Research note "save as draft" checkbox is ambiguous, easy to mix up with "draft auto-saving" feature

[jywarren]

I'm creating this issue to try to diagnose the problem @Elukoye had in editing and posting a draft, and I'm so sorry you had this issue. Let's try to use screenshots and carefully document what happened to try to fix it and even potentially recover the text.

@jywarren, it's not the one 😢 . However, this is what I noticed, when I leave my research note untouched for a few hours in save as draft mode, the moment I refresh the page, my draft disappears. This is the second time am starting over 😄 . Maybe we can include a gem called Sisyphus that uses script tags to wrap around the input forms on the app. Actually, I have proposed this in my latest project proposal to tackle this problem.

Originally posted by @Elukoye in #9388 (comment)

[jywarren]

@Elukoye when you say "in save as draft mode" do you mean that you saved as a draft and then edited it again?

Here i made a video of saving as a draft, using the "Save as draft" checkbox and pressing Publish. Then I see the saved draft which i then have to press "Edit" again to modify.

Screen.Recording.mov

Each time you make changes, i recommend pressing the blue Save button again so that it's stored on the database and if your browser window crashes or something, you can still access it at the secret URL it shows, which in this case was https://stable.publiclab.org/notes/show/24131/NMnfT6nWPic0yrz-3wEI-g

[jywarren]

Is this how it went for you? If not, could you take some screenshots or even a video to show the process you saw? Again, i'm so sorry this caused you trouble.

[Elukoye]

@jywarren, thank you very much for the above video. It makes sense now why it didn't save, I assumed that once I tick the check box, my draft autosave and I can access it from history. I think the save as draft link could lead to the assumption that the draft is being saved as one writes it, removing the need to periodically press the save button.

[Elukoye]

This is how I did it, this is assuming that once the checkbox is ticked the draft is saved automatically when changes are made.
screen recording
From my video can you note a difference in the position of the save button?

[Elukoye]

Also, I left the tab open for some time without editing or refreshing, this is what happened.
Screen recording. The publish and save buttons were unresponsive, the preview button did work though.

[jywarren]

Thanks @Elukoye this is such a good observation:

the save as draft link (next to the checkbox) could lead to the assumption that the draft is being saved as one writes it, removing the need to periodically press the save button.

Maybe we could... add a tooltip that says "your draft will be saved once you press Published" or something, to try to clarify? Or any other ideas?