Concept
Common Rules
The rules that apply across the panel to unsaved changes, form errors, simultaneous editing, confirmation dialogs, reasons and file uploads.
Every screen of the panel follows the same rules for saving, errors, confirmations and file uploads. These rules prevent data loss through carelessness and leave a trace of important actions in the audit log.
Unsaved changes
If you try to leave a page while a form has changes you have not saved, the panel warns you. The warning appears when you click a link or the browser's back button, search from the top bar, open a notification or sign out. When several forms on the screen have unsaved changes, the panel asks once. The Stay on the page button keeps you on the form. The Discard changes button discards the changes and leaves the page.
On the journal management, site settings, profile and editor's submission screens, moving to another tab does not discard unsaved changes. The changes stay until you save them or leave the screen.
The submission wizard saves your draft automatically. The draft is also saved when you move from the wizard to another screen.
Form errors
When you save a form that has fields to correct, an error notice appears at the bottom right. The notice lists the fields to correct by name. The page scrolls to the first field with an error, and the red text below the field says what is missing or wrong. In a form inside a dialog, the error appears inside the dialog.
Error messages appear in the language of the panel. An error the panel does not recognise is shown with the message "The action could not be completed" and an error code. When you report such an error, include the code. If a help topic explains the error, the notice shows a What can I do link that opens the topic in the help panel.
Notices close by themselves after a while. While the mouse pointer or the keyboard focus is on a notice, none of them closes. A notice with a What can I do link stays on the screen until you close it.
Simultaneous editing
If someone else changed the record while you were editing it, the save stops and the Someone else changed this record dialog opens. This way two people do not overwrite each other's changes. What to do is described in The “Someone else changed this record” warning.
Confirmation dialogs and reasons
For actions that cannot be undone, a confirmation dialog opens and states the result of the action. Issuing a decision, retracting a record and anonymising an account are examples of these actions. Most of them ask for a reason and are written to the audit log.
When the dialog closes, the keyboard focus returns to the button that opened it. If the action removed that button as well, the focus moves to the first field or button in the same section. Selecting text in a field of the dialog and releasing the mouse outside the dialog does not close it.
Unpublishing, archiving or deleting catalogue records and institutional content requires a reason. Withdrawing a submission and cancelling a reviewer invitation also cannot be done without a reason. A reason must be at least 5 characters long, and the system checks this again when it saves.
File uploads
Every uploaded file goes through a virus scan. While the scan runs, the file's status is Scanning, and nobody can open the file before the scan has finished. A file that fails the scan is not opened to anyone. Remove such a file and upload it again.
The allowed file types and the size limit are shown below the upload area. In a default installation the size limit is 100 MB.