XF 2.2 Text editor and attachment manager improvements

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​

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[JoyFreak]

I love love love it!

 

[Chris D]

There are more HYS’ coming soon.

 

[Frode789]

This was a fantastic read!! Love the new features here.

I also can't wait what this will mean for XF MG and XF RM.

 

[alv4]

This is amazing. Love the floating images.

 

[btmgreg]

There are more HYS’ coming soon.

More HYS' related to the XF core product? sneaky

 

[OkanOzturk]

New preview mode is awesome!

 

[Neutral Singh]

All of these 2.2 features are no small additions. Maybe you should bump the new version to 2.3 or 2.4, it would be justified.

Agreed!

 

[Mendalla]

Haven't watched the video yet (soon) but I like the editor improvements so far, esp. the Preview. It will probably be the most visible, out-of-box change for ordinary users of the ones we have seen to date (Search Forums, too, but that requires some admin work to configure whereas this is truly out-of-box). Looking forward to this one for sure.

 

[DigNap15]

It would be great if there was a nice big "Cancel Button"
Many of my members complain that it is hard to cancel a post that they no longer want to post.
So we need 3 buttons..
Post Reply, Preview, Cancel

 

[Wildcat Media]

Great work but I'd prefer a Ribbon UI again to make sure all formatting and functionality was discoverable.

I'm sure we can style it to our liking. That's what is nice about the XF system--if we decide we want to restyle something, it's fairly simple to do. I keep an open mind though--I will launch with the new editor style but, given enough complaints, I can start looking at alternative LESS/CSS to start styling things a little differently. My forums skew older, so if they find it vague or too confusing, I will make improvements for their sake, even if I don't necessarily like them.

 

[Mendalla]

It would be great if there was a nice big "Cancel Button"
Many of my members complain that it is hard to cancel a post that they no longer want to post.
So we need 3 buttons..
Post Reply, Preview, Cancel

Post that in Suggestions if you haven't. I'll happily support it. Going to Save - Delete Draft as we do now is not the most intuitive way to get rid of an unwanted draft.

 

[Claudio]

And YouTube processing seems to take forever

So why don't use the Media Gallery to post it?

 

[Mendalla]

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.

I am still not overly fond of ribbons, to be honest, though the version they use in Outlook 365 has somewhat won me over. But I really like your explanation. An editor for forum posts really does not need to be that fancy. Just a simple row of commonly used features with an easy way to get to the rest. No one on my forum has ever complained about the editor and this just builds on what works about it, IMHO.

 

[Alpha1]

Post that in Suggestions if you haven't. I'll happily support it. Going to Save - Delete Draft as we do now is not the most intuitive way to get rid of an unwanted draft.

There are a dozen suggestions for this. Some quite popular. Some are marked implemented. Others not planned or lack of interest. I doubt that it makes sense to add yet another suggestion for the same thing.

Implemented - [Suggestion] Cancel Button

I dont usually go for cancel buttons on forms but I really think the 'edit post' form should include a cancel button. Some users are not as hugely web savvy as us bunch and part way through writing an edit they may change their mind. Me and you know we can just leave the page but others might...

xenforo.com

 

[BassMan]

Love it!

Preview, rendered quote look, clean editor, attachments, quick insert looks interesting.

You have done a lot of work so far for 2.2. And it's still not over. This deserves support.

 

[DigNap15]

There are a dozen suggestions for this. Some quite popular. Some are marked implemented. Others not planned or lack of interest. I doubt that it makes sense to add yet another suggestion for the same thing.

Implemented - [Suggestion] Cancel Button

I dont usually go for cancel buttons on forms but I really think the 'edit post' form should include a cancel button. Some users are not as hugely web savvy as us bunch and part way through writing an edit they may change their mind. Me and you know we can just leave the page but others might...

xenforo.com

Woops.
I just posted a Suggestion for a Cancel button, before I saw your post above.
ifs its popular, let's hope that XF add it to 2.2
It can't be that hard.

 

[Max]

Please add a way to change default image insert method from uploading to linking in this menu.
I want both options to be there, but make the linking as the default option instead of uploading.

 

[Chris D]

There are a dozen suggestions for this. Some quite popular. Some are marked implemented. Others not planned or lack of interest. I doubt that it makes sense to add yet another suggestion for the same thing.

Implemented - [Suggestion] Cancel Button

I dont usually go for cancel buttons on forms but I really think the 'edit post' form should include a cancel button. Some users are not as hugely web savvy as us bunch and part way through writing an edit they may change their mind. Me and you know we can just leave the page but others might...

xenforo.com

That one is implemented because it pertains to editing a post where there is a cancel button.

 

[Kintaro]

There is also a new multi-selection interface for attachments

is it possible to add photos or attachments to the post with drag and drop from the attachments list?

 

[Mendalla]

That one is implemented because it pertains to editing a post where there is a cancel button.

Thanks. It certainly is different from what @DigNap15 and I are talking about. We are basically looking for a single click item that clears the editor and deletes the draft if autosaved for new posts, not editing.