More and more teams are using DatoCMS to build their dream projects, but we realized how useful and transparent collaboration tools were still missing. For this reason, we worked tirelessly on improving the user experience when multiple editors are editing the same project.
It's one of the most significant updates to DatoCMS in recent months. Take a look at our walkthrough video, or just keep reading if you want all the nitty-gritty details.
Presence indicators
The first building block of our collaboration tools is the new presence indicator. When you open a record, you will be notified if another user is present and he's already looking at it. The presence indicator updates in real-time, so you will be notified immediately when another user is editing the record without the need of refreshing the page.
Record locking
As soon as someone starts working on a record, they acquire an exclusive lock and DatoCMS makes sure that no other user can edit the same record at the same time, avoiding potential loss of data.
A user who enters a record being edited by someone else will be able to see the form, but it will be disabled.
Real-time updates
Everything on DatoCMS now happens in real-time across all users. And we mean everything. Every change you make is now immediately visible to every user, from record creation to asset deletion. It also works flawlessly on schema changes; you can add, edit o reorder fields while others are working on affected records without losing their work!
As you can see, a new box in the model settings page will warn you when someone is editing a record involved by your changes, so you can get a sense of how many people of your team will be impacted by the revision.
Lock release
You can forcefully release someone else's lock if your role on DatoCMS has the permissions to do so. The other user will suddenly see the form disabled and will be kicked out from the editing session. Don't worry about any loss of data on unsaved changes: you can recover the work done by the previous user and start from their unsaved changes.
All the real-time collaboration features are online right now, and are enabled on the Advanced and Ultimate plans: check them out and let us know if you like them!