Sources
Docs: Personal, Primary, Publishing, Pinging, and Peeking Web App: Open People in Ponder. View mode (Active Participation Mode) is its mode’s icon in the Ponder header. Its menu lists Publishing (Make edits), Pinging (Comment) and Peeking (Read only). Without the Ponder column, it leads the Release and Refresh group at the Parable’s top right, as its mode’s icon and name. Both open the same menu.Story
A Parable is Personal or saves Published Versions. Personal is not a mode you choose: it means only you so far, and you edit it directly. Adding someone switches it to Published Versions. The state decides where edits are saved. Your responsibility still determines which actions you may perform. Active Participation Mode describes how you are working right now: Publishing, Pinging, or Peeking. It can reduce the controls on screen without changing your responsibility or granting access.Structure
Personal and Published Versions
The Parable’s icon is its Home Page’s icon and saves the same way. In Personal mode a
new icon applies at once. With Published Versions it is saved in your Changes, shows
there, and reaches every reader when you publish them. A Parable published from
elsewhere keeps the original’s icon.
New composed Parables start Personal. A Personal Parable opens in Publishing when its
address names no mode, so its Primary edits it in place: edits save directly to the Parable. The
participation control at the Parable’s top right shows as on every Parable, with
Peeking, Pinging and Publishing; Personal is not one of its choices, and choosing a
mode only changes how you work, never the Parable. The Release control stays
hidden. A Refresh needs a Release: before its first Release, a Personal Parable’s
Refresh menu shows Refresh refused with the reason. After a Publish, the menu
offers the Refresh actions, which run the Newest Release, and Cancel Refresh
while one runs.
Adding someone switches a Personal Parable to Published Versions. The moment a seat
names anyone besides the Primary, a person, a Role or a Workspace, the server switches
it in the same save, and that person can start their own set of Changes at once. It
publishes no Version and sends no Ping, and nothing switches it back when people leave.
Ponder’s Switch Collaboration mode between Personal and Publishing tool also switches it, for a Primary
who wants Changes and Versions before anyone joins. Only a person with Primary can
switch the Collaboration Mode. A person with Publishing, Pinging or Peeking who
asks gets an answer that names their own participation and tells them to ask a
person with Primary. The tool also refuses a Pocketed Parable, and says
that only Parable staff can Restore a Parable that they Pocketed. It refuses a
Parable built into the platform, which changes only with a platform release.
Neither switch starts a set of
Changes. A set starts at a person’s first change, at Start Changes, or at an edit
Ponder makes in a Problem. Only Parable staff choose which Workspaces get the
Parable, in Admin. Primary or Publishing alone does not let a person choose them.
The web app has no control that returns a Parable to Personal, but Ponder’s
Switch Collaboration mode between Personal and Publishing tool does. The return keeps the Parable’s content and removes
the other participants. Open
Changes are pocketed so their work is retained. Saved Versions and existing Workspace
copies remain available; the return does not withdraw earlier publishes. A Workspace or
Role that holds Primary must first assign a Person as Primary before returning to
Personal.
The People icon is people in both modes. With Published Versions, you can hold
several Patches, one for each Problem. The authoring view never starts a Patch
by itself. When you hold Primary or Publishing and open the Parable with an
address that names no mode, no Release or Patch and no Problem, it opens the
Pending or Proposed Patch that you started and changed last, in Publishing.
A Pocketed Patch does not count. With no such Patch, it opens the newest
Release. When you open another Problem in Ponder, the Patch it holds opens too, a
colleague’s included. A published Patch, or someone else’s pocketed Patch, does not
open. Earlier Releases remain explicit readings,
and the selector never offers a No Changes entry.
A set of Changes has one author: the person who started it. The author never
changes, and the set always shows the author’s name. A set in a Problem that a
person started is shared by the people who work in that Problem. You share it
when both of these are true:
- Your participation on the Parable is Publishing or Primary, after your Active Participation Mode narrows it.
- You can see the Problem that holds the set.
Publish as Major Version
Each Publish makes a new Release number. The first Release is 1.0, and each later Publish raises the minor number, such as 1.0 to 1.1. Publish as Major Version raises the major number instead, such as 1.1 to 2.0. It is in the menu beside Publish on a Proposed Patch, for a person who may publish that Patch. It shows only when the Parable has published at least once, because the first Release is always 1.0. A copy takes its Release numbers from its source Parable, so the menu does not show it there, and the server refuses it.Files in a composed Parable
Artifacts are shared files outside the Piece publication flow. In Personal and Published Versions modes, an upload, rename, font copy, deletion, or restore takes effect immediately. The change enters no Patch and needs no Publish. All Releases and Problems in this Workspace use the same file set. Choosing an older Release does not restore earlier files. Anyone with Primary, Publishing, Pinging, or Peeking who can open the composed Parable can list and download every file, including one that no released Pane uses. Pane Policies do not narrow file access. A person with Primary or Publishing can change files. A Pocketed composed Parable keeps them read-only. Files stay in this Workspace when a Release is deployed elsewhere.Choose Active Participation Mode
In the menu, point at a mode, or move to it with the arrow keys, to see what it does.
A mode that your responsibility does not allow is dimmed. Its tooltip names the
participations that the mode takes and the one you hold, such as “Publishing mode takes
Publishing or Primary. You hold Pinging.” On a touch screen, tap a dimmed mode to see its
tooltip.
Peeking shows the Parable with no section tabs. A Platform Parable’s view still
shows. Pinging and Publishing show the
same tabs: Pieces, and Problems and People when your responsibility
allows them. Problems needs Pinging responsibility or above, and in Pinging,
People is read-only. Without Ponder permission there is no Ponder column and no
View mode menu: the reader stays in Peeking (PARABLE-8746). Ponder is staff-only
in a Workspace for now. Switching between Pinging and
Publishing keeps the tab you are on. Switching to Peeking opens the Parable.
Personal is not a participation choice. A Personal Parable reads the mode its address
names, as any Parable does, and opens in the fullest mode your participation allows when
it names none: Publishing for its Primary. In Publishing, its Primary edits the Parable
directly until someone else is seated.
In Peeking and Pinging, the bottom editor drawer of a Page or Pane is hidden. A
Plot keeps its SQL on screen, read-only, above its Results, History and Details
tabs. An open document that cannot be changed shows one read-only badge in its
panel header, with the reason in its tooltip and accessible name; in these two
modes the badge names the mode, such as Peeking, not Publishing. A Plot’s
badge sits on the band of its tabs, folded or open. Code editors keep that
explanation for screen readers without repeating it below the code.
A copy shows its Pages and Panes in Publishing mode with the editor drawer, also
after it takes a Release. The drawer is read-only on a locked copy. On a copy with
Forking on, Start Changes opens a Patch, as on any Parable.
A Refresh needs a Release in every Collaboration Mode. A seat
that may work in Publishing sees the Refresh actions in every participation mode, and choosing one from
Peeking or Pinging moves to Publishing before it runs. Choosing a set of Changes in the
Release menu does the same. A seat that cannot work in Publishing sees no Refresh actions:
it reads Releases, Refreshes and every set of Changes that is not pocketed, read-only.
View as shows the same for the person viewed: no Refresh actions and none of your
pocketed sets.
Every participation choice remains visible in its dropdown. An unavailable choice
explains which responsibility it needs. Primary and Publishing actors can choose all
three; Pinging actors can choose Pinging or Peeking; Peeking actors can choose Peeking.
Security
Participation mode only narrows. The server independently checks Workspace access, Parable responsibility, and the requested action. A wider mode cannot grant a permission or reveal a protected Parable. In a mode below your responsibility, a Page’s Panes show what that mode’s responsibility can do. In Peeking, a Publishing author sees a Page’s controls as a Peeking participant does: a control that shares a setting with the Parable, such as creating a category, is unavailable: the Pane hides it or shows it disabled. A Pane that shows it disabled can say “Switch to Publishing to change this.” because it is told what your own responsibility allows (seatCapabilities).
The server refuses such a change. Your own settings still save. Data reads stay at
your responsibility.
Stability
Every open starts in the fullest mode your participation allows: Publishing for Primary and Publishing, Pinging for Pinging, and Peeking for Peeking. With Primary or Publishing, the open lands on your newest open Patch when you have one. Otherwise it shows the Release in Publishing. Publishing starts no Patch: a Patch starts at your first change. A mode that you choose in the menu is kept in the address (mode) while you stay on the
page, so Back and a move inside the Parable keep it. A new open or a reload starts again
in the fullest mode. A missing or invalid choice opens in the fullest mode, and a choice
above your participation is clamped to the fullest mode you hold. The same rule applies
to a Personal Parable, a Workspace copy, and Admin. View as shows the person in the
fullest mode that their participation allows. A Parable
created or picked while the address says Peeking drops the mode and opens in its own
default.
In View as, the address names the preview. The page reads the Parable as the person you
view: their participation, their modes and their actions. Back and a move inside the
Parable keep the preview. A reload, a new open, or the end of the preview opens the page
as you again.
Returning to Personal retains work rather than merging someone else’s pending Changes
into the Parable. Turn Published Versions on again to reach pocketed work through the
normal history controls.
Deleting a file hides it from Artifacts. It retains the file and its checked
bytes indefinitely. Existing Page, Pane, image, video, and font references
continue to work, including after a reload and after the Undo offer ends.
No composed Parable file is physically removed for now. The short Undo offer
returns a file to discovery. An eligible retained file can also be restored
later. Optional file versioning in Published Versions is a separate follow-up.