Shared drafts - feature suggestions

Contribute Feature

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around feature suggestions for the “Shared Drafts” feature in Discourse. ChrisBeach proposes three tweaks:

  • The destination category remains set on the topic but can still be changed.
  • The topic timer indicator is moved to the top of the page.
  • Team replies during the draft period default to whispers.

EviLtrout responds, clarifying the current behavior of the feature and expressing concerns about the proposed changes. Sam chimes in, suggesting that displaying the target category in the list view would be useful.

However, Sam later discovers that the feature doesn’t work as expected on their blog, and EviLtrout clarifies the intended behavior. Sam identifies several inconsistencies and issues with the feature, including:

  • Inability to set a target category when creating a topic directly in the “shared draft” category.
  • Confusing behavior when editing a shared draft.
  • Inability to change the destination category after it’s been set.
  • Lack of awareness of timed topic publish.
  • No visual difference between shared drafts and published drafts in “latest - all”.

EviLtrout reports that most of these issues have been fixed, but some remain, such as making the feature aware of topic timers. JoffreyJaffeux suggests adding a site setting to enable or disable shared drafts. JayAySeaOhBee14 expresses concerns about the change to not display shared drafts in “latest,” making it hard to find drafts to add comments.

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Continuing the discussion from Shared Drafts: Allow staff to collaborate on posts before publishing:

Great feature, thank you @eviltrout!

Can I suggest the following tweaks:

  • the destination category, once selected, remains set on the topic (but still able to be changed)

  • the topic timer indicator is moved to the top of the page, into the blue box where destination is selected. When a timer is running, the publish button should read “Publish Now”

  • team replies during the draft period should default to being whispers, so the draft can be discussed, but the discussion is not made public when the draft is published.

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I don’t understand this one. If you pick a destination category when creating a draft it does remain set on the topic.

I thought about this (and internally it was suggested to just remove replies) but I have recently seen examples of cases where people create drafts that have multiple replies before publishing.

I think it is less surprising for it just to be a regular topic and let the editors work on it until it’s ready with the same tools and defaults as non-shared drafts. When it’s ready they can hit the button.

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I get the spirit of the request here.

Say you have a shared draft category with 5 different drafts. If you selected where you intend the different drafts to go early, we can display in the “target category” in the list view.

It does feel a bit minor to me though unless you start mega using drafts, but has some appeal if you are scheduling them cause you can tell at a glance where/when your drafts are going to be published.

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No I mean I really don’t understand the question.

What you’re describing is how the feature works. The destination category is listed in the list view in the shared drafts category.

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I can not see that on my blog.

If I schedule a draft topic to publish in a category “top section on topic” is not aware of the fact I did it and nothing shows up in the list when I visit the draft category regarding destination.

If I change the combo box at the top, it is not “sticky”, after I change and reload if forgets that I set it.

Maybe I am running an old version, or did not set something up right?

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AHA @eviltrout I just saw the error of my ways and understand how this all happened, there are a bunch of inconsistencies here that need a massage.

  1. If I create a topic in the “shared draft” category directly, I have no way of “setting” the target category short of publishing.

  2. If I set the destination category on creation. When I edit the shared draft “composer” shows the “shared draft” category as opposed to destination. Which is confusing.

  3. If I want to change my “shared draft” destination, cause I originally picked “ruby” and now want to post it in “performance” I can not.

  4. Feature is not “aware” of timed topic publish, it should flip the category in shared draft as well when you schedule it.

  5. In “latest - all” there is no visual difference between shared drafts to actually published drafts, which is super startling.

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Most of these issues have been fixed in master:

  • If you change the destination category, it’s saved.

  • If you edit the shared draft, the composer makes it clear you’re editing the shared draft, and you can change the category there too.

  • Topics no longer show up in latest, that was just confusing. They only show up in “Shared Drafts” and at the top of the destination category.

Still not done:

  • Making it aware of topic timers
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Awesome!

Another item for the list is that “disabling” the feature is kind of weird, cause “resetting” the site setting renders that “uncategorized” is the “shared draft” category. Perhaps we should add another site setting for “shared drafts enabled” or we teach select kit to handle this case a bit more nicely? cc @j.jaffeux

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feel like we should add an option in site setting:

  shared_drafts_category:
    type: category
    type_options: 'enableable,xxxx,zzzz'
    default: ''

This way we could easily tweak behaviour of some settings components.

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IMO this makes it even more confusing. It is hard to find the draft to add more comments to it if there arent any new replies.

sorry for the necro

2 Likes