XF 1.2 A New Editor and Much Much More

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:

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:

@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:

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:

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.




Oh yeah, one more thing on the editor, it's fully responsive:

That should be a hint...



So, when are we going to see this all? Well, we're hoping to have 1.2 running here on XenForo.com in early June. The initial beta release will follow, based on how well the time on 1.2 goes. The final release of 1.2 would be wholly dependent on how the beta process goes.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I suggest you start a new thread ion the "Suggestions: Tweaks & Small Features" forum requesting this feature.

I thought I already did myself, but maybe not. (Maybe @Brogan could split off the appropriate posts from here into a Suggestions thread?) Right now we have a small number of members abusing the attachment privilege (basically posting off-topic crap), and we are trying to wean them onto using free image hosts, without removing attachment capabilities entirely. But if it remains as-is, then we have no choice but to get rid of attachments entirely. The auto-upload of pasted images is what I would like a switch for; how it works in 1.1 is actually perfect for our needs.

 

[Martok]

I thought I already did myself, but maybe not. (Maybe @Brogan could split off the appropriate posts from here into a Suggestions thread?)

I've already made the suggestion here

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/change-copy-paste-picture-functionality-in-1-2.54742/

 

[Mark3121]

It's a very simple change that can be added to extra.css:

.redactor_toolbar .redactor_btn_group ul
{
opacity: 1;
filter: alpha(opacity='100');
}

Will disable the faded-out behaviour completely.

I could not get this to disable the fade-out today, maybe something has changed?

 

[Jeremy]

@Mark3121:

CSS is not needed, its a style property:
ACP -> Appearance -> (Style) -> Style Properties -> Rich Text Editor -> [ ] Allow the rich text editor to be faded out

 

[Mark3121]

Dam it!

 

[Jeremy]

However, for those curious the definition changed to this:

                .blendedEditor .redactor_box .redactor_btn_group ul,
                .blendedEditor .redactor_box iframe,
                .blendedEditor .redactor_box .redactor_smilies li
                {
                    opacity: 0.5;
                    transition: opacity 0.3s ease-in-out;
                    -webkit-transition: opacity 0.3s ease-in-out;
                    -moz-transition: opacity 0.3s ease-in-out;
                }

So the selector needs updated to reflect that.

 

[Alien]

If a member is tagged in a private forum that they don't have access to, do they get an alert at all? If yes, what happens?

 

[Paul B]

They won't be alerted if they don't have permission to view the forum.

 

[The Grand Potentate]

Not sure if this has been covered, but in the old editor, if you copy and pasted an entire portion of something that included links and pictures, it would all paste over. Now it seems you can't do that any longer. Is there any way to do something like that with this editor?

 

[Martok]

Not sure if this has been covered, but in the old editor, if you copy and pasted an entire portion of something that included links and pictures, it would all paste over. Now it seems you can't do that any longer. Is there any way to do something like that with this editor?

Yes, you can, as can be seen in the test post I just did on these forums.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/test-copy-and-paste-with-pics-and-links.56504/

Pics and links all copy over as expected. Font type, and colour don't copy across but that's a blessing really.

 

[The Grand Potentate]

Yes, you can, as can be seen in the test post I just did on these forums.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/test-copy-and-paste-with-pics-and-links.56504/

Pics and links all copy over as expected. Font type, and colour don't copy across but that's a blessing really.

Weird. Maybe it was the specific website I was copying from?

 

[fury]

• 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.

Actually, a user of my forum was depending on that feature in order to properly update his thread - he keeps it colored & formatted and such in Word. Is there a way to turn that feature back on?

 

[Digital Doctor]

I think it's pretty amazing how easy it was for Xenforo to switch editors.

 

[Pygmalion2008]

Im having issues with my users not being able to see the new Redactor editor in the posts or quick reply. They complain that when using IE (9 and newer), or Firefox (all latest versions), the editor is not visible. I have confirmed this. I can make the editor visible when using compatibility mode in IE10, but not in Firefox. Im on Xenforo 1.2

 

[whynot]

Im having issues with my users not being able to see the new Redactor editor in the posts or quick reply. They complain that when using IE (9 and newer), or Firefox (all latest versions), the editor is not visible. I have confirmed this. I can make the editor visible when using compatibility mode in IE10, but not in Firefox. Im on Xenforo 1.2

I can see the editor here on this forum and on my own forum using IE10 and FF 23.0.1
Did you try to disable your addons?

 

[Pygmalion2008]

I can see the editor here on this forum and on my own forum using IE10 and FF 23.0.1
Did you try to disable your addons?

Im not having the problem, some of my users are. My website forums are here: http://www.gatefans.net/gforums. When I sign in using Internet Exploder 10 (I hate IE), I can only see the editor if I go into compatibility mode, and still it squishes the text next to the login avatar in the sidebar. I disabled all of my advanced addons from before the upgrade from 1.1.4 to 1.2.1, and I just have Taigachat and Xenporta. I also have Ad Manager.

 

[whynot]

I disabled all of my advanced addons from before the upgrade from 1.1.4 to 1.2.1, and I just have Taigachat and Xenporta. I also have Ad Manager.

Disable them and see what happens.
(Provided they are enabled after the upgrade)

 

[estranged]

It's probably because compatibility view is enabled on IE.

 

[Pygmalion2008]

Disable them and see what happens.
(Provided they are enabled after the upgrade)

It's probably because compatibility view is enabled on IE.

Thank you both! Actually, it was because I did not do the pre-upgrade steps here: http://xenforo.com/community/thread...nt-information-and-actions-to-be-taken.56027/

Brogan describes the steps, and this seems to have fixed most of the issues. I had every addon he listed as needing changes. I upgraded my forums before doing any of that.

 

[Bionic Rooster]

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.)

What setting is this under? Can it be set to tag users with only 1 letter in their user name? like @H ?