Basecamp Design Flaw #743: File Versioning Is Backwards

San Francisco: I have been using Basecamp to manage all sorts of project information (while waiting for something better to come along, like Workstreamr), and I encountered yet another backwards design decision.

I attached an image to a Basecamp ‘message’ (which is really a post, but I will go with their nomenclature). Because Basecamp does not have the option to embed the image in the post, but only to display a thumbnail, I often go through an added step to get what I want.

I first save the message with the attachment, and then I move to the Files tab, and copy the URL of the newly uploaded image file (note that I have to get this URL there because the full URL is not available in the post where it is attached). Then I return to the message, open it for editing, and then manually insert the “img src=”URL” HTML into the body of the message.

Initial Image Upload, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Which works fine, up to a point. I mean, it displays as you would expect. However, when I upload a new version of the document (which I can’t do as an attachment to that or any other message, by the way — I have to do so through the File tab), Basecamp makes what I consider to be an error. The new “current” version of the file is renamed “filename-1” while the old, original version of the file remains named “filename”.

Hmmm. I guess I expected the newest “current” version to be called “filename” and the older version to be “filename-1”?

Second Image Uploaded, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Or put another way: I want a URL that resolves to the current version of a versioned document. Yes, at some times I might want to have the absolute URL to a specific instance, like ”-0”, ”-1”, ”-2” and so on, but imagine the following scenario: I post a message, asking people to review an attached document, and to add their comments to the thread at the Basecamp message. A few hours later, I update the document, fixing a few mistakes, and upload a new version of the doc. Shouldn’t the updated version now be attached to the document? At the very least, shouldn’t I be made aware that the file is being versioned, and the other versions should be associated with the post? Here’s what you see:

Post With Versioned File Attachement, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

(In this screen you also see another headache imposed by the design: the link provided in the editing interface is not the full URL. If you want to save the full URL to the file, you have to get it from the File tab.)

I can understand that in some circumstances you might want the original version of a document to be what it associated with a post, but there certainly should be the option to display all the versions of a file. And I maintain that in many cases, users would want the most current version of a file to be accessed by the URL associated with a versioned file. And that is simple not possible with Basecamp’s current implementation.

Once again, the loosey-goosey, slapdash approach to integrating the features of the various elements in the Basecamp system — here, files and ‘messages’ — leads to a collection of cumulative annoyances, like a papecut inside a papercut.