Feature Proposal: I'd like FW to dynamically decide whether an edit page is needed.

Motivation

The current (static) approach can cause a spurious edit session to be started, confusing the user and possibly destroying content.

Description and Documentation

I typically open a pair of windows for my wiki work. One contains the "view" page; the other contains the "edit" version. In starting up, I set both to the parent page, then click the "FooBar?" link in just one of them. I then edit and (at some point) hit Checkpoint.

After I have entered a useful amount of content, I go over to the other window, refresh it, and click on the "FooBar" link. If I don't refresh the window first, I am sent to a second (bogus) edit window, which I have to cancel lest I destroy my existing work.

It might not be appropriate to treat all incoming "view" links to nonexistent pages as "edit" links. So, perhaps the "FooBar?" (ie, edit) link should be checked dynamically, resolving to a "FooBar" (ie, view) link if the page exists.

Examples

Impact

WhatDoesItAffect:

%WHATDOESITAFFECT%

edit

Implementation

-- Contributors: RichMorin - 06 Nov 2010

Discussion

Gosh, well, this would certainly be possible using Javascript, but would put a hell of a load on the server if it was done too often.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 07 Nov 2010

It depends on how it is implemented.

Suppose that the form of the edit link produced for ? links were changed to include a view_if_exists=1 URL parameter. In that case, the edit UI handler could redirect (internally or externally) to "view". I do not think that need load the server too much?

--Main.MichaelTempest - 07 Nov 2010

view_if_exists=1 is almost the same as onlynewtopic (System/CommandAndCGIScripts) - I wonder how many users actually want to have an 'error' screen - or even, how often that setting is used/tested..

in short, i agree - I also thing that Rich has reported an additional bug.

I can't think of any reason why a user that happens to open 2 edit sessions in one topic would want to lose info - we could also make the lease id'd via strikeone, and so it'd warn the user in case of potential pain.

-- SvenDowideit - 07 Nov 2010