[Pmwiki-users] Edit / Lock Pages

[Tom Hoover]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 01:36:36PM -0700, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 09:30:05PM +0100, Christian Ridderstr?m wrote:
> > 
> > * The edit page/form get's a hidden field with the lastest time the page's 
> >   file was modified (mtime).
> > * When the new page source is submitted, the stored mtime is compared 
> >   to the current mtime
> > ** If the mtimes are identical, it's safe to write the changes.
> >    If the current modification time has increased, someone else has 
> >    modified the page and you may have a conflict.
> 
> Yes, this part is easy--it's conflict detection.  The real question is, 
> what should happen once a conflict has been detected?

MoinMoin has another option that I think is even more useful.  When a
user begins to edit a page, a "timer" is started (I think the default is
something like 10-15 minutes).  If someone else begins to edit the same
page, while the "timer" is running, they receive a prominent warning
message at the top of the edit page.  Even though they can choose to
continue with their edit, they will likely just wait until the first
person's timer runs out.

What if the first person wants/needs more time to edit?  Well, the
"timer" is restarted any time they press the preview button.  This
allows a person to take as much time as they need to edit a page, but
eliminates the problem of a person beginning to edit a page and walking
away.  A cancel button is also present on the edit screen, which will
stop the timer, if the editor decides to abandon their changes and wants
to stop the timer immediately.

Implementing a "timer", with either a lock or a warning, should help to
eliminate the conflict problem.
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