[ww-bugs] Bug 4103: New: Lost previous work

[bugzilla-daemon at webwork.maa.org]

http://bugs.webwork.maa.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4103

           Summary: Lost previous work
           Product: webwork.maa.org
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Macintosh
        OS/Version: Mac OS
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P3
         Component: ftcourses.webwork.maa.org
        AssignedTo: gage at math.rochester.edu
        ReportedBy: mbeceanu at albany.edu
                CC: aubreyja at gmail.com
        Web browser Chrome
           version:
    Browser version 65.0.3325.162
            number:


When creating a new problem, I usually start from an older one.

On several occasions when doing this, probably because I included spaces in the
name of the new problem, a new problem was not created; instead the old one got
overwritten with no apparent error message (probably there was one, but it
looked almost the same as the "success" message).

This caused me to lose some or all of my previous work on the old problem,
because by the time I realized that a new file had not been not created too
many changes had been made to the old file.

Even worse, changes propagated to the problem set in which I had assigned the
old problem, without any protection or warning. Now it's hard for me to even
make sense of student grades for that problem set.

Even though this is the expected behavior and my trouble is self-induced (due
to not paying enough attention), I can see several possible safeguards, each of
which would have sufficed to avoid this issue:
* allowing file names with spaces
* displaying a clearer error message when a new file is not created and
"compelling" to some extent the user to pick a valid file name
* a versioning system
* preserving an intact copy of any problem that has already been assigned in a
homework set

>From now on I'll hopefully pay more attention (this must be the 3rd or 4th time
it happens to me), but some simple changes could avoid a lot of future
frustration.

-- 
Configure bugmail: http://bugs.webwork.maa.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are watching all bug changes.