it is a setting, is when clicking “Edit page”, “Edit header” etc. within the preview window. This is something that can easily happen by accident and there is a significant lag between loading tabs. I’d rather have a prompt in this scenario to ensure unnecessary waiting and switching back.

When clicking the tabs themselves this is most likely never going to happen by mistake and the intent is generally 100% clear. Clicking in the preview isn’t. Even if there were a way to distinguish between clicking on the actual word “Edit page” versus clicking somewhere else in the area that would be helpful.

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#14

@urchindesign, I can see how having some type of confirmation prompt would be helpful if, for example, you are in the Page Builder and click on the black “Edit Header” observer. While in this new paradigm of multi-document editing this is much less “destructive” than it used to be by completely forcing you to change contexts, I can see how it might feel confusing as to “what just happened” if you didn’t noticed the observer before clicking in that area accidentally. I will note this down and review it internally with everyone.

#15

It isn’t so much confusing as annoying and time consuming.

If we accidentally click it while trying to click something else we have to wait for the “header” or “page” to load, then we need to click back and wait for the “page” or “header” we were working with to load.

Clicking the tab at the top or even the wording on the black “Edit Header” observer shows clear intent but clicking on the edge of a section in the page and accidentally clicking the “Edit Header” outline and switching without a prompt is painful.

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#16

Noted, thanks!