A draft is an interim version of a business entity that has not yet been explicitly saved as an active version. Drafts are saved automatically in the background whenever users add or change information within a business entity while in edit state (auto-save).

In SAP Fiori, drafts are used as follows:

• To keep unsaved changes if an editing activity is interrupted, allowing users to resume editing later.
• To prevent data loss if an app terminates unexpectedly.
• As a locking mechanism to prevent multiple users from editing the same object concurrently, and to make users aware when there are unsaved changes by another user.

When a user starts creating a new business entity or edits an existing one, a draft is created in parallel in the background to enable field validation and dynamic field control (showing additional fields based on user interaction), and to provide default values for fields based on recent data entry. A draft can be validated for consistency and completeness at any time. This returns a list of messages. See the article on message handling to find out how to display messages.

While the user is modifying a business entity, a saving indicator shows when a draft is saved implicitly. The implicit save does not make the Save button redundant. Clicking the Save button is still necessary in order to incorporate the changes into an active business document.

Responsiveness

Sizes M and L offer enough space to display the saving indicator in the toolbar. If there is not enough space available, for example, on a smartphone, do not show the saving indicator. Also note that the text must never be truncated.

Size S

Sizes M and L

Types

Draft Types

Drafts can differ in terms of their visibility to different users and the interactions allowed. SAP Fiori currently employs an exclusive draft scenario. In this type of scenario, one user is the owner of the draft. As long as a user is working on an object, the business entity remains locked for other users until the lock period expires. When the lock expires, other users can discard any unsaved changes and start editing.

Editing Status

In a draft context, we differentiate between the following editing statuses:

• Unchanged/active version
  • If all mandatory fields have been filled, and the entries are consistent in the business context, the user can save the entity as an “active” version. In other words, the changes are written into the database in the backend system.
  • “Unchanged” is the default status for a saved entity that no one is working on. There is no special indicator for this status on the screen. However, if you offer Editing Status as a filter, the user can filter for all entities that have no draft available. The filter in that case is called Unchanged.
• Draft
  • A user’s own draft is tagged as Draft. The editing status to filter for a user’s own drafts is called Own Draft.
• Locked
  • If a user is editing a business entity, it is locked for other users. The object remains locked until the user has finished editing or until the locking time has passed. The editing status to filter for locked entities is called Locked by Another User.
• Unsaved changes
  • If the locking time has expired, other users can see that there are unsaved changes by the person who edited the object The editing status to filter for unsaved entities by other users is called Unsaved Changes by Another User.

The sap.m.objectMarker was developed to express the technical status of an object. The user name cannot be represented with the object marker.

For more information about the sap.m.objectMarker, see the article on object display elements.

Behavior and Interaction

When a user creates a new business entity or edits an existing one, it remains in Draft state until the user saves it.

The following interaction flow shows how the draft concept helps users to create and edit new business entities.

Create and Edit

Global Edit Flow

In the global edit flow, there is only one Edit button on the main page. This button changes every linked subpage to edit mode. Users can navigate between the main page and subitems, or between individual subitems, without saving the changes explicitly. Navigating between items does not generate a success message confirming that the user’s draft was saved.

When the user switches to edit mode, the main page no longer shows the Edit button. Instead, two buttons are shown prompting the user to either cancel or activate/save the changes.

When the user leaves edit mode, display a success message confirming whether or not the draft was saved.

The saving indicator is placed in the toolbar on the main page and on subitems.

Select Multiple Items – Master List

Resume Editing

Activate/Save

Save action – outdated draft

If the lock time expires due to a user’s inactivity, and another user starts editing in the meantime, display the following message:

Type: Error

Title: Error

Message text:

[Object] cannot be saved. A more recent version is available. Any changes you didn’t save were discarded.

Button: Close

Cancel Editing

Guidelines

How to Display the Editing Status

In most controls the editing status is clickable and provides access to additional information related to the draft, such as when the draft was created or who the owner of a draft is. Clicking the status opens a responsive popover that displays all relevant information.

Controls That Display the Editing Status

Tables

If you need to indicate the editing status of a business entity in a responsive table, place a link below the key information. Use sapUiTinyMarginTop to align the information in a responsive table.

If you need to indicate the editing status of a business entity in a non-responsive table, such as an analytical table, tree table, or grid table, provide an extra column for that information and place a transparent button inside. Name the column header Editing Status. The column should be placed after the main information on the table.

The editing status has different visualisations, such as icon only, icon and text, or text-only. Choose the one that is the most appropriate. Draft should always be displayed as text-only.

Upload Collection

The upload collection uses the sap.m.objectMarker to display the editing status. The default behavior for the editing status is as follows:

On L/M size:

• Locked and Unsaved Changes are displayed as icons and text, while Draft is displayed as text.

On S size:

• Locked and Unsaved Changes are displayed as icons, while Draft is displayed as text.

Editing Status Popovers

Dimensions

The popover has a minimum height and width to ensure that the size of the dialog does not vary too much between the initial load and the display of information.

Which Information Is Shown

Saving Indicator

When a user adds or changes information within a business entity, an indicator shows the user that these changes have been saved as a draft.

If no changes have been made, nothing is shown.

If the changes could not be saved, do not show an indicator. If necessary, use a message box to inform the user about the issue.

If not enough space is available, do not show an indicator. Also note that the text should not be truncated.

Flexible Column Layout

In the flexible column layout, the saving indicator is always placed in the toolbar of the main page/item. If the users switches to the full-screen view of the subitem, the saving indicator is located in the toolbar of the subitem.

States

There are two different states:

State 1: Saving draft …

Display state 1 after every content change that triggers a background save (draft). State 1should be shown for at least 1.5 seconds.

State 2: Draft saved

Display state 2 after the draft has been saved. State 2 should also be shown for at least 1.5 seconds.

Bookmarking and Deep Linking

A page of an application that is not its entry page can be bookmarked or shared as a deep link. Ideally, the full UI state of the page will be retrieved. Technically this includes every part that is represented in the URL. For more information, see the article on deep linking.

Bookmarking a draft

If a bookmark is called for an entity that was bookmarked while in draft state, open the entity in edit mode.

If the bookmark relates to an entity that no longer exists due to an action that triggered its deletion, such as Save or Discard, or if it is not accessible, display an empty page.

Message text:

The [entity] is no longer available.
[App name as link]

If a user shares a link to an entity with another user, the other user will be taken to the display view of the entity. If a different user’s draft exists, the page shows the appropriate editing status, such as Locked by [user name].

Deep Linking

Filtering

The table in a worklist is filtered by the properties defined by the app (by default) or by the user. Draft objects are filtered by the same criteria. If those properties are empty in the draft entity, the item will not match the criteria and will not be shown.

The table can also be filtered by Editing Status with the following values:

Grouping

The table in a work list is grouped by the properties defined by the app (by default) or by the user. Draft entities are grouped accordingly. If the property is empty in the draft entity, this creates a group of its own, which appears at the top of the table.

Follow this guideline for empty properties:

[Filter criteria]: Not Defined

Actions and Messaging

The editing status of an entity also has implications for any actions the user executes:

• Locked items can never be edited, updated, or deleted.
• Update actions cannot be applied to a user’s own draft.
• Users can delete their drafts and any objects for which the lock expired.

If your app offers mass actions with multiple selection, you may also need to consider potential conflicts – some actions may not be feasible if only some of the selected items can be processed. The sections below outline the different use cases and corresponding user messages.

Message Handling

We distinguish between edit, update, and delete actions:

• Edit: Open an object in edit mode.
• Update: Trigger changes to the latest active version, such as Post and Approve.
• Delete: Remove from the database.

Message Patterns – Actions for a Single Item

User attempts to DELETE …

… a locked item

Type: Error

Title: Error

Message text:

User name known:

[entity] cannot be deleted. It is currently locked by:
[clickable user name]

User name unknown:

[entity] cannot be deleted. It is currently locked by another user.

Button: Close

… an item with unsaved changes by another user

Type: Warning

Title: Delete

Message text:

User name known:

Another user edited this [entity] without saving the changes:
[clickable user name]

Delete anyway?

User name unknown:

Another user edited this [entity] without saving the changes. Delete anyway?

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

User attempts to EDIT …

… a locked item:

Type: Error

Title: Error

Message text:

User name known:

[entity] cannot be edited. It is currently locked by:
[clickable user name]

User name unknown:

[entity] cannot be edited. It is currently locked by another user.

Button: Close

User attempts to UPDATE …

… a locked item

Type: Error

Title: Error

Message text:

User name known:

[entity] cannot be [action]. It is currently locked by:
[clickable user name]

User name unknown:

[entity] cannot be [action]. It is currently locked by another user.

Button: Close

… an item with unsaved changes by another user

Type: Warning

Title: Warning

Message text:

User name known:

Another user edited this [entity] without saving the changes:
[clickable user name]

If you [action] this [entity], those changes will be lost.

User name unknown:

Another user edited this [entity] without saving the changes. If you [action] this [entity], those changes will be lost.

Buttons: [Action] | Cancel

Message Patterns – Actions for Multiple Items

The following message patterns apply to multi selection cases. In case the user selects one item of one type show the entity name instead, e.g.

Locked items + 1 item with unsaved changes:

Message text:

2 of 3 sales orders are currently locked by other users and cannot be deleted.

Sales order 12345 has unsaved changes. Delete anyway?

 Buttons: Delete | Cancel

Locked items + 2 or more items with unsaved changes:

Message text:

2 of 4 sales orders are currently locked by other users and cannot be deleted.

2 sales orders have unsaved changes.

Do you still want to delete the sales orders with unsaved changes? 

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

User attempts to DELETE …

… locked items and active/draft items

Type: Warning

Title: Delete

Message text:

Short text:

X of Y [entities] are currently locked by other users and cannot be deleted.

Do you still want to delete the remaining n [entities]?

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, e.g. ID and Description plus  information who locks  each item.

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

… locked items and items with unsaved changes

Type: Warning

Title: Delete

Message text:

Short text:

X of Y [entities] are currently locked by other users and cannot be deleted.

n [entities] have unsaved changes.

Do you still want to delete the [entities] with unsaved changes?

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who is locking each item/ has unsaved changes.

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

… locked, unsaved changes and active/ draft items

Type: Warning

Title: Delete

Message text:

Short text:

X of Y [entities] are currently locked by other users and cannot be deleted.

Do you still want to delete the remaining n [entities]?

[checkbox] Also delete [entities] with unsaved changes

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who is locking each item/ has unsaved changes.

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

… items with unsaved changes

Type: Warning

Title: Delete

Message text:

Short text:

Other users have edited the selected products without saving the changes.

Delete anyway?

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who is locking each item/ has unsaved changes.

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

… items with unsaved changes and active/ draft items

Type: Warning

Title: Delete

Message text:

Short text:

X of Y [entities] are currently locked by other users and cannot be deleted.

n [entities] have unsaved changes.

Do you still want to delete the [entities] with unsaved changes?

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who is locking each item/ has unsaved changes.

Buttons: Delete | Cancel

User attempts to UPDATE …

The following section does not show any example pictures. Please refer to the section before for examples.

… active items

Type: Confirmation

Title: [action] 

Message text:

[action] the selected [entities]?

Buttons: [action] | Cancel

… items with unsaved changes by other users and active items

Type: Warning

Title: Warning

Message text:

Short text:

Some of the [entities] you selected have been edited by other users, but not saved. These changes will be lost.

[checkbox] Also [action] [entities] with unsaved changes

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who has unsaved changes.

Buttons: [action] | Cancel

… user’s own draft and locked items

Type: Error

Title: Error

Message text:

Short text:

The selected [entities] cannot be [action]. They are currently locked, or exist as draft versions.

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who is locking each item and user’s own draft.

Button: Close

… items with unsaved changes and locked items

Type: Warning

Title: Warning

Message text:

Short text:

X of Y [entities] cannot be [action]. They are currently locked, or exist as draft versions.

Do you still want to [action] the remaining n [entities]?

Long text:

Grouped list with entity information, such as ID and description, as well as information on who is locking each item.

Buttons: [action] | Cancel

… items with unsaved changes by other users, user’s own draft and locked items

Type: Warning

Title: Warning

Message text:

Short text:

X of Y [entities] cannot be [action]. They are currently locked, or exist as draft versions.

Do you still want to [action] the remaining n [entities]?

[checkbox] Also [action] [entities] with unsaved changes

Long text:

The following [entities] are currently locked by other users (n):
[entity]
Locked by: [clickable user name]

You have edited the following [entities] without saving the changes (n):[entity]
Save your changes before [action] the [entities].

The following [entities] have been edited by other users, but not saved (n):[entity]
Unsaved changes by: [clickable user name]

Buttons: [action] | Cancel

Resources

Want to dive deeper? Follow the links below to find out more about related controls, the SAPUI5 implementation, and the visual design.