[4.x]: Auto save drafts behavior / Settings

[LeoWie93]

What happened?

Description

The behavior of the following general setting option: https://craftcms.com/docs/4.x/config/general.html#autosavedrafts
does not behave as expected

.env

Setting the .env variable: CRAFT_AUTOSAVE_DRAFTS=false does nothing in our case.

Static config

The in the documentation mentiond ->autosaveDrafts(false) function is not implemented inside the GeneralConfig object. But we can still set the variable directly with ->autosaveDrafts = false. (Which is deprecated and tells us to use the non existing function)

Steps to reproduce

1. have an entry that you can save
2. add .env variable and change a field => still autosaves the draft
3. add the ->autosaveDrafts = false => craft no longer autosaves the draft after a change

Expected behavior

• the documented ->autosaveDrafts() can be used for the same result

Craft CMS version

4.4.17 & 4.5.3

PHP version

8.2

Operating system and version

ArchLinux 6.1.50-1-lts

Database type and version

Mysql 8.0.32

Image driver and version

Imagick

[brandonkelly]

That’s a documentation bug, sorry. autosaveDrafts was deprecated before we added the fluent config methods, and opted to not give the setting a fluent method since we want to discourage people from using it.

[LeoWie93]

@brandonkelly why is this deprecated / why do you want to discourage people from using this feature?

and the CRAFT_AUTOSAVE_DRAFTS should work properly?

[brandonkelly]

Because autosaving is significantly more performant than it was when the setting was originally added, and it’s required to enable Live Preview, conditional fields, and activity indicators.