Save as Draft Button

[spin]

Title
Save as Draft Button

Short, concise description of the idea
Create a button that saves your entry as a draft.

Full description of the ideaCurrently, there's the feature that allows you to restore a previous draft, but sometimes that isn't as reliable. It would be nice to have something like a Draft box for posts where you could keep at least

Comments

[boredinsomniac]

Previously suggested and rejected in 2006:
http://community.livejournal.com/suggestions/653629.html

[trixieleitz]

I think this would be great. I think the current auto-save is browser-side, which is why it doesn't always work correctly (too many different browsers and browser configurations to allow for).

[imc]

It's not exactly browser-side. Every 30 seconds while you type, it sends the current contents of the entry box to an AJAX backend. When you next load the journal update page, the saved draft is sent in the source of the page and it then asks you if you want to restore it. The trouble is, if your browser has cached the update page then it won't get the contents of the saved draft, and that's one reason why the current system is so unreliable. Another reason is because there's only one draft and no user control over it, so it's too easy to nuke the current draft by typing something in the update box.

Actually a browser-side solution might be more productive. Current browsers have "localStorage" which can be accessed from scripts on the page and used to store typically 5MB of data per domain. It requires Firefox >= 3.5, Safari >= 4.0 or IE8 (and I think Chrome may have it too). But subject to those restrictions, this might be a good way to implement this suggestion without having to find acres of LJ-side database storage.

[trixieleitz]

That would be an improvement over the current system, yes, and I would support that change. It does rely on the user always being at the same browser, and so sounds more like an emergency backup in case of browser crashes than a true draft management system.

[baloneybubbolio]

I'm not familiar with scripts, Java, and the like, so I'm sorry if my questions don't exactly make sense. Are you saying the "localStorage" in a respective browser has information which a user previously may have thought was gone? If I was writing a journal entry that was autosaved, is there some way I can find the contents of it in JavaScript's history or something like that?

[ayoub]

+1

[charliemc]

Done this many, many times, actually. Either I just made a previously Private entry Public, or I cut and pasted the whole thing into a new Update window (so it would show up if someone is tracking).

It's a bit more work, but if your entry is complicated and might potentially display wrong, it's well worth it.

Draft Setting

[mcpepper111]

I do the same thing! It's my way of posting a draft - LOL.

[charliemc]

What I've frequently done is simply save an entry as 'Just Me (Private)' -- then checked it over before making it Public.

The down side to this is if people are tracking your entries, they won't be notified when you make a previously private entry public.

At one point I changed my default to Private posting, so I could ALWAYS check an entry before making it Live. So I get what you're going for, believe me!

Save as Draft Button

[rngde_rprtr]

I'm new to LiveJournal and I agree with all of you. I can't believe there is no way to save an entry in "draft" mode. Even free e-mail providers offer a draft mode. How difficult could it be to include? Just tweak the code. I also like the browser-side solution. Since all your comments are from 2010, and now it's 2011, could a "Save as Draft" button or link be where I can't find it on the page where I post?