Bookstack: Focus/Suggest filling "Change Log" on big edits

[tuaris]

Desired Feature:

The "change log" feature seems under utilized and could be helped if there is a way to have the feature visually highlighted/focused, or have a dialog box come up after clicking the save button on large edits. This should be as non-intrusive as possible and should be a configurable option.

[Abijeet]

Hey @ssddanbrown,

I think this might not be a bad idea. For this we can add a system wide setting - Set change-log as mandatory.. By default this option will be off, and can be turned on by the administration. When turned on if the user presses save without entering a change-log, the system will
open the change-log box, and focus on the textbox present there with a message stating -

The change-log has been marked as mandatory by the administrator.

Thoughts?

[ssddanbrown]

@Abijeet I can definitely see the benefit, especially in particular environments that need enhanced auditing but I do wonder if there's a demand for such a feature? The original request here did not request this to be mandatory.

@tuaris If there was an option to set it as mandatory would you turn it on to achieve better utilization of the changelog or would you leave if off to negate the increased effort of editing that enabling would bring?

The original request does add complication of strict 'mandatory/non-mandatory' since you'd then need to start diff checking content which can be a bit unreliable from my experience. Plus there'd need to be options to configure what constitutes a 'big edit' so I do favour the stricter implementation, As long as it would be used.

[derek-shnosh]

Adding my support/request for a flag in .env to configure mandatory changelog entries while saving.

Diffing and checking is not required for our use-case, as our document standards require that all revisions are commented, even if just for formatting. If a user is hitting save, even if they've simply added a single space character, a comment is required.

In the same vein, it would be nice if the save button was _inactive_ until a user actually changed the contents of the file after clicking Edit.

[tuaris]

@ssddanbrown depends on the situation. On certain pieces of process/policy related documentation a valid change log is required for compliance purposes.

Maybe this could be a book level option?