Editing dates

Sorry if this has been addressed before, but I couldn't find it.

When I enter the Date Read on a book in the catalog view, it does not seem to be saved anywhere on the book edit page. However, it will stay visible in catalog view until I go into the book edit page. But, once I go into the book edit page and make any change (or don't make any changes at all), click Save, the Date Read in the catalog view disappears.

The only way to make the Date Read "stick" is to enter it in the edit page. However, I prefer entering the Date Read from my catalog view - I have it set up for me to do just that. But, if this isn't going to work anymore, then the ability to add a date in catalog view needs to be disabled so that people like me don't lose any more data.

This seems to have been happening since the original attempt at making the experimental "currently reading" button change the dates in the catalog.

Yes it was on before but it is a remaining problem.
On my library I can enter the info on the catalog page but it does not show on the edit page.
If I add to the edit page it removes the entry on the catalog page. Lots of luck.

>2 flabuckeye: Hmmm. For me, if I add it to the edit page it stays on the catalog page, so that's odd.

To add to the above: If I add to the catalog page the info is retained there . If I enter it on the edit page it not only removes it from the catalog page it does not retain the data on the edit page after I click on save.

Which date(s), specifically, are you talking about?

For me, Date Read is all I've tried and behaves the way I've described in #1, and not the way you've described in #2 or #4.

Date start and date read, both. One other thread has over 300 entries.

It is a problem with your (and my) browser. :o)

Tim has said that the data isn't actually lost, so it's not considered an urgent problem.

Talbin
So the work around is ---Just don't go to the edit page.

Just added date acquired to a book from the catalog page.
LT changed the year to 2008 and left the day and month as entered.
Re-entered the year and it remained 1957.

Hm - Okay - I'll just stick to what's working for me, which is entering the date in the edit page, not the catalog page.

BTW - I'm on XP/FF, if it matters.

I'm very sorry about this problem. I'll try to get to it tonight.

Just entered date started on catalog page.
NO problem.
Keep an eye on this and see if it gets fixed.

Glad to see this thread. I tried it out by adding date acquired on the edit page for a book purchased in 1993 and ended up losing both date started and date finished in catalog view (where I normally use this information).

Bump. This is still happening.

It's still happening for me too on XP/IE7

Happening to me with FF/XP and Vista.

#13. You had the date started and finished on your catalog page. That is "old data" and should remain until you add "new data" which is stored in another place.
You went to the edit page and entered a date purchased. That is "new data" but you did not enter a date started and finished for "new data" as you had that on the catalog page. Now you clicked on "save" which was your mistake. Since there was no "new data" for start/finish there is no "new data" to transfer to the catalog page. But that data is not lost. Just stay out of the edit page until you hear the "all clear" signal.

I have no idea if the above is true or not. It is just my idea of how it works. "Your milage may vary"

I have no idea if the above is true or not. It is just my idea of how it works. "Your milage may vary"

Yes, I think you are right, and that is what happened and that is why I am staying way away from the edit page for dates until this is fixed.

My 18
"But that data is not lost."
That is what other people have said. I would not bet more than a thin dime on it. Time will tell.

They take data loss very seriously, so I would be willing to bet a fair amount that the data is really not lost.

If any of my dates were lost permanently, I would not return to LT.

bump, bump

And another bump!

It is still happening. Very annoying!

Still happening. Any idea when this will be fixed?

Bump. Bump. Bump.

I'm also having this same problem using XP/FF. Can somebody fix this please?

Bump.

It is still happening. Very annoying!

Very, very annoying....

Where my date at?

bump

Especially now that using the edit page changes the entry date of any book to today. I essentially cannot enter any read dates until one or the other is fixed.

I'd at least like reassurance that dates entered via the catalogue are as secure and frequently backed-up as the rest of our data.

If assurances can be given that the original entry dates can be recovered from backup, then people can again edit their data knowing that the entry dates will eventually be fixed.

>34 jjwilson61: Yes, that would be nice, but also note that this thread started March 23. Who knows what backup is available since then? And even backup is available, just think how much has been added or changed since then.

Whoops - you're talking about entry dates, which just started going wonky yesterday. The Date Read dates are the ones that this thread was initially about.

Based on a comment Tim made in the blog recently, I don't think he's going to fix the Date Read problem any time soon. In arguing that it would take too long to add Date Read to Connection News given how little data there is, he said that one of the steps would have to be fixing the problems with the date data--which I at least took to understand that fixing the problems wasn't something he was already planning to do in the near future.

Well, since we can't reliably put in reading dates from the catalog and since we can't use the edit page without losing the entry date data, there is no way to enter reading dates. I just started going back and entering my past reading dates into LT from old reading journals, but it's almost not worth the hassle. But hopefully one will be fixed soon?

No, that wasn't what I said.

Well, Tim has said in the past that dates entered in the catalogue are safe, even if not visible after using the edit screen. I've been fairly contentedly ignoring the edit screen for months now, entering everything from the catalogue.

I have to say, though, that I'm pretty pissed off that Tim constantly argues that not enough people use Date Read, while making it progressively harder and now almost impossible to do so.

>38 timspalding: I may have invented the implication that you weren't going to do it soon, but you certainly included fixing the problems with dates as one step in a process that you considered too time-consuming to be worth doing overall.

No, Zoe, what you said was that adding support for date-read functionality to the Connection News was a trivial thing, that should take me five minutes.

I tried to explain to you that it would take a day or more, because the point of good code is that it hides complexity—in this case, keeping large amount of your data in RAM memory so that it's as fast as possible, spread across web servers, and in synch with the database—but not keeping too much because memory is expensive and limited.

Anyway, the example was even worse than I thought insofar as I rethought the whole "friend feed"-memory structure over the last two days. (Basically, I stopped making separate structures and now maintain a single structure with complex objects in it.) So whatever I would have done would have been rewritten, as I just rewrote keeping track of recent books, reviews, etc.

I'm going to take a hard look at date-read data. I'm worried that there's no practical way to keep multiple start and stop dates. But I'll give you an update.

Okay, but before that you said "Developing is choosing. What will make people happy? What are the costs of doing it? I have to make choices. I could spend the day on the feature you want.... but as it would be used by very few, ...I am choosing not to." And then you included fixing the existing problems with dates as a step in that process you were choosing not to do.

Anyway, I should probably give up on trying to understand coding issues. The RAM problem makes sense to me, but I still don't understand why your existing code can't easily be extended to include one more similar type of data.

I agree about multiple start and stop dates; I think they've caused much more trouble than they're worth and would be happy to be rid of them.

Tim

My apologies if I have got this wrong, but you appear to have either misunderstood or overlooked what I wrote in the first message in this thread.

If I edit the details of one of my books using the edit book page the entry date changes to the current date. It does not appear to matter what I edit. I have edited the date read, the tags and the publication fields and in each case the entry date is changed. Something is corrupting my data and it needs to be fixed.

pythagoras, your thread is here.

>42 _Zoe_:

But you must also know that if I get rid of them there will be people who say that this was the only reason they'd ever use the feature, that start and stop was inherently multiple, that without multiple start and stop dates the site was useless and that they're going to hurl themselves of a bridge.

>43 pythagoras:

No, I get it. And I'm working on it. The data is stored two places and not updating correctly, a consequence of bad coding and a miscommunication between Chris and me. _Zoe_ and I are carrying on a related issue—whether data-read needs to be a higher-priority feature generally.

Not to hijack your conversation, but pythagoras isn't talking about the disappearing read dates--he's talking about the corrupted entry dates that are discussed on this thread. Perhaps if you are working on that as well, you would give word over on that thread?

Whoops, sorry for confusing the threads. But at least we now know that Tim is working on it.

>45 timspalding: Oh, I know. If multiple dates worked properly I would never suggest getting rid of them. But since they don't work properly (don't display in the catalogue, prevent other dates from displaying in the catalogue, have issues with pairing start and finished dates, etc.), the situation is slightly different. Would it be possible to keep the multiple dates in an "other dates" section that didn't interact with the catalogue or the date features at all? So there would be the first pair of dates that displayed in the catalogue, could be edited from the catalogue, showed up in feeds, etc., and then other dates that were there for people to look at on the edit screen but were disconnected from all other date uses?

>46 christiguc:

Got it. It's the same problem on my end.

I'm taking some time off to code. I need to get deep into this headspace.

add me to the list.

Just edited some information for a book & it changed the entry date to today (6/15/08). I had changed part of the title & removed some notes from comments.

I had been working with tags & comments on books yesterday & today and dates were not changed on those books. Just for the one that I changed the title. (only book entry for today)

FF2/XP

The entry date problem is fixed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I really appreciate your response to this today, Tim. I don't know how to say Thanks enough!

In the 'ungrateful wretch' category, can the books whose entry dates have already been changed be corrected?