XF 2.2 Text editor and attachment manager improvements

1596357822277.webp
Central to the experience of interacting with forum software is the interface through which visitors will create their content. This is usually done through the text editor and attachment manager, so keeping these systems fresh and inspiring is very important to us.

From the outset, XenForo has employed a rich text editor (RTE) to allow visitors to compose their messages in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) interface, so that bold text is shown emboldened, large text is appropriately large etc., rather than working directly with the underlying BB code in order to take the guesswork out of message editing. We've always built a custom implementation on top of what we consider to be the best-in-class tools, and through the life of the XenForo we have already made major switches to completely new libraries twice, moving from TinyMCE to Redactor and then to Froala.

With XenForo 2.2, we have made another major change to our implementation. We continue to build upon Froala, but we have improved every aspect of our system.

We'd love you to read what we've put down here, but if you're pushed for time...

tl;dr

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Great job, I watched your video but have a few concerns. As a software developer I understand "discoverability" and I'm concerned that when editor tools are out of view they won't be discovered by some of the less tech savvy. The UI presented will require me to make a post to the forum to explain where to find things as it's not discoverable or intuitive. There is a reason Microsoft came up with the Ribbon UI and I think that would be a better option vs. the slim option you chose.
This is why you can customise the button configuration. You can choose which are the most common functions or configure those groups to show as many buttons as you like.
 
Will the editor be changed to look something like here or will it stay as it is?

Also what is that "Shopping" drop-down? Just testing item or something more to come?
1592247949114.webp
 
Will it be possible to set shortcuts to bb codes in the editor for users or not?
For example, for a spoiler to define your shortcut? Or by ourselves and further expand and do manually.
 
The new design looks super out of place compared to the rest of the site. Secondly, I think it's a very bad design choice to have the editor background a completely different color from the background that the content will actually be displayed on. It's already a problem in the current version, although not nearly as bad, as it's a very subtle color change.
 
Great work and I am very glad that you began to develop a video presentation format, if there were still subtitles, it would be generally perfect. We look forward to the new version of the forum!
 
as long as i can keep the quote button on the primary toolbar, i can deal with it :p . here's hoping we would not end up with gutenberg style block editor in v3.

file size information in attachment bar would have been nice but i guess that's kind of useless info for the user. i hope size would be visible in the lighthouse view now. though since nothing has been said about it, i assume it has not changed in 2.2.
 
Last edited:
Will the editor be changed to look something like here or will it stay as it is?

Also what is that "Shopping" drop-down? Just testing item or something more to come?
View attachment 227945
What you’ve seen in the video and screenshots today is mostly the final version.

That screenshot is a very old and very broken and very feature incomplete build.

Shopping is a test drop down.
 
I am becoming increasingly concerned that the feature(s) that I want have not been introduced yet. I pay my sub, therefore the features should be catered to me. Those who wanted other features are wrong, I alone know how to completely dominate the market.

PS: Other forum software have the exact feature I want, just saying... And by "just saying", I'm trying to threaten to switch, but in reality I won't as that feature alone isn't actually that important. If it had been that important, I would have switched already. I'm still secretly hoping you'll look at my post and get worried so you'll do what I want, though.

---

All kidding aside, what really sold me on this was the inline rendering of quotes. Looks amazing and I'm really happy to see it. Also can't complain about more smooth jazz voiceover previews :P
 
All kidding aside, what really sold me on this was the inline rendering of quotes. Looks amazing and I'm really happy to see it. Also can't complain about more smooth jazz voiceover previews :p
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Microsoft came up with the Ribbon UI and I think that would be a better option vs. the slim option you chose.
While I understand your opinion, I must disagree. Take a look at every reply to this thread and you'll see that a couple include images, one has italic formatting and a couple include hyperlinks. That's it. That's the extent of the formatting that most people want to use in forum posts.

There are of course power users who want to author much more complex content, but they are in a massive minority. Most users won't use the functionality of the RTE at all, so why would we burden them with a colossal bank of controls like Microsoft's ribbon? I totally agree that the ribbon is a good interface for MS Office applications, but for writing forum posts? Not so much.
 
Love the previewing changes - good that it shows rendered content for quotes - would that work for other content like media?

Love the new attachment interface - it always seemed a problem.

Love the options for clearing floats.

Love!
 
I love the changes and look forward to seeing them implemented. It is almost perfect, but it could use one more thing. :)

Attachments added to "Embed Media" screen or perhaps it's own separate insert section/button:

2020-06-15_15-32-30.webp
 
Excellent addition. Seems to be the last HYS so beta should be downloadable soon... something to play with!
Out of interest - What gave it away that this was the last HYS? Really hoping there are more, but all the same - very pleased with what they have announced.

Good job guys.
 
Top Bottom