By chrismon on

Am I blind or is there still no "Save as Draft" feature for Drupal?

As it stands now, I set the latest revision of a node to unpublished when done creating it, and the entire node becomes inaccessible -- that is, the most recent published revision is no longer available. This seems completely unintuitive to me. I naturally think that you edit some accessible node, decide its not ready and save it for draft while getting to decide whether or not another revision can still be accessed in the interim. Am I crazy to think of this as an expected behavior?

At best, there hacking around through modules like Workflow or Private (usually using them in a way that they weren't intended). Then there are some patches out there... patching is the last thing I want to do as it makes my Drupal out of sync with d.o.

In my searches I've seen this feature asked for/suggested so many times. Yes, yes, I know "write it yourself, this is opensource" ... but then, I use Drupal so I don't have to write it myself :-/ Really, though, i would consider doing this, but such a feature seems so much like it should be part of the core code.

Comments

mlsamuelson’s picture

mlsamuelson commented

[edited to remove off-base answer]

Note to self: read whole post before responding.

mlsamuelson

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

and already not satisfied. The paint on the release isn't even dry yet. :)

Well, you have seen what? Forum posts? Forum posts are not good places to act on improvements.

Have you...
searched the feature requests? Is it there?
submitted a feature request if none existed including a proposed / suggested work flow / mock ups?
submitted a patch to create/enable this feature?

Your needs and therefore your assumptions about the entire projects needs are not necessarily mine or anyone else. This also tends to color the memory as I recall seeing request / discussion very few times and have never needed such a feature, so that may be coloring my memory :)

You too can contribute to core

Just because it should be part of core code does not mean you cannot code and contribute it. Anyone can submit a patch against core. It may not get in, but please, don't let the fact that you believe it is core stop you from submitting a patch against Drupal 7. Start now to get a better chance of getting in.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

steinmb’s picture

steinmb commented

Not everyting make it into the core or have to make it into the core. Get it on the Drupal 7 list and on D5 and 6 test out http://drupal.org/project/workflow

--
Stein Magne
http://smbjorklund.com

@steinmb

chrismon’s picture

chrismon commented

Thanks Stein, I'll be sure to do that. Unfortunately, we've got potential customers right now who find this concept as natural as I do. If this is a hard requirement, we'll either have to hack Drupal for ourselves (ick, as I said it puts us out of sync with d.o) or use another CMS, which would be unfortunate since we've put a good deal of time into learning Drupal.

chrismon

chrismon’s picture

chrismon commented

Stein,

I was playing with workflow last week and created a flow of creation->draft->published. What I could not figure out was how to make my workflow's published state be an actual published state within Drupal. There is also the problem a current revision being private causing the entire node to be private... which leads me to mention that I was playing with revision_moderation to no avail either, for the same reason. Any clues?

Cory Goodwin’s picture

Cory Goodwin commented

You have to install the actions module as well. Then you will have an option in the workflow to add actions.

When the node is switched to publish then publish and when the node is switched to draft then unpublish.

chrismon’s picture

chrismon commented

> Your needs and therefore your assumptions about the entire projects needs are not necessarily mine or anyone else.

Read my post in its entirety and you will see that I've already answered your questions. You might want to do a search for "save as draft" to see what I'm talking about. You will find two pages worth of questions, suggestions, requests and patches regarding this issue, ranging over the past 2+ years. If you have something helpful to provide, please do. However, please be sure to truly read my initial post first before responding again.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

when you start with

Am I blind or is there still no "Save as Draft" feature for Drupal?

I have to assume you are not that familiar with the process of the community. You have a thirteen week old account and no history of involvement so I tried to be helpful.

Note, the important part of my response. I do not need, want, desire or care about 'save as draft'. I do not say it is not a desirable feature, merely that I am not interested in it. Yet I still tried to help you with the process in the community and encouraged you to submit a solution against Drupal core so that it would be in the next version of Drupal.

I encouraged you to participate and contribute to realizing your desired feature as many people are hesitant to attempt contributing to core.

As a note, I did actually check the feature request 'save as draft' and found nothing. Granted I tried a very simple query as my time was limited but I understand you don't like my answer and do not want any further assistance with the community and processes.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

chrismon’s picture

chrismon commented

Steven, your importance and stature in the Drupal community, let alone the age of your account and anything else you have which can be measured, are truly awe-inspiring.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

and good luck

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

vm’s picture

vm commented

Chrismon,

I've edited your profile to remove the sarcasm directed toward sepeck. Your profile is not a venue to take shots at community members.

_____________________________________________________________________
My posts & comments are usually dripping with sarcasm.
If you ask nicely I'll give you a towel : )

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Chrismon and I chatted in IRC and agreed it was some mis-interpretations on both sides. We'll all be slightly more careful in future.

Thanks all.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

keith.smith’s picture

keith.smith commented

Have you tried the Revision moderation module? I don't see a D6 version of that module (yet), but with Coder module (as mentioned in the D6 release announcement) you could probably make a good bit of headway towards upgrading it for D6 yourself.

I mention it because when I read:

As it stands now, I set the latest revision of a node to unpublished when done creating it, and the entire node becomes inaccessible -- that is, the most recent published revision is no longer available.

in your original post, it makes me think of this excerpt from Revision moderation's project page:

The Revision Moderation module allows you to leave existing revisions of a node published while new revisions go into moderation for an administrator to approve.

(Of course, I could be well be misunderstanding what you're trying to do here.)

--keith

chrismon’s picture

chrismon commented

Keith, I think you understand what I'm after, but I've tried Revision Moderation already. Perhaps I used it incorrectly?

I could've sworn that the existing revisions were not accessible to anonymous because post moderation was required(? The README.txt was a bit confusing for me on this point.) (Maybe there's an access mode I neglected to check turn on? The README.txt does not mention it). Just to be sure, without using RM and all else equal, new revisions were accessible when posted.

I'll give RM another shot and get back to the thread. btw, I am using 5 for this testing.

ymmatt’s picture

ymmatt commented

You are correct in the fact that RM in its current state does not address your needs (I actually have the same need at the moment).

I do believe that RM is the perfect place to start, with a few simple modifications to the module one could have the functionality you are looking for.

The following this is an over-simplification:
Move the check-box outside off "publish options" (or add a new button "save draft" in addition to: "preview" "post" "delete")
Create separate permissions entry for access to 'save-as' by non-admin users
Change text to read: save as draft etc.

Even though these are 'minor' changes, it changes the intention of the RM module. It may be that we need to create a new module from this existing one. If I have time I'll poke around and let you know what I find.

ymmatt’s picture

ymmatt commented

Well, this is where I am so far: http://drupal.org/project/save_as_draft

FYI: It is a new project so it may not be available for download right away, but I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to post-I'd probably forget.