Tutorial:Stable page versus draft
The outside world (including not-logged-in 'allowedusers') can only see the stable page version of a Statistics Explained article, sometimes also called quality page. The content of this page was validated in an approval procedure.
A new page or the edited and saved version of a stable page is a draft version. It can be turned into a stable page by the double procedure of 'sighting' by the director (for new articles) or an editor of a Unit (for updates) and validation by the Dissemination unit. The only exception to this is a new page which has never yet been unit-sighted and validated: in this case the (last) draft version which has been saved is shown, as default, in the absence of any stable page to display. A new page which has only been unit-sighted and not yet validated by the Dissemination unit, is not shown at all to the outside world, neither as a stable page nor as a draft (a search 'GO' for the page name results in 'This page does not exist').
In the case of new pages it may be important not to show the draft version, but an 'empty' page with just the page name and the structure to be filled with content.
This can be done in the following way:
- create the page in the normal way (type the name in 'search', click 'Go' and then 'Create this page';
- load the appropriate Model from the Boilerplate (for a Statistical article or Background article, choose 'Statistical article'; for Glossary pages, choose either 'General concept', 'Statistical concept', 'Statistical indicator', 'Statistical indicator', 'Survey' or 'Nomenclature' - it does not matter terribly which one of these is taken, they are very similar);
- have this empty version unit-sighted and validated;
- then start working in it, any saved version now will be a draft not visible to non-logged-in viewers (the empty model will be displayed);
- when the new page is final, have this unit-sighted and validated, to become the stable page.
For new pages for which this has not be done when they were started and which now have a draft with content that is not yet final and ready to be displayed, this can be done in a similar way:
- go into edit draft (= last saved version of the draft) and copy the whole content;
- load the Model and save it (empty);
- paste in the copied content and save this;
- have the empty Model version unit-sighted and validated, this becomes then the stable version.
Important remark
A draft is never totally blocked from outside view - this is not possible using Mediawiki, anyone can in principle see all pages. But to viewers who are not logged in the 'Draft', 'Edit draft' or 'History' buttons are not visible - so only very experienced users knowing the syntax of the url would be able to access a draft version; or, somewhat more likely, they could stumble upon it via Google.
But outsiders seeing drafts is not really a security or confidentiality issue, any draft version has very clearly 'In construction' on top. It implies, however, that unreleased, embargoed or confidential data should never be displayed in Statistics Explained, not even in the draft version!