Hi Peter, Peter Hillier-Brook wrote:
I recently reported a Priority 2 bug in the OO.o 1.9.104 beta release (Issue #49865), occasioned by the severe loss of data in files containing several versions of a document. The problem was provoked by the conversion process to version 2 file formats (.sxw to .odt and .sxc to .ods) in that all versions of the document but the current one were discarded.
Apparently the logic is this: When you create a version, you store a named snapshot of the current state of the document to the current document file. When you use this feature, you have multiple documents in one file (you can even view them in multiple document windows concurrently). All but the 'current' document are frozen (i.e. readonly) documents. Versions accumulate in a document file. They document prior states of the current document.
When you "Save as.." you save the current document (in its current state/version) to a new document file. Effectively you create a new document, using (the current state of) the current document as initial content. As the new document is new, it does not have a history or prior versions.
Thus 'save as' is *not* a file conversion! It is creating a new document from the current one.
BTW: There is no data loss. The versions are still present in the original file
Well and good so far, but the response to the issue was surprising in its MS-like quality - it's not a bug, it's a feature!
Apparently it is. In the light of the above it makes sense. The same should happen, if you 'save as..' to the same format (e.g. sxw->sxw) and even within OOo 1.x.
And this actually is a useful feature, if you use versioned documents: It provides a means to save the current document version (or any older version) as a standalone document that does not carry the entire audit trail with it. You may want to do this before sending the document to an outsider.
I'd like to know if any other users have made use of the version saving capabilities in OO.o 1.1.4 (and earlier) to maintain an audit trail of document changes, and whether they share my dismay at its disappearance in OO.o 2.0?
The version saving capabilities are still there. You can use multiple versions within one document - both for sxw and for odt documents. So as long as you stay with the original file format for each file you can keep your full audit trail.
What is lacking is a file converter that converts sxw to odt files while 'preserving' older versions. If you need this, that is a new feature, so calling this an RFE is appropriate.
Now, why did I put 'preserving' into quotes? Because this requirement is still ambiguous, when conversion between different file formats are involved: what aspects do you want to preserve?
A versioned odt file contains all its versions as odt data (naturally). But if you convert a sxw file, then none of the prior versions existed as odt file. So really preserving the stored versions would mean to keep them in their original format. As a result you would end up with a hybrid document - an odt file with embedded sxw content. Supporting that kind of file would surely be a significant implementation effort.
A more obvious approach would be to convert a versioned sxw file to an ordinary versioned odt file. But that would mean that the new file contains snapshots of 'versions' that never existed. Depending on the nature of the file formats involved (I don't know if we support any other versioned document formats beyond sx* and od*) the format conversion may not be reversible unambiguously, so you can't be sure that you can recreate the original document version exactly. Is that really what you want in your audit trail?
Ciao, Jörg -- Joerg Barfurth Sun Microsystems - Desktop - Hamburg >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> using std::disclaimer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Software Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] OpenOffice.org Configuration http://util.openoffice.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
