A New Editor and Much Much More

  • Thread starter logic
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logic

logic

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In the next few days we will be upgrading to xenforo 1.2

I've never hidden my frustrations with XF 1.1's editor (which is based on TinyMCE). In 1.2, we have entirely removed the existing editor and replaced it with a new one based on Redactor:

Untitled



So obviously this looks quite a bit different--and I know plenty of people didn't like the 1.1 editor look--but the functionality is there. So what advantages do we have? Well there are various ones:
  • Much lighter code and faster to load. Redactor depends on jQuery and benefits from that.
  • When pasting, most formatting is removed (though some is kept). However, if you're pasting from one XenForo editor to another (or within the same one), all formatting is maintained.
  • White space is maintained for code tags when pasting from Webkit. This was an annoyance for a number of people here, myself included. :)
  • The overlays are now consistent with overlays elsewhere in XF.
  • Generally, from my perspective, the code is much more adaptable to our needs.
  • A bunch of other things I'm going to detail below...
For the most part, the editor simply shouldn't get in your way so in a sense, you shouldn't actually see much different for the average post.

How about some other bigger changes?

Pasting images
If you use Chrome or Firefox and have an image in your clipboard, you can simply paste it into the editor. It will automatically be uploaded as an attachment if possible. If the upload is successful, this works exactly like uploading an image and then clicking the "full image" button.

Note that in Chrome, the image data must be in your clipboard (such as from pressing print screen). In Firefox, you can either have image data or you can copy a file that's an image and paste that.

Drag and drop uploading
Provided your browser supports it, you can now drag files into the editor to upload them:
Untitled1


@user tagging
While not directly related to the editor change, this is probably the best time to mention it. You can use @Mike style syntax to tag users in a post:
Untitled2


Tagged users will receive an alert when they're tagged.

You can obviously turn off tag alerts, but as an admin, you can also limit the maximum users that can be tagged per message as a permission. (So you could disable it for registered members and only allow premium members to tag, for example.)

Alternative smilie inserting approach
The smilie dropdown really didn't work well with a lot of smilies. Clicking the :) button will now do this:
Untitled3


This is now making a call to get the smilies and lays them out with a template. This opens up the possibility for more organization options (though nothing has changed as of this message).

Auto save drafts
While you are typing a message, every X seconds (currently 60), a draft of your message will be saved. If you reload the page later, your message will be automatically re-shown. Drafts will be automatically pruned over time.
Each draft is associated with a particular piece of content, such as a thread, forum, or conversations. A draft reply that you start working on in thread 1 will not be shown to thread 2 and so forth.

Display if messages have been posted since you started your message
Tied into the auto-saving, when you're writing a reply to a thread, we will check to see if any new messages and display a note if there are. You can then display those new posts without reloading the page.
 
Theoneandonly Z

Theoneandonly Z

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great changes @Logic. hope all works out smoothly
 
clockworx

clockworx

953
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Yea these are great upgrades 4sure !!! I love the new save draft deal,,,o how many times I've lost a page worth the writing only to replace it with a bullish 2 sentences because I could not remember what I said...:android::dead::mask::drowning:.....the new smiles are so easy to use now I have to :stop: myself:clown::sorry::asshat::facepalm::doctor:
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

6,892
313
So much great new stuff it's going to take me some time to get used to it all.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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All these features are now live! :)
How do we thank you adequately for the save draft feature? A cookie is not enough, not even a huge gigantic chocolate chip medible cookie. My old brain will probably get jangled learning more things, but it's good to stretch my brain & try to stay a little ninja.

Ronaldmcninja
 

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