ADR-264: The creating writers create their record new in the workspace 

Context 

ADR-260 and ADR-262 let the writers that change fields of an existing record store a workspace version in the draft workspace a run was started in. The writers that CREATE a record still refused a draft workspace, after the approval card: create_content_element_draft (tt_content), create_page_draft (pages), create_record_draft (any table without a writer of its own), attach_file_to_content_element and attach_file_to_record (a sys_file_reference and the parent's field). set_page_social_image and replace_file_reference create a reference too, and delete the one it replaces.

Measured on 2026-11-05 against TYPO3 14.3.10 with a backend user in a draft workspace, the DataHandler started with that user:

• a new record is one row new in the workspace: t3ver_wsid the workspace, t3ver_state 1, t3ver_oid 0, the pid of the page or of the record it is placed after (DataHandler::process_datamap(), the $createNewVersion branch; resolveSortingAndPidForNewRecord() and getSortNumber() place it after a live element or one new in the workspace, and after a moved element where the workspace shows it);
• the permission to create on a page is asked of the STORED row the pid names, BackendUtility::getRecord('pages', $pid) — the live row of a page with a version, the row itself of a page new in the workspace — not of the overlay (13.4.37 and 14.3.10);
• a delete of a row new in the workspace discards it: the row is removed (DataHandler::deleteAction() → discard()); a delete of a live reference stores a delete placeholder (t3ver_state 2);
• a new file reference of a parent with a version, or new in the workspace, is related to the parent's LIVE uid, and the parent's version counts it;
• versioning a parent versions its inline children, and RelationHandler::writeForeignField() writes tstamp and sorting_foreign 1..n onto the LIVE child rows by uid (14.3.10 and 13.4.37, the update at the end of the method). The live order stays, and an editor's own save in the workspace does the same;
• a datamap that names the parent's existing references by their live uids writes the new order onto those live rows and leaves the versions' order: a new reference then does not come last in the workspace. Named by the versions' uids, it comes last and live keeps its rows;
• discarding a parent's version discards its children's versions and the references new under it;
• where the sort order of a page has no room for the new record — it goes first and the first record sorts below 1, or the record after its anchor sorts at most one above it, rows new in any workspace counted — DataHandler::increaseSortingOfFollowingRecords() renumbers sorting of every row on the page with t3ver_oid 0, live rows and rows new in any workspace alike (14.3.10 and 13.4.37, called from getSortNumber()). An editor's own create in the workspace does the same. Versions are left where they were, and the workspace overlay takes the version's sorting: measured on 14.3.10 with the anchor at 256, the next element at 257 and that element's version at 257, the new element got 512, the live next element 769 — and in the workspace the new element came after the next element instead of after its anchor.

Decision 

The five creating writers create in the run's workspace. Like the field writers they refuse a draft workspace only where the run did not record it, name the workspace on the card and end their answer with "Stored as a draft in the workspace …". Everything around the write looks at the records as the workspace shows them, through CreatesRecordsInTheRunsWorkspaceTrait:

• the page, the parent page, the anchor element or page, the content element or record a file is attached to: the live row overlaid with its version, or a row new in that workspace; never another workspace's row, and not one deleted in the workspace;
• the page permission is asked of the stored row, as core asks it; for a record a file is attached to that the workspace moved to another page, of both pages — core asks the update of the record on the page its stored row is on, and the new reference's insert on the page it moved to;
• the read-back reads the row new in the workspace;
• the duplicate warnings of the two draft tools look at live rows and the rows of that workspace, each as the workspace shows it: deleted, moved away or renamed there is no copy. The connected-translation check of create_content_element_draft counts live rows and the rows of that workspace — not another workspace's drafts;
• a rollback deletes the new row, which core discards.

A file reference goes onto the parent's version, made first. The attach writers make the parent's version with its own version command before the datamap, then name the field with the uids of the references' rows in the workspace. A write that fails — refused, not read back, or thrown — discards the version it made, and with it the reference; where the parent already had a version, or is new in the workspace, the reference is deleted and the field list put back. The workspace is as it was, and where that does not happen the answer says so. Whether the version is this call's is read from the DataHandler's own copy map: a version somebody else made in the meantime is never discarded.

The attach writers ask what core asks before it updates the parent. Making a version asks only the table grant and "show page" (versionizeRecord()); the update of the parent then asks checkRecordEditAccess() of its stored row — language, authMode values such as the content type, edit lock — and the discard of a version asks the same. A user who lacks one of them would get a card, a reference row and a version nobody can take back, and the refusal only after the approval. So the plan asks ActsOnAnExistingRecordTrait's mayEditRecord() of the stored row before the card, in live as in a draft workspace.

A create that finds no room in the sort order is refused, and nothing moves. The creating writers run their datamap through ToolDataHandler with keepSortOrdersInADraftWorkspace(), which

overrides increaseSortingOfFollowingRecords(): in a draft workspace the run leaves the sort order alone and records that it found no room. The record it inserted is deleted again — a row new in a workspace is removed outright — and the call is refused with the reason. Shifting this workspace's versions as well would need a write outside the DataHandler, and the live rows and the other workspaces' drafts would still move. Live runs renumber as before. Moves reach the same renumbering and are not part of this record. Unlike the other refusals of a draft workspace, this one comes after the approval card: whether there is room is known only inside the DataHandler run, from rows of every workspace, which the card does not read.

A table TYPO3 does not version is refused before the card. The five writers implement RefusesBeforeApprovalInterface with refuseUnversionedTableInDraftWorkspace() (ADR-262): create_record_draft and attach_file_to_record for the table the call names, the attach writers for sys_file_reference as well, the two draft tools for tt_content and pages — which a stock TYPO3 versions; the refusal matters where an installation takes that off, or sets versioningWS_alwaysAllowLiveEdit, which 13.4 honours for a versioned table too. A name the TCA does not declare is left to the plan, which refuses it in its own words. The card shows the refusal instead of the change.

The two replacing writers refuse a draft workspace before the card (lifted by ADR-274). set_page_social_image and replace_file_reference delete a reference and handle the copies of its translations; in a workspace each delete has to name the right one of the live uid, the version's uid and the uid of a row new there, or it discards a draft instead of deleting a record. That is not built here. They implement RefusesBeforeApprovalInterface with the live-workspace refusal they gave after the card.

Consequences 

✓ An editor in a draft workspace can let the chat draft a page with content, a record and an image on them; all of it waits in the Workspaces module, and live stays as it was.

✓ In live too, an attach the user's record-level rights do not allow is refused before the card instead of after the approval.

✓ The model can build on its own drafts in that workspace: a page it created there takes an element, an element it created there takes an image and anchors the next element.

✗ Live is not untouched to the byte. Versioning a parent's references writes tstamp and renumbers sorting_foreign on the live reference rows (core, see above). Which references, which files, their content and their order stay as they were; nothing of another workspace is read or shown.

✗ Where a page's sort order has no room at the place asked for — the record goes first and the first record sorts below 1, or the record after the anchor sorts at most one above it — a create in a draft workspace is refused after the approval, where an editor's own create in the workspace succeeds and puts the drafts out of order. The assistant can reach this by itself: each create halves the gap of 256, so the tenth create in a row at the top of a page, or the ninth after the same element, is refused. The rows counted are those of the whole page, across columns and languages, and include other workspaces' new rows, so an editor may see room on the page and still get the refusal. Another place on the page, or room made in live, gets past it.

✗ set_page_social_image and replace_file_reference still write in live only; in a draft workspace the editor has to switch to live for them (lifted by ADR-274).

✗ attach_file_to_record asks the records that hold the record as an inline child (ADR-230) live: where such an owner exists in the workspace only, the call is refused as not found (lifted by ADR-274: the owners are read in the workspace).

✗ sys_file_reference is not marked as written by an AI (MarkAiWrittenRecord marks pages and tt_content), in a workspace as in live.

✗ The connected-translation check of create_content_element_draft counts the rows stored in live and in the workspace without the overlay: a translation deleted there, or a version of one, still counts. It can refuse an element the page would take; it cannot let through one it would not.

✗ The move, copy, delete and translation writers still refuse a draft workspace after the card (lifted by ADR-266).