Item13088: have a "Save" button per section ... not one big "Save" for all changes wherever they occurred

Just wanting to save one little change in the config could potentially impact a lot of other settings being applied accidentally as well. Having one Global save is probably legacy design.

See also discussion at Development.ReleaseMeeting01x02_20141013.

-- MichaelDaum - 10 Nov 2014

I really have concerns about this one. I'd much rather have all my changes ready to go and "checked" before I hit save. A save per tab will be confusing. Do I then need to search my tabs to figure out which ones need save? Does it warn if I switch tabs without save?

Also, in some cases, there are cross-tab dependencies. I'd rather configure all the authentication related stuff as a group. LoginManager, PasswordManager, MappingManager, etc. And how will it work when a wizard applies changes to multiple tabs? (Email autoconfig makes changes in the email tab and the advanced tab. )

-- GeorgeClark - 10 Nov 2014

No, you don't need to search all tabs to figure out which ones need save. There are far too many anyway with more tabs hidden inside tabs. This is a nightmare already now wading thru all tabs fighting back warnings.

The idea is that only the section the user touches will be saved. No other part of the configuration shall ever be changed other than what the user touched. I think putting back the user (= admin) back into control is essential fixing configure.

Yes, cross-tab dependencies is probably a problem ... which actually means that those things belong together. Hiding them away in tabs is no ultima ratio anyway. Better have all three - login, password, user mapping - on one page to straighten them out in one transaction.

Using a "save" button per section probably is better suited in making clear to the user what the scope of his change to the Foswiki configuration actually will be.

-- MichaelDaum - 11 Nov 2014

If we restructure the configuration to put related things on one page, that makes more sense. But quite a bit of restructuring will be needed first than moving the button to the tab. And Wizards need to be re-though a bit, maybe using a save button in the wizard itself.

It's hard to say whether the way I operate is due to how configure works, or configure works the way it does because it's a good way to work. Generally I like to review the whole configuration ... review the big picture, before any saving. But maybe that's because stuff is so scattered. I hate to say it but sometimes I need to see it working to make a good judgement. That said though I really don't find the global save all that onerous, and I suspect it will be a lot of work to get to per-tab saving.

Maybe borrowing back a bit from the 1.0 configure, tabs should have twisties for some blocks of settings. Advanced settings for ex. There are probably places where a tab could be eliminated and instead "hidden" in a twistie.

-- GeorgeClark - 11 Nov 2014

Setting this to proposal required. This is a big change in operation, and I don't believe we understand all the ramifications of a per-tab save.

-- GeorgeClark - 17 Nov 2014

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