Similar problem to "Neatline editor - won't save anything", I'm unable to save changes made to record text in an existing or new Neatline exhibit.
Environment:
Omeka 2.1.2
Neatline 2.1.3 (though this behavior was seen on 2.0.1 as well)
Neatline SIMILE 2.0.0
Neatline Waypoints 2.0.1
(Whole buncha other plugins, but it's a pain enough to dump that list that I'll skip it until and unless I need to.)
Steps:
Create fresh exhibit (though this behavior was seen on an exhibit created under a previous version as well)
Set query to import one item
Enter Neatline editing UI
Click record
Strip first word of record title
Click save
See affirmation that "The record was saved successfully!"
Note that the title is not changed
Weep
Smells almost like a permissions error, but I'm still green enough with Omeka/Neatline that I don't quite know where to look.
Hey Trip,
Yeah, this is confusing, and we could do a lot better job at the UI level of making it clear what's going on here. Basically, if a Neatline record is linked to an Omeka item, the text content on the Neatline record _can't be changed_, since doing so would effectively decouple it from the Omeka item that it represents. Instead, you'll need to change the title of the actual item in Omeka, which will cause the title of the Neatline record to automatically update. (See this issue on GitHub for the rationale behind this - https://github.com/scholarslab/Neatline/issues/251). You can also always just create a standalone Neatline record by clicking the "New Record" button. When a record isn't linked to an Omeka item, you can save anything you want in the text fields.
There's a pretty simple fix for this problem, I think - when a Neatline record is linked to an Omeka item, leave the Neatline "Title" and "Body" fields unchanged, and always just display the item metadata below any Neatline-specific information. That way, if you don't want to add any new information in the Neatline exhibit, you can just leave the Neatline fields blank, and the regular, unadorned Dublin Core metadata will be displayed. But, if you want, you can add an exhibit-specific title and/or description, which will always be shown above the Omeka content, in a kind of supporting or prefacing role.
What do you think, Trip? What seems most intuitive?
-David
David--
1) Delayed because semester-end conflama. Students deleting their Exhibits left and right (but that's another topic).
2)a) For some reason, I didn't read or did not pay attention to the reversal of process between Neatline 1 and 2 as concerns copies of v pointers to Items. I was able to explain the issue to affected students.
2)b) I do like your idea of having distinct spaces in the Neatline record editor for content uneditable from within Neatline and for editable content. In addition, perhaps a Help icon (e.g. a ? in a circle) that pops up a small popup explaining the situation, including info on creating a new item if desired and on editing the info from an Item UI.
There might be some value in having info on the Import Items screen about not being able to edit body or title for these items, but then you get into a question of whether the amount of information raises more questions than it answers and whether the content is off-putting. It wouldn't bother me, for what that's worth.
--Trip