Warnings vs Undo for Admin Functions

[kendo451]

Here is a great article on why it is better to have the ability to "Undo" a change, rather than ask the user "Are you sure?" and have them click ok.

http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2008/10/31/nobody-reads/

Humans, being habit-forming creatures, get in the habit of clicking "ok" when asked if we want to do something.  When the rare occasion occurs that we really don't want to do the action (like delete all the work I just did) our thinking process is slower than our reflexive habit, and we usually click "Ok", then realize what we just did and then stomp around the room kicking furniture because we just wiped twenty minutes worth of work.

I suggest that for future versions of CMS Made Simple admin panel we put some serious priority on switching to Gmail's model, where if you click delete it just moves it to a temp folder (trashcan) and says, "The file was just moved to the trashcan.  Undo. "

By making deletions undo-able we work better with human nature.  And by not asking "Are you sure?" every time, we don't train ourselves to click ok no matter what it says.

[calguy1000]

Although I agree that there are improvements that can be made (it's just a matter of time and priorities).

I think that your idea of 'undo' doesn't take into account alot of the issues that we have to consider:

a) multiple user locking
b) multiple content blocks
c) varying levels of user permissions
d) multiple levels of undo (if user A clicks UNDO while user B has already submitted a change)
    (implies versioning)

Most importantly:
e) SIMPLICITY.  This is supposed to be a simple package.  Designed primarily for simple 'semi-static'
    websites.  therefore this has to be kept in mind at all times.    This is not an enterprise content
    management solution, and IMHO should not be.

Therefore due to our core purpose, and a cost/benefit (why put all that effort into functionality not aimed at our core audience) we've not done ANY of that to date.

Now, in single editor environment, I agree an 'automatic save as draft' feature would be useful. 

As well as some simple 'locking' for the "assumed to be rare" occasions where two people might attempt to edit the same page at the same time, would be useful.

I'm seriously thinking of putting some of that in to a future release cuz honestly, I've been bit by it a couple of times... but in 6 years I can honestly say it only happens rarely.  Infact  I have more problem with template changes being erased by other developers... and that's a whole different subject.

[kendo451]

You're right.  As usual, this would probably be best solved by a module, like Archiver, which needs to be brought up to date for CMS 1.7.1.

[kermit]

a simple versioning system with drafts and archived versions.. for templates, stylesheets, gcb, page content, news articles, etc.. would be great....  but that's as far as i'd want it to go.  an admin-wide "undo bin" would be pretty complex to set up.. would it be per user or global? what happens when one user does something that makes your thing 'un-undoable'? then you have to decide whether to also undo *someone elses* thing (if you even had privs to do it) so that you can undo yours... it'd be a mess and a nightmare.


as far as click-happy people that don't know how to read (or don't comprehend what they're reading when they actually do).. they'll LEARN how... eventually. may cost time and money for the lesson learned, but they will learn. and those that don't or are unteachable.. well, imho, they'd be better off paying someone that CAN read to manage their web site.

[kendo451]

I was thinking more of myself than the typical end-user.  It's really hard to make your hand hold back on that click long enough to read it.

[calguy1000]

a simple versioning system with drafts and archived versions.. for templates, stylesheets, gcb, page content, news articles, etc.. would be great....

I can almost guarantee you that we won't go there for the 1.x series... and I'd vote against it for the 2.x series.  simple locking for content pages and a 'session specific' undo would be as far as I'd be willing to go.

[replytomk3]

a simple versioning system with drafts and archived versions.. for templates, stylesheets, gcb, page content, news articles, etc.. would be great....

=Archiver, whenever it is updated.