a) Use either "save and edit" or "save and start attaching files" buttons instead of "Publish".

b) Or use [url=http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=15569]Quick Upload[/url] plugin ;)

Kimberly, by default, when you save a post, it creates a *draft*. it is not published and no pings are sent.
You can then link images and still change your mind about the post a dozen times or more if needed :)

You need to click the "Publish" button or explicitely set the status to published for the post to be ppublished.

Pings are only sent the first time the post is published.

I posted a similar question on an older thread...

How can I change the default visibility so that a post is "published" rather than "draft" by default?

Thanks,
Ross

@rossputin... what happens if you use the "Publish Now" button at the bottom of the text area?

I've not used it and can't test it right now, but it seems like a pretty emphatic name for a button :)

I write a lot of post-dated articles.

With the default as draft (and with me not used to that being the case), it leaves risk that something I expect to show up on my site tomorrow morning won't actually show up.

And having to switch the setting manually with every blog posting is an annoying unnecessary step! Before my current upgrade, the default was "published". I don't remember if that was a setting I had changed, and if so I don't remember how to change it.

John wrote:

what happens if you use the "Publish Now" button at the bottom of the text area?

This should publish the post directly. The button is only shown if the post status is set to "Draft", to avoid people to publish e. g. Private posts by accident.

But this already has been said twice in this thread.

You cannot change the default status any more. It is important that by default posts are drafts so they don't show up on the blog before you get a chance to link images, PDFs or whatever you may want to do.

However, that doe snot mean it will tak eyou any more steps to publish your posts right away. Just hit the "publish now" button.

Granted if you want to post in the future, it's more complicated. Maybe we should change "publish now" to just "publish" ?

Maybe we should not save dates in the past for draft posts, that way "publish" would still act as "publish now", except if you selected a date in the future?

Francois,

I imagine I'm not alone in that I do a lot of my posting for the future. For me, the vast majority of my posts are post-dated.

I'm not an expert but I can't imagine that it would be difficult to make the default post status an option rather than hard-coding the default to be a draft.

This is probably the single most annoying change I've seen in my several years of going through b2 upgrades.

I doubt a lot of people use dates in the past. I'm guessing it happens more by accident than on purpose, however I suppose there may be some reason a person would want to past-date a post. My suggestion in that area would be a message asking if someone really wants to post with a past date.

Thanks for all your great work.

Ross

Ross,

The problem with making the default post status an option is not difficulty. The problem is that it would break the publishing workflow. It would make people publish posts before adding images or even worse, in the middle of writing when they click on "save & continue editing". There is no other logical default status than draft.

Note that in earlier versions there was no "save & continue editing" and linking files was an afterthought anyway. So it wouldn't matter at that time what the default was.

That being said, I do understand that you would need a "Publish" button instead of "Publish now" in order to publish as easily as before even with a default of draft, and we are working on that.

Francois,

What about making it (the default draft status) a setting that users can change, maybe on a blog-by-blog basis?

For me, I always change the publishing date almost before I do anything with a future-dated post, so I'm not worried about accidentally publishing too soon.

Ross

Ross, it would be a setting that solves your problem and creates an inconsistency for hundreds of others who would not understand the problem the way you do. They would post here saying the way b2evolution published their post before they were done with it and that it's stupid...

What's the problem for you in replacing
-default satuts=publish -> click on "save"
with
-default status=draft -> click on "publish"

?

fplanque wrote:

There is no other logical default status than draft.

That assumes I want to attach images or click "save and continue editing", I don't, I just want to post ;)

¥

No, it does not assume that *you* want to, it only assumes that the option is there, that some people use it and that you may click on it and not want your post published just because you clicked on it.

Yes you may just want to post and that is why you shall have a button that allows you to just post.

What's the problem for you in replacing
-default satuts=publish -> click on "save"
with
-default status=draft -> click on "publish"

Francois,

Are you saying there's already a place I can go in the code to change the default post status?

If so, please tell me where it is!

Thanks,
Ross

No, there is no such configuration.

And you did not answer my question... :'(

If I understand your question correctly, that should work fine. I might suggest making it clear that the button means "publish with stated date" rather than "publish now". It's sort of implied, but I wouldn't assume that everyone will get it.

I think many people would assume that "publish" means "publish now".

Anyway, other than that confusion, the functionality seems OK, but not as good as letting me change the default to "published" and then having a button to "save as draft" for someone who wants to do that and doesn't figure out to change the status to "draft".

fplanque wrote:

What's the problem for you in replacing
-default satuts=publish -> click on "save"
with
-default status=draft -> click on "publish"

a) the appearance of the save button
b) the change to my normal/expected workflow

Otherwise? no change, it's just a different button I'll have to learn to aim for huh?

¥

The 'Publish (now)' button is in the exact place where the 'Save' button was.

Here's what I did in v4/CVS :

- There is no "publish NOW" anymore. It's just "Publish" and it does exactly what it says, nothing more. So you click it, and it publishes your post just as if the default status had been "published".

- When the satus is already published, the publish button is not displayed.

- When you create a new post, by default it is set to "update the date to NOW" every time you save it/publish it. Except when you change the date manually OR if you publish it. At that point, the date does no longer change automatically, unless you change the radio back.

I think it's now:
- significantly better than v3
- slightly better to v2 when you don't use any v3 features (but still better because it gives you better control on the date update)
- significantly better than v2 if you start using v3 features

This change requires an extra database field (to store whether or not the date should update auotmatically). Thus I am not backporting it to v3.3.x

François,
When you say 'when the status is already published'
does that also include 'when a post is set to protected'.

I mean : is a protected post published for you ?

Yes, protected are also sort of published.

When you put the post into protected, private, published, deprecated or redirected mode, the date will stop updating automatically to NOW.

In other words, the date will only be updated automatically when a post is a draft and the first time you publish it or save it as protected, private, published, deprecated or redirected.

OK, clear.
What I meant was (and I did not state myself clear, I see that now)
Is the 'publish' also gone when a post is set to protected ?
In 2.x, You could publish a protected post (I had it set even in my skins, because my authors always have to post there stuff protected, and I can then click on the 'publish'-icon, and it gets published.
In 3.3.x I have to go to the backoffice and change the status from protected to published

So my question is : will the 'publish' button be available when a post is set to private of protected.

In the edit form, the publish button only appears when the status is draft.

Thel "Publish NOW" buttons all around the backoffice (not in the edit form) are still exactly like in b2evo v2 & v3. Those are unchanged.

Sounds confusing enough to wonder if there really is a good reason for the change. One of these days we need a show of hands as to who asked for confusion to become a standard or feature. :)

Yeah well, the problem with show of hands is that everybody would raise their hand for "we want this and that and that and that feature" and then they'd raise their hand again for "we don't want anything to change"... which isn't exactly realistic ;)

fplanque wrote:

Yeah well, the problem with show of hands is that everybody would raise their hand for "we want this and that and that and that feature" and then they'd raise their hand again for "we don't want anything to change"... which isn't exactly realistic ;)

The opposite is a single hand?

Not meant in a *flame* way, just making a point

¥

Well, just realize that the we want confusion crowd shouldn't be listened to and perhaps there will be more life boats sitting in their slips instead of pondering being lowered.

It's just that times like this make me scratch my head and wonder why people won't admit there are mistakes and try to force everyone to go with the flow in the wrong direction.

OPTIONS please! OPTIONS. That was the strength of b2 up to 3.

We'd like to not have to ponder the use of the lifeboat.

Quard, if you read this thread carefully you will see that Ross actually clearly explained this problem, that I admitted there was a loss of functionality (even if I didn't use the word "mistake", but mistake it is) and that I tried to come up with a solution to get back on the "right" track, which I believe I did, even if the said fix is only available through CVS at this point in time.

As far as digressions on this topic go, check this out:
http://www.stateoftheevolution.com/resistance-to-change