Warn before leaving unsaved page

[dlyons]

There is a lot of traction on this request to Auto Save in Rich Content Editor but an intermediate step between here and there might be a warning when you are leaving a page with any unsaved changes. Here is the issue as described by Christine :

...it would also be helpful if Canvas warned you before navigating away from unsaved content. Chrome, Safari and Firefox display a confirmation dialog when you try to leave a screen with unsaved content, but only when editing Pages. It's too easy to navigate away from unsaved content when editing the Syllabus Description, Assignments, Quizzes, etc...

[allison]

Hi all!

Thanks for your votes. I just wanted to let you know that this is something I have on my personal wish list. We are just about to start a project that will put us in front of the Rich Content Editor code and while we are there, I want to explore how difficult this enhancement would be. I'll keep you posted on the scope of this project.

Allison

[marcy_goodfleis]

Definitely needed!  Students also need it in quizzes and other graded areas. 

[tod_duncan]

Would be very helpful. If you have multiple questions open when editing a quiz and go to another question and forgot to click the pencil icon and select text etc to delete, hitting delete takes you back in the browser and you lose edits. (Lesson learned hard way: update a question before working on another!)

[tmalper]

Oh, gosh, I finish a rubric for an assignment, and in my glee to finally start grading,  click on "speed grader" only to realize I didn't click on "Create Rubric" and return to the page to discover all my entries are lost. You'd think I'd have unlearned this by now.

[allison]

Hi all, this is still on our radar and it's looking likely that we will be able to make some improvements to the Rich Content Editor that will include both an autosave/restore feature as well as a warning before you leave the page. I don't have designs yet, but we know that it's technically feasible. I will keep voters on this thread updated.

[Renee_Carney]

This idea was moved from Under Consideration stage (no longer in use) to the Product Radar stage.  

This change was made as part of a feature idea process evolution.  Find more information, and contribute insights, by joining Focus Group: DRAFT Feature Idea Space. 

[ghalsell]

Renee, can you explain what your post means? Is the idea being actively worked on, or just on a list of "nice-to-haves"? When I clicked on the link in your post, I was informed that there was either nothing there or I was not authorized to view it. This is a feature that has been sorely needed for quite a while; Canvas is the only environment I regularly work in that *doesn't* warn of unsaved changes before leaving a page.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @ghalsell ‌...

Here's a blog post by  @Renee_Carney ‌ that should help answer your question: https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas/blog/2016/10/27/new-ideation-stage-product-radar 

[ghalsell]

Thanks Chris, that does help. One thing that was confusing is the fact that items on the Product Radar continue to be open for voting. In this case of the present idea, my eye was drawn to the section beneath the voting panel that indicated the dates that the idea had been open for voting, leading me to believe that I could no longer add my support.

I think I liked it better when there was an "In Development" (I think that's what it was called) category. "Product Radar," as the link you provided indicates, could mean that work is being done to implement an idea, or it could mean it could sit at this stage indefinitely, whereas the other category at least implied that active attention was being given to implementation.

I hope I'm not coming across as testy - I had ten questions done on a quiz I was building yesterday, left to teach a class, then, when I came back, forgot I had this new quiz open and navigated to another part of Canvas without saving my work, so I had to start over again. (Sigh)

[Stef_retired]

 @ghalsell , we do have an "In Development" stage. Here are two more resources that I hope will provide insight on the stages specifically and the feature development process in general:
How does the feature idea process work? 

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4396-what-is-the-feature-development-process-for-canvas