Disappearing "continuing the discussion from" drafts

Continuing the discussion from Reply as new message to same recipients:

Also found while implementing this feature.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open a topic
  2. Click on the date
  3. Click “New Topic”
  4. Start writing a post, wait for it to be saved as a draft
  5. Refresh the page

Result:

Draft disappears

Expected result:

Composer window reopens with draft in it

Bonus buggy fun:

  1. Navigate to a new topic
  2. Click on the date
  3. Click “New Topic”

Result:

Phantom draft :ghost:


Like the other bug I’ll probably have a shot at fixing this after I submit my PR, although I wouldn’t say I’m particularly confident at my ability to fix it. If no-one hears from me for a few days please send a search party.

3 Likes

Errr this is not a bug. This is expected behavior. There is one and exactly one new topic draft available to you at any given time. (compare with literally infinite reply drafts, one per every topic in the system, potentially)

You can get back to it by triggering a new topic creation.

New topic creation is how you get back to your topic draft.

The trouble is, “continuing the discussion from” drafts (drafts with draftKey = "reply_as_new_topic") don’t behave as other drafts do, nor as (I think) it should.

Because a picture tells a thousand words, and a thousand words still isn’t enough, this should show what I mean:

4 Likes

@codinghorror so you would agree this is a bug, right?

I’ve been trying to figure this out in my head, and I can’t decide, what should the fix here be?

Should reply_as_new_topic drafts be behave like reply drafts - because they’re replies - or like new topic drafts - because they’re new topics?

I think they should probably behave more like reply drafts - unique to a topic, and reopening when you navigate back to it.

I think it is a very rare bug for people to actually run into. Would be quite low on my priority list.

Hi Leo! Personally I am with @codinghorror on this issue. It can behave the same way as all new messages. I do think someday someone should create a drafts folder and system for managing and limiting drafts (it’s clunky to not be able to keep a few drafts going whether new or reply) but it’s not a pressing issue.

2 Likes

Guess what … YEARS later… I fixed this.

There is much draft consistency now, if you reply as new topic it uses the draft key for the topic you are on, so you can easily return to it either from “drafts” or by visiting the topic.

We had phantom keys around till 2 weeks ago :crying_cat_face:

9 Likes

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