Just creating the manual save should probably be the first priority. If done properly most of the code used for a manual save could be reused for an automatic save. Keep in mind that an automatic save should never overwrite a manual save.
I've never heard of an e-mail program that saved multiple versions of an e-mail as it's being composed. My feeling is that if the automatic save overwrote itself rather than keeping multiple copies it would save a lot of coding that would hardly ever get used. Most of the time, hopefully, the backup copy will never be used at all, and of the times it is used, the vast majority of the time the user is just going to want the most recent copy before disconnection. The challenge would be to include lots of checks to make sure that something hasn't gone wrong before performing the auto-save.
-Charles
Mark Dehus wrote:
That is a good suggestion. I think there should also be a save button added. That way the user has an option to save without worrying about that XX second gap before autosave.
Mark
Robi wrote:
For the lost emails when sending problem,
My suggestion is to go at it in two steps.
First would be to save every message ready to send, and if it fails, not delete it from the draft directory or whatever the case will be. This means that the textbox input with whatever it contains upon clicking the send button gets saved. This will not help in cases where one types a long email for an hour and then the browser crashes for example and the email is lost. Lets call this step the "dumb save" method.
The next step we can call the "smart save" method, where there would be a bit of JS to look for pauses in typing or a simple 30 sec interval, and do an autosave with a timestamp. This way one can have multiple autosaves, that update each other and if anything happens in the long run, you still have the most recent draft available. This periodic save should also keep the session active longer while one is in compose mode, and eliminate the session timeout problem.
thoughts?
-- Robi