as one user lost his data...
what do you think about an extra button in the "save as" menu with an big "+"
pressing this "+" renames the existing projectname "project.bsdesign" to the new "project_01.bsdesign" and pressing the "+" again "project_02.bsdesign" and again "project_03.bsdesign" and so on. This is an easy backup.
And an position next to the "save" symbol before the "settings" symbol would be more easier to use.
I wouldn't mind this, but I'm wondering if this will mess with undo/redo status once renamed? I'll have to play with this and see how it reacts once a file has been "saved as" a different name and see if it loses all it's memory of steps that can be undid and redone (undo redo).
When you start the program,
then start a new file
and if you then work five days without quiting the program, you can use your "undo". Undo does normally not work on the saved files. When you create an long file, save every 5 minutes, then you can "undo" till the file is empty at the beginning. If you save at this point - all work is lost.
If you rename _01 _02 _03 you can overwrite only the latest file.
Some program do have only 10, or 50 steps to undo. I don't know how many Bootstrapstudio has. But NO Undo will be saved in your files!! Only in the ram. If you quit the program - all undos are gone. So renaming has nothing to do with undo
I just checked and thanks for the clarification on the renaming not affecting UNDO/REDO status. Most programs don't do that, usually once you save as a new file name, it is as if you have just opened that file and all history of changes are gone, so this is something unusual, but I'm glad it's like this! lol. Thanks for pointing that out so I can try it and see!
Maybe instead of an incremental save, Bootstrap Studio should automatically save revisions of the design. Say once every 10 minutes. We can make this configurable from the settings panel. The question is where these revisions should be saved and how long should they be kept. How about this scheme:
A total of 15 versions will be kept. You will be able to restore your design to any one of these points. You will also be able to open them in a new tab to compare them with the current design. What do you think about this idea?
I like that setup Martin, I think that would help a lot of us having issues with the Save being either the project, or the Custom Code box, and those having any other issues would have saves to fall back on as well.
Truly for the added way to save manually, I don't really think it's necessary. If you have to click the menu to hit a + button to save it, then you're only saving a few keystrokes to hit the Save All button to save it so I don't think it's going to save much time really or effort. I think the way it's setup for manual saving works fine, just need people to understand that you need to be outside of the Custom Code box (cursor not in it that is) to save the project, otherwise it saves the Custom Code box and not the project. This is where I run into issues when using the ctrl+s key combo to save. That's really the only issue I've run into so far and I can train myself to always check if I'm in the Custom Code box so it's not that big of a deal for me.
Where it "is" a big deal though is for people that don't understand that it works that way.
What if you were to create a new keycombo option to Save Project, where it would save both your Custom Code box first and then the project? That would be very helpful indeed!
@Martin an automatic save procedure might be useful for people who don't want to think about their own safety.
Why will you make your programming so complicated? An litte "+" button that increase the filenumber is much easier to make, I think.
AND there is one important thing against the totally automatic: If I don't make my own backup, and any software will do that for me, I forget to make some additional backups, because the automatic backups will delete some time the oldest backup without my notice.
I had that in the past. I "trusted" an software automatic backup. The backup saved 32 backups and made an new one each half hour. So I worked 2 days (>16 hours) an then the first backup was deleted. At the 3. day I recognized that I made a big mistake... but the backup was gone...
Its a hard work for a programmer to make it user resistant. And if the first backup is deleted - some day some user will cry.
So let the creative people do their own backups :)
If you will do an automatic, then please make this "+" button, too, because I will never use an automatic for my safety, so I would be never angry about you if I loose my data.
Maybe, if there are users who won't work always with a new increased file-number - you could make an "copy as (increase)", so all the backups are still there, and I can work with the file without numbers.
The rest of your idea could be great, but leave an manually version in it.
@Jo
Where it “is” a big deal though is for people that don’t understand that it works that way.
people should learn the very simple things to safe themselfs against dataloss. I know lot of people that don't want to learn that, but its necessary.
When someone drives a car - they should now where the brakes are. Even if the don't want to learn that. And if the brakes have an comfort like ABS and they will drive faster, because they have ABS, but if they can't brake manually - lots of accidents happens more because of that safeness.
@martin, this sounds like I good idea to me. I currently save my main file then make a duplicate save it then I save that file again by replacing the word copy with the current date like projectname (02082017).bsdesign. So an auto save function would help many people. I would think an option that allows you to set either of the 3 options for that project or just do all three by default sounds fine as well.
Saj
@martin, also just for cross reference of a more recent thread:
https://bootstrapstudio.io/forums/topic/increase-button-for-save-as-or-backup-file-automatic/