/ Forums

Balsamiq Community Discussion

Alternate version: Promoting should not overwrite the official version!

#1

Hi there,

I found quite unfriendly the behavior that overwrites the official version of a mockup when you promote another mockup as the official one.

My expectation was that it would simply take the current official version and switch it to an alternate version instead. Simple as that. It would make so much sense! :slight_smile:

Otherwise, change the word “Promote”, because it does not say that it will delete the current official mockup. When someone gets promoted at a company, it doesn’t mean the other employee gets fired. :smile:

Thanks!

Should cloning a mockup, clone its alternates too?
#2

Hi @sgiroux, the plan here is that the operation will be undoable (it already is by hitting undo 3 times but it’s a bit of a hack). Also, we are working on a feature called “snapshots” which will take snapshots of each mockup over time. Promoting an alternate will automatically take a snapshot before overriding it with the new content.

We’ll get there! :slight_smile:

#3

Yikes! Thanks for flagging this - I’ve only just started using this feature and would have fallen foul of this for sure! I think for now I’ll clone old “official” versions before promoting, so I can recreate them as new alternatives.

#4

Here is a little guide I made to help me remember the terminology

Or at least what I thought it did until you brought this to my attention.

#5

I’ve already gotten a lot of use out of this feature. I didn’t even know that I needed it :). Yes, I agree with the others. My expectation would be that the alternate version gets promoted to the official. The official version gets “demoted” to an alternate version.

#6

Chalk me up as another person who was surprised when I lost my original “official” and now had two copies of the “alternate” when I promoted it.

#7

Yes, omg, just lost my entire alternate version! :disappointed:

#8

not sure when snapshot concept will be available, but the over-write and loss of the official version bit me too. a simple re-assignment of official to random alternate name would be a very valuable interim step.

#9

Hi all, since making this undoable and adding snapshots is taking a while, we’re going to put in something in place in the next release that will make it harder to lose data, either a confirmation dialog or an automatic backup alternate of the Official when promoting.

Sorry for the accidental lost data, ugh :frowning:

#10

I just added a confirmation dialog when discarding alternates and an automatic backup of the Official Version when promoting. You can check it out here if you’d like: https://balsamiq.com/download/next/ - we’d love to hear what you think!