Future fix Mention autocomplete doesn't work in some cases where the username contains an '@' character

[Steffen]

Affected version

2.1.4

Consider the username M@tze. You can mention him in a post by typing @M@tze. This works fine.

But the autocomplete doesn't work: No suggestions are shown after you type an @ character followed by the first two characters: @M@.

The problem seems to be that XenForo only looks at the part of the username following the last @ character:

var lastAt = text.lastIndexOf(this.options.at);

 

[Kier]

I've looked into this and I think it might be unfixable without introducing new flaws.

I tried to approach the problem by ditching the lastAt principle and instead looking for a username-type regex match at the end of the text selection, but see for yourself the problems that can cause:

View attachment Screen Recording 2019-11-04 at 16.16.54.mov

 

[Kier]

FWIW, this was the code behind that, replacing everything from var lastAt = text.lastIndexOf(this.options.at); up until the final return null;

            var m = text.match(new RegExp('(^|\\s|[\\](,]|--)' + this.options.at + '([^,\\n]{1,14})$'));
            if (m)
            {
                var afterAt = m[2];

                if (!afterAt.match(/\s/) || afterAt.length <= 15)
                {
                    return {
                        text: text,
                        textNode: textNode,
                        start: text.length - afterAt.length - 1,
                        query: afterAt.replace(new RegExp(String.fromCharCode(160), 'g'), ' '),
                        range: selection
                    };
                }
            }

 

[Xon]

@Kier what Discord does is start the user mentions with an @ but write the selected user mention as @example#userid into the text rather than just @example

This approach would better handle usernames which overlap, and remove the need for complex selection logic in the php-side which requires the auto-complete logic and username lookup to exactly match.

And also fix crazy stuff like; [ICODE]@Username[/ICODE] being rendered as [ICODE][USER=58777]@Username[/USER][/ICODE]. Especially if you check username is owned by the user id with the @example#userid format

 

[grisha2217]

Forbid username that contains @

 

[beerForo]

Forbid username that contains @

That's not a "fix" but I do this for another reason. Members often use their emails as usernames and this prevents it.

 

[Steffen]

Someone named |***AC!D***| cannot be tagged either. Not sure if it's exactly the same issue, maybe the Markdown conversion is the cause here.

 

[FTL]

I've looked into this and I think it might be unfixable without introducing new flaws.

I tried to approach the problem by ditching the lastAt principle and instead looking for a username-type regex match at the end of the text selection, but see for yourself the problems that can cause:

View attachment 213178

Damn, that's well broken.

This is essentially the same problem as reserved characters in DOS such as the backslash, so the system sensibly doesn't let you use them. I think an unremovable restriction on @ should be created to disallow names with it since it's a special character. It makes for a confusing username, anyway. Waddya think?

Edit: I didn't realise that I was replying to such an old post, but this still stands as it's fundamental.

 

[Mendalla]

I don't think I have anyone using special characters in their usernames, interestingly, but having lived in the DOS world myself, I tend to avoid them in things like usernames out of habit. I do see it on a couple other boards I hang out on but those don't use XF.

 

[sbj]

I have a Japanese user and it doesn't work there either. FYI.

 

[btmgreg]

Did this ever consider to get fixed? Same problem here has occurred.

 

[badabugs1]

There's the same problem when a user has a space in his username, will it fix this issue too ?

 

[btmgreg]

Any light on this future fix? I personally don't really understand the difference between a bug or a future fix, or a suggestion and a future fix.

Seems to be a place where things just get forgotten about. Same as pages 15 to 24 in bugs. Half aren't even relevant anymore.

 

[Chris D]

Future fix reports are bugs that have no short term solution but ones we would like to fix at some point in the future.

As it happens, this one mostly goes away with a change in editor in a future version.

 

[stromb0li]

That's not a "fix" but I do this for another reason. Members often use their emails as usernames and this prevents it.

What are you guys doing for this? Separate add-on or simply adding @ to the Disallowed text in usernames?

 

[Foxtrek_64]

What are you guys doing for this? Separate add-on or simply adding @ to the Disallowed text in usernames?

You could do a regex filter
This will allow alphanumeric characters only, no special characters. You can add to the list to whitelist whatever you like.

^[a-aA-Z0-9]+$