Edit hotspots with someone else at the same time

The short answer

Two people can work on the hotspots of one panorama at the same time, and both keep their work. The Hotspots tab saves only what you changed, hotspot by hotspot and field by field, and Panoramr adds it to what is stored now, so a change by someone else is not overwritten. Only when you both changed the same thing of the same hotspot does the editor stop and ask you which one to keep. Undo takes back your own changes and leaves alone a hotspot someone else has changed since.

Who can edit

The tour's owner, and a collaborator whose role includes the Hotspots tab: Editor and Admin, unless you changed the roles on Client Workspaces. Saving a hotspot also needs Panoramas Tab, which both roles have by default. A Viewer cannot open the tab. See Invite collaborators to a tour and set their role.

The hotspots belong to the panorama, not to the tour. Two people in two different tours that show the same panorama are editing the same hotspots, and the same rules apply. So are you in two browser windows: each window keeps its own copy.

How a change is saved

There is no Save button on the Hotspots tab. Half a second after your last change, the editor sends what changed since its last save:

• the hotspots you added, the fields you changed in a hotspot (with the value you had seen), and the hotspots you deleted;
• which hotspots this tour hides, and the tour's starting view (Set Initial View).

Panoramr then puts your change into the list as it is stored now:

Each save brings back what the other person saved in the meantime, so their work appears on your screen with your next change. Until then your screen shows the hotspots as they were when you last saved: reload the page to see the latest.

A save also refreshes the copy of every tour that shows the panorama, unless the tour has Draft Workflows on: its visitors see the change after Publish changes. See My changes do not show for visitors.

When your change and another meet

Conflict list

A box over the panorama appears when a save meets a conflict.

Where: Over the top of the picture on the Hotspots tab. What it does: It says Someone else changed this while you were editing it. (Someone else changed 2 of these while you were editing them. for more than one) and Your other changes are saved. For each one, keep yours or take theirs. The hotspots that wait are ringed in apricot on the panorama. Each row of the box names the hotspot (click the name to select it) and says what happened: changed by someone else too (you both changed the same thing), deleted by someone else (you changed it, and the other person deleted it) or you deleted it, and someone else changed it. Everything else you change is saved while the box is open. A hotspot that waits is not sent until you choose. What visitors see: Nothing changes for them until you choose and the save has gone through.

Keep mine

Your change is laid over theirs and saved.

Where: A button on each row of the conflict list box. What it does: Their changes to other fields of the same hotspot stay. For a hotspot they deleted, yours comes back; for one you deleted, it is deleted. What visitors see: Your version.

Take theirs

Your change to that hotspot is dropped.

Where: A button on each row of the conflict list box. What it does: Their version shows on your screen, and your change to that hotspot is thrown away. What visitors see: Their version.

Undo and someone else's work

Undo and redo

Take back your own changes.

Where: Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac) or the button at the top left of the picture; redo is Ctrl+Shift+Z (⌘⇧Z) or Ctrl+Y. What it does: Each panorama has its own history of your last 100 steps, kept until you leave the page. A run of the same change (moving a slider, pressing an arrow key) is one step. A step only takes back your own change. When someone else has changed that hotspot since, undo leaves it as it is and says Someone else has changed that since, so it was left as it is. (or Someone else has changed 2 of those since, so they were left as they are.). The rest of the step is undone. What visitors see: The undone state, once it is saved.

Who else is here

Live presence

A line over the picture that says who else has the panorama open.

Where: The bottom left of the picture on the Hotspots tab, only where Panoramr has live presence switched on. It is a setting of the servers, off unless we turn it on, so you may never see it. We have not tried it with a real second person for this page. What it does: Reads <name> is editing “<hotspot>”. or <name> is looking at this panorama. for each other person on the same panorama, and your editor then fetches their saves at once instead of at your next save. Saving does not depend on it: with it off, or when the connection to it is down, every save still brings the others' work in. What visitors see: Nothing.

Leaving the page

A change still waiting for its half second is sent when you open another panorama, and when you reload the page or close the tab: the browser finishes that request by itself. Text you typed in a box that you have not left yet goes with it. When you come back to the page with the browser's Back button, the editor fetches what was saved since.

Limits

Pictures pasted into a hotspot's text take up the most room. Put them in the Asset Library and add them with Browse instead.

Troubleshooting

A red message says Could not save: no connection. Your changes are kept here and go with the next one. The browser could not reach Panoramr. Your change stays on screen. Once you are online again, make any change, and everything waiting is saved with it.

Could not save: you may not change this panorama. Your role on the tour does not include Panoramas Tab, or you were taken off the tour. Ask the owner to give you the Editor or Admin role.

Could not save: the server refused the change. Reload the page and make the change again. If it happens again, write to moc.rmaronap@tcatnoc.

The box asks about a hotspot nobody else touched. You have the tour open in another window, or in another tour that shows the same panorama, and changed it there. Choose Keep mine or Take theirs, then close the window you no longer use.

Undo does nothing to a hotspot. Someone else changed it after your step, and the message says so. Change it back by hand.

My colleague's changes are not on my screen. They come in with your next save. Reload the page to see them now.