Track updatedBy User on Document Updates

[PatrikKozak]

Track updatedBy User on Document Updates

This feature proposes adding an updatedBy field to track which user last modified a document, enabling more intelligent conflict detection and collaborative editing features.

The Problem

Currently, the stale data detection system cannot distinguish between:

• A user's own autosaves (which should not trigger the "Document Modified" modal)
• Changes made by another user (which should trigger the modal)

This limitation requires us to disable stale data checking entirely for autosave-enabled collections and globals, which means users editing the same autosave-enabled document won't be warned when another user has made changes.

Proposed Solution

Add an updatedBy field that tracks which user last updated the document. The stale data check would then compare:

// Only show modal if another user modified the document
if (serverUpdatedBy !== currentUser.id) {
  showStaleDataModal()
}

This allows autosave to work seamlessly while still protecting against concurrent editing conflicts when multiple users are involved.

Additional Use Cases

Tracking updatedBy could also enable:

• Audit trails: Show who made the last change in document lists and detail views
• User-specific autosave recovery: "You have unsaved changes from your previous session"
• Collaborative editing indicators: Show which user is currently editing a document
• Smarter lock expiration: Automatically transfer locks to the user who saved most recently
• Document history attribution: Link version history to specific users without querying logs

Related Issues

This would address:

• Stale data modal appearing incorrectly on autosave - Stale data check is triggered incorrectly across locales #15803
• Potentially other issues related to concurrent editing and autosave conflicts

Status

This is a breaking change planned for v4.0, as it would add a new field to the database schema and require migration for existing documents.

Implementation details:

• Add updatedBy as a system field (similar to updatedAt, createdBy)
• Automatically populate on every update operation
• Include in stale data comparison logic
• Consider making it optional via config for users who don't need this feature

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📢 Feedback Welcome

What other problems could updatedBy tracking solve in your workflows? Are there concerns about performance, privacy, or implementation details? Community input will help shape the final design for v4.