[development] Use revisions to replace previews

[Jeff Eaton]

This is, in fact, how Drupal 6 works. :) Modules that need to shuffle  
their form data around before it can be considered a valid node  
object add a #submit handler to the node edit form. That code is  
called by both the preview and submit buttons when clicked, and  
results in a 'fully formed' node object when preview is clicked.

Basically, exactly what you outlined in your step-by-step process.

The only thing that wouldn't work is modules that add extra database  
information *after* the node is completely inserted into the DB,  
based on the nid, and then display it later. Frankly, I'm not too  
worried about that; creating loads of one-off dummy nodes just  
because someone typed a few lines and hit 'preview' strikes me as a  
very heavy solution for a problem that I'm not yet sure is a problem.

I think the idea of drafts has some merit but I'm unhappy with the  
idea of using the revision system for them. Drafts, if anything,  
should be an explicit workflow state; revisions are an optional  
construct that exists separately from workflow.

--Jeff

On Jun 8, 2007, at 12:11 PM, David Strauss wrote:

> The problem is that the current system is *almost* but not quite  
> giving
> you what you will see when you save the node. It's difficult to give
> accurate previews. By running previews on the same system as  
> revisions,
> previews will be 100% accurate and require no additional work to  
> provide.
>
> Another way we could structure previews accurately without the DB
> overhead of using revisions is to separate the node edit form  
> submission
> from what changes in $node. Basically, submitting the form (for  
> preview
> or saving) would call the function to apply the form submission to  
> $node.
>
> How it would work:
> 1. User submits node edit form.
> 2. The content type provider receives the submitted form values and
> applies them to $node.
> 3. The normal rendering happens on $node.
>
> Right now (and I may be mistaken for Drupal 6), elements on the node
> edit form get directly added to $node. When a preview is happening,  
> the
> preview is built off this edit-form-modified $node, which often has a
> different data representation than $node really uses. So, the  
> preview is
> put in the awkward position of interpreting the form and displaying  
> the
> data.
>