Reliability: saving and recovery
What is this about?
In short: Illumentis saves your text while you write, notices conflicts instead of overwriting something, and keeps deleted items in the trash first. That is not a promise against data loss, so your own export is a sensible backup.
Protection goal
Text and worldbuilding data should not be lost through dropped connections, simultaneous changes, operating mistakes or unnoticed damage.
How it works
- Saving: The editor saves automatically, in batches and locally first. A dropped connection does not cost you text.
- Version check: Every change to a chapter states which state it builds on. If this does not match the state on the server, the change is not accepted silently but reported as a conflict.
- Conflict dialog: In case of a conflict, you decide: save your version as a branch, merge passages, or discard your version. Nothing is chosen automatically.
- Trash: Deleted content first goes to the trash and can be restored. It is only deleted permanently afterwards, and only what was not restored in the meantime.
Measures
- We do not allow silent overwriting, so that two people or devices working at the same time do not erase anything.
- We recognize repeated requests after a dropped connection so that nothing is processed twice.
- We put deleted items in the trash first, so that an operating mistake can be undone.
- We have checked restoring from a backup and not only creating the backup.
- You can export your projects and take them with you. That is a backup that is in your hands.
What we do not promise
- We do not promise that nothing is ever lost. Errors, outages and operating mistakes cannot be ruled out.
- A browser can delete locally stored data. A personal export therefore remains sensible.
- Automatic, regular backups of the server are planned for production and are not running in the beta yet. Until then, your own export is the backup you can rely on.
- The trash does not keep deleted items indefinitely.
How we check this
Saving and the trash have automated tests, which the table below names. The “Race Conditions” scenario is in the monthly report.
Evidence tests
| Test | What the test proves |
|---|---|
ChapterContentSaveRaceConditionTest |
Saving the same chapter at the same time does not overwrite anything silently. |
OfflineSyncIdempotencyTest |
If a response is not received after saving, retrying does not lead to double processing. |
TrashHardPurgeFunctionalTest |
Permanent deletion affects only what is in the trash and was not restored in the meantime. |
ProjectCentralTrashTest |
A project’s central trash shows deleted content. |
Change history
- : First version.