ProDrafts now available in pre-release

[ryan]

This week it's a relatively focused blog post, largely in part to much focus going into the ProDrafts documentation today. Specifically, ProDrafts is now in pre-release! Here is today's post: 

https://processwire.com/blog/posts/prodrafts-now-available-in-pre-release/

[tooth-paste]

I would like to use this module to build a new version of my site with a different. A new head.inc, foot.inc, different templates and so on. Is this possible or can I only adjust text and images on existing pages?

Also when using Prodrafts can I make a new pagetree and add or rename menulinks?

[Pete]

It is literally just for having a draft of an existing page's content in the admin - not a whole new layout/structure etc.

If you are looking to build a new version of your site, best to copy your existing site locally or to a dev folder and work on it there before replacing the live site.

[ryan]

Hey guys, here's a video demonstrating the Live Preview feature of ProDrafts. This feature should be available to ProDrafts users this week. Please view the larger + HD version so that you can see it better. 

[Torsten Baldes]

This looks so great! Thanks Ryan!

Are there any plans to support Repeaters and PageTable (if possible)?

I use these quite extensive for building pages with different content blocks. Sometimes i even don't have a textarea directly in my page template, only in a PageTable block.

Thanks!

[adrian]

Are there any plans to support Repeaters and PageTable (if possible)?

"In addition, fields using a type of Repeater or PageTable are not currently supported for drafts (though support is planned). "

https://processwire.com/api/modules/prodrafts/#drafts-and-fields

[ryan]

ProDrafts version 2 is now available for download in the ProDrafts board. This one includes the "Live Preview" capability shown in that video above. It also includes "View Both" capability, and several other improvements. 

[Peter Knight]

Hey Ryan

I'm experiencing problems getting LivePreview to work with Yes (normal) enabled.

• The circular icon (top right of the field) will rotate and change to a paperclip indicating a save and draft
• Making a change doesn't reflect anything in the Live Preview window. 

When I switch the LP settings to Yes (refresh only) both Exit and Refresh links work.

I know you've flagged that:

The "normal" mode attempts to update the preview without reloading/refreshing the entire page, when possible.

But is this a system setting or a server config?

No rush BTW - just curious.

[ryan]

When I switch the LP settings to Yes (refresh only) both Exit and Refresh links work.

Since PW doesn't control your front end output, there are some things it can't update without doing a refresh. Though it should be able to dynamically update most text-based fields. For others, you can either let it do a refresh (which it should do automatically) or if you prefer, you can always provide hints to it. Though if you've got a heavily javascript-driven layout, refresh is always going to be reliable. 

If you've got a text field that you think it should be able to update dynamically, please post a copy of your entire HTML output of the page to the ProDrafts board (or PM to me), so that I can test with it here. Thanks. 

But is this a system setting or a server config?

It's a ProDrafts setting, but affects both server-side and client-side. 

[LaDev]

Hello Ryan.

I'm really looking forward to use ProDrafts in our 3.x installation of PW.

Can you make any commitments when it will support the field type "RepeaterMatrx"?

Right now i am building our new website. Almost all visible page components (text-/image-blocks, galleries, videos, slide shows, teaser, tables, etc.) are based on the new "RepeaterMatrix" field type. In my opinion, it really rocks and provides the easiest and fastest way for our designers to create very modular page compositions. And so, it is very easy for me to develop and deploy new page components.

It would be so great, if ProDrafts would support the new field type "RepeaterMatrix" soon.

Hopefully and all the best

LaDev aka kbreynck

[ryan]

Can you make any commitments when it will support the field type "RepeaterMatrx"?

I'm committed to support Repeater and Repeater Matrix with ProDrafts, but don't yet know on how soon it will be. Most likely it will be a little after releasing PW 3.0 as the new stable version, since Repeater Matrix requires PW3. The good thing is that both of those types (and PageTable) are based on PW pages already, and ProDrafts works with PW pages. So supporting it is more a matter of linking and delegating things in the right way, since technically we can already maintain drafts of all those types... but just yet not connected with the owning page. 

Btw, I'm thrilled to hear how much you like Repeater Matrix. I haven't heard from many people using it since I released it, so it's very encouraging to hear that you are getting good use out of it! I am definitely getting good use out of it here too. 

[Sergio]

Right now i am building our new website. Almost all visible page components (text-/image-blocks, galleries, videos, slide shows, teaser, tables, etc.) are based on the new "RepeaterMatrix" field type. In my opinion, it really rocks and provides the easiest and fastest way for our designers to create very modular page compositions. And so, it is very easy for me to develop and deploy new page components.

Great! Could you detail a bit more how you guys are using it? Showing some screenshots and code if possible? It will be great! And if you can, post it on a public forum, so everyone can read it.

[AndZyk]

Btw, I'm thrilled to hear how much you like Repeater Matrix. I haven't heard from many people using it since I released it, so it's very encouraging to hear that you are getting good use out of it! I am definitely getting good use out of it here too. 

I am usually more the silent observer type of this forum, but I just want to say that Repeater Matrix, beside all the nice frequent additions, is by far my favorite addition to ProcessWire this year and really improves the workflow with custom content elements.

I am really looking forward for more additions to this FieldType and thank you for coming up with it. 

Regards, Andreas

[tpr]

The Matrix Repeater is a godsend. I have much more control on the content the client enters even though it takes some time to build one with the proper fields.

I combine it with field templates too as partials.

Fortunately they are reusable so with a few basic layout blocks pretty nice things can be built.

[onjegolders]

+1 for the future compatibility between LivePreview and RepeaterMatrix.

For me the two go together, the possibility to allow users to create longf-orm content and build pages by adding and reordering of blocks is a great combination of power and usability (in my mind).

Thanks again for all the hard work Ryan!

[arjen]

+1 for the future compatibility between LivePreview and RepeaterMatrix.

+ 1000

[mciccone]

Sorry if this is a repeat, but couldn't find anything about it.  Our company is looking at using PW as the main CMS for building new sites on.  We have a number of public companies that quite often require content to be created ahead of time, reviewed by a number of stakeholders, then made live at specific times (typically replacing existing content on a page).  Just wondering if Prodrafts would have the ability to use a scheduler to make a draft live (ie: replace the content on this page at 1am PT on Thursday)?  Could it be combined with something like Schedule Pages?  (http://modules.processwire.com/modules/schedule-pages/)  

[Robin S]

Welcome to the forums @mciccone

I haven't purchased ProDrafts so I can't give a definitive answer on whether the module has a schedule feature, but it wouldn't be too difficult to code your own solution using the API method for publishing draft pages:

$page->publishDraft();

You would take a similar approach to the Schedule Pages module. That is, add a "publish_from" date field to your page template, and use a Lazy Cron hook to find unpublished draft pages with a publish_from date < now and publish them.