Yes, this is a known bug of ELOG, see elog:68404

Hi,

I'm trying to upgrade ELOG 2.9.2, which I have been used many years, to the new version (3.1.2).

I can't run the new version even from the command line:

Message box appears with message:

What do I do wrong ?

I'm trying to use my old config file. New default config gave the same result :-(

If I edit an old entry, and do some mistake while editing, then there is currently no way to savely discard the changes.

The problem is that the entry will become a draft: if I close the window without saving, then the whole entry is gone: it will be converted into a draft entry. But the draft does contain my changes, it is not the originally saved entry!

The draft mechanism should keep a copy of the entry before I opened it in edit mode, and allow to go back to that copy. The edit form has currently the buttons "Submit", "Save", "Preview" and "Delete"; it should have in addition the button "Cancel", that just closes the edit window without saving the entry and even deleting the draft that was saved while the entry was modified. This should bring you back to the previous list view.

Is anyone out there in favour of this change?

The problem is that the elog database does not allow for a copy of an entry before you make modifications (and therefore get a "draft"). This is actually very simila to other note taking programs. I use Evernote, which constantly synchronizes between devices, and there I also cannot go back to the version before I started making modification. What one would need is a version system (and Evernote has one), so you can go back to the previous verison, the pre-previous version and so on. But this requires a complete redesign of the elog database.

A quick and dirty solution would be to store the origianal entry inside the browser (using JavaScript). You could then restore the initial version with a "cancel" button. But this mechanism relies then on the browser. If you just leave the page, there is no way the browser can put back the old version.

Stefan

Andreas,

Doesn't using the Save Drafts = 0 option result in the old 'Back' button returning (replacing the Delete option) meaning you can revert back to your old (unmodified) version without saving, sure it doesn't save a draft but I'd rather be able to return back and lose the changes I didn't want then mess up an old entry, I guess the back button on the browser could also do what you want?

The issue I had was that entries were being deleted accidently by persons other than those that created them, I reduced the edit time to try and mitigate it but ended up going back to what we had in Ver 2.9.2, a 'Back' button.

Grant

Yes, "Save Drafts = 0" does the trick. But it is the "zero-option": trivial, but not satisfying ;-)

Warning: the "back" button of the browser has a very undesired effect: the entry is then converted into a draft and not shown anymore in list view!

So if you ever wondered where your entries vanished to: it might be that someone opened them in edit view, started to edit them and then closed the browser window. I will make that known at my institute.

Well, the "undesired effect" you describe is exactly the reason for having drafts. Somebody works on a lengthy message, then the browser dies, or the user by accident hits the "back" button and (by accidnt, ehem...) confirms the dialog popping up which says "changes will be lost". In that case the draft mechanism should take care of that the lengthy message is not lost. That's where it is for. If one does not like it, one can always turn it off. If one now hits "New", there is the option to continue the previous draft message rather than creating a blank message. Originally, draft messages were shown on the list of entries in a different colors, but people got confused by that, since the draft message appears already during the editing of the message by the user writing it. So upon request I removed it from the listing. Actually the system cannot differentiate between "user still has the message open and works on it" and "browser has crashed". So there is no elegant way to make everybody happy. The only option I can think of is to make the listing of draft messages optioinal (with a new flag in the config file). Would that make sense? Or does anybody see another conecpt?

Stefan

Hello,

In my opinion, there should be a "close/return" button (discard changes), even with the drafts enabled, but effectively there will have to be several saves made (at least before/after).
I chose to unable the drafts because of this unwanted behaviour: when I modify an entry without any change and click on another tab/logbook without saving, then choose to close the window, the entry is deleted.

Chris