Enable and configure the auto-save of text

Build 1501 on 14/Nov/2017  This topic last edited on: 26/Oct/2016, at 20:56

You may want to enable and configure the auto-save of changes of the text in editing on the Articles main tab in Ted4 or Fred4 and on the Pages main tab in Fred.

The auto-save saves automatically the changes of text under specified conditions.

By default auto-save is not enabled.

Note: since the version 2.2, the auto-save is performed in background, so it appears as instantaneous, without slowing down the operations on the client computer, even with the low values of changes between saves.

To enable and configure auto-save of text

1.On the Edit menu of the Articles main tab or on the Pages main tab while editing text, click Preferences.

2.On the Auto-Save tab select Enabled.

3.Select whether you want a local save

4.Specify the number of changes between saves.

About number of auto-save settings

The lower is the auto-save setting, the less you will lose if the software crashes, but the higher is the load on the system and slower the operations - as while the software saves the content, you can't do anything else.

The higher is the setting, the more you will lose if the software crashes, but the lower is the load on the system and faster the operations.

The auto-save setting depends also on the network speed. In fast networks, when working in LAN you can set lower values than on slow networks, or when working remotely.

This setting saves in the AutoSave key in the TxtParam node.

Click to toggle expandMore about local save of text

We discuss here three typical combinations, and for each we explain auto save behaviour, manual save results, what happens if Ted4 crashes, and what happens if you choose not to recover article after crash.

Autosave:        ticked

Number:        500

Local save:        unticked

Each time when number of changes in text reaches 500, Ted4 automatically saves text in the editorial database. The frequency of auto saves is not too high, so it will probably not overload and slow-down the SQL server, even if the same setting is enabled for all users in a big network. If your Ted4 crashes, you may loose up to 500 last characters (new entered, or changed). Of course, it depends on your manual saves, too. If you saved text manually 5 seconds before the crash, you'll loose what you did in these 5 seconds.

Autosave:        ticked

Number:        1

Local save:        unticked

On each character typed or deleted, the text is automatically saved in the database.  The frequency of auto saves is extremely high, so, if more users have such setting in their preferences, it will overload SQL server and slow it down, and everyone will suffer. If your Ted4 crashes, you may lose only 1 character.

Autosave:        ticked

Number:        1

Local save:        ticked

On each character typed or deleted, the text is automatically saved, but not in the database, but on your local disk only! Therefore, even such very high frequency of auto saves does not overload the SQL server.

However, each time you press CTRL+S, the text is saved in the database.

If your Ted4 crashes, you may lose only the last character (new or changed).

Here it comes the Catch 22 - if you never pressed CTRL+S in the entire session (not recommended), and if you choose No on the recover prompt (not recommended), all your text is lost, since it was never saved in the database, and the temporary recovery files are automatically reset. (Note: if you click Yes on the recover prompt, you are safe - the text will be recovered).

To summarize:

The importance of the status of Local save is limited to rare cases, where:

1. Users never use CTRL+S or File->Save to save text manually.

2. Users choose very high frequency of auto saving (20 characters or less).

3. Users choose No when prompted to recover, on restarting Ted4 after crash.

About local save function

The local save function is not designed to help recover from general database crashes. If the database crashes, you may loose all your editions, pages, links, images, all the stories (but the databases don't crash in that way, and you have your dumps, however).

The local save saves in the personal temporary directory %TEMP%. To get to that directory, click Start, and then click Run. Enter %TEMP% and then press 8.

The local save saves only a copy of text files you are working on, thus, in the best case, it can recover only these stories.

The local save is an addition, not a replacement, to the manual save. It is strongly recommended to get used to save text manually as often as possible.

The primary use of the local save is to avoid to overload the SQL server when users choose a high frequency of auto saving, such as 1 character, 5, 20 or similar, to protect themselves against Ted4 crashes.

If local save is checked, all auto saves are redirected to the local hard-drive, and in that way, the SQL server is not overloaded even if the auto saved are very frequent. But note that, if another user views the text you are working on, they will see the last manually saved version, and not auto saved versions.

The manual saves though always go in database, disregarding the auto save settings.

The difference in the recover behaviour between case C/ and previous ones, is the place where auto saves are stored: your local drive in the %TEMP% directory, or the database. Even if you make a mistake not to recover a text immediately, but it was stored in the database, you can always recover it later on. If the text was stored on your local disk, there is no second chance!