[Feature Request] Do not force start and end dates

[codebude]

Quoted from @DawidGardzinski in the original issue Feedback after 1-2 weeks of using Libris (#78).

It should be possible to leave the start date empty for "currently reading" books and the end date empty for "read" books. A user may know that they have finished a book without knowing exactly when, or know that they are currently reading it without remembering exactly when they started.

Books without these dates could simply be omitted from the timeline.

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Author: @DawidGardzinski
Original issue: #78

[codebude]

Books without these date fields would not only have to be removed from the timeline but also from the statistics. I made these fields required because I believe it happens more often that a user forgets to enter the dates (and then wonders why the books don't show up in the timeline and the statistics) than that a user deliberately – like you – leaves the date fields empty.

I see two ways to solve this:

1. If no date is maintained, we show a warning popup in the future and ask whether the date should be set (instead of setting it automatically in the background).
2. We keep the automatic setting of the dates as it is today, but add a new setting in the Settings (either per user in the user profile, or for everyone in the admin area) where you can configure whether the dates should be set automatically or not.

@DawidGardzinski Just adding you here so you see my reply – looking forward to your take on this.

[DawidGardzinski]

A warning modal sounds like a really good solution, because it preserves the functionality for the user if they forget to fill in the fields, while at the same time not forcing them to do so - for example, when adding a book they read or started reading earlier but don’t know the exact date.

It might also be worth considering what happens if I only know the month and year, or just the year.

[codebude]

Hi @DawidGardzinski ,

I decided to not go for additional popups, as they disturb the flow and really fast get annoying. I added a new user setting in #104 where you can decide if you want to auto-set the dates when changig a reading status or not.