XF 2.2 Welcome to XenForo 2.2 / What's still to come

We've spent the last few weeks talking about the new features in XenForo 2.2. Now, it's your first chance to try some of them out and help us put them through their paces. Welcome to XenForo 2.2!

As you may notice, we have started converting some of our forums to more specific forum types. We've also enabled all general discussion thread types in the testing forum.

What's still to come

While our previous "have you seen" threads have announced most of what's coming in XenForo 2.2, we haven't touched on our official add-ons. There are improvements coming to each of them (beyond getting support for changes we already announced in 2.2), but we're not quite ready to announce these changes yet. Until we do, what you see running here is essentially the same as the 2.1-based version of our add-ons.

Beyond the add-ons, we still have a few more improvements to XenForo 2.2 itself that are still in the oven right now. These include improvements based on feedback we've received from the previous have you seens and some improvements to things we haven't touched on yet.

Keep your eyes peeled! (Disclaimer: please do not actually peel your eyes.)

Next steps

We're now starting the first steps towards releasing XenForo 2.2 by testing it here. So please, if you notice any bugs or problems, report them to us.

Once we finish off the changes we still have in the pipeline and are happy with the stability of 2.2, the first beta will be released to all customers with active licenses. Beta versions are not officially supported and we don't recommend running them on production installs. This is an opportunity for people to test and for resource authors to make the necessary changes to support the new version. From there, we'll continue releasing beta versions until we're ready to move onto the release candidate stage, which essentially means that we believe the version is close to being an officially supported release (but it's not yet!). Finally, and only once we've gone through each of these stages, XenForo 2.2.0 will be released as an officially supported/recommended release... and we can all celebrate!

But in the meantime, we still have work to do!

 

[Chris D]

It was designed to be how it is so it isn't too intrusive.

 

[Dnyan]

Providing option for enabling / disabling pop up (with default disable) Will help a lot for users to install apps just by clicking on the popup same like enable push notification.

 

[Chris D]

It's way more involved than that due to different browsers supporting different standards, plus we'd need a way to make such a prompt dismissible because people won't want that kind of thing on every page load etc.

Anyway, worth creating a suggestion thread if you feel strongly about it as we can't track suggestions here.

 

[Lukas W.]

I hate to be the hater here, but the new editor is practically unusable. The moment I need to do more than some basic formatting, I can just stop creating content at all, as it suddenly takes 8x the time it has done before. And for what benefit? Looking a bit sleeker? The advanced toolbars would have plenty of space in the default setup to fit all icons, but I need to switch between them, and the entire transitions alone take a second each. Deleting a draft is suddenly hidden away behind three clicks, I can't un-indend (idk the word for this) when I accidentally hit indent. And it's laggy too. Usability has been completely neglected over look here.

If you would've wanted to trim down the number of icons in the toolbar, a toggle would probably have done everybody a favor, along with a remember state. Just to toggle between a basic editor with five or six buttons and a full editor bar for people who prefer to have all options at hand. This is just pure pain, and for any board that actually utilizes rich text content it's become unusable.

Rant aside, I like a couple of the other changes. Thread types look very good so far.

 

[gogo]

I'll use the pwa version of xenforo from now on.

 

[Chris D]

Deleting a draft is suddenly hidden away behind three clicks

Just empty the contents of the editor, it saves automatically.

For everything else, feedback noted but there's nothing particularly actionable there. If you have specific recommendations, please create a suggestion thread.

 

[interforo]

There isn't an app. This website is now a progressive web app which means some browsers may allow you to "install" it to your home screen.

Thank you Chris!
Any reason why a mobile app was not considered yet for XF 2.2?

 

[Chris D]

We don't currently believe it is the right direction.

 

[gogo]

While this is common to all pwa, it's inconvenient to reload the page now. I'll have to scroll to the top of the page and drag downwards. But then I'll miss where I was.

 

[Dnyan]

I hate to be the hater here, but the new editor is practically unusable. The moment I need to do more than some basic formatting, I can just stop creating content at all, as it suddenly takes 8x the time it has done before. And for what benefit? Looking a bit sleeker? The advanced toolbars would have plenty of space in the default setup to fit all icons, but I need to switch between them, and the entire transitions alone take a second each. Deleting a draft is suddenly hidden away behind three clicks, I can't un-indend (idk the word for this) when I accidentally hit indent. And it's laggy too. Usability has been completely neglected over look here.

If you would've wanted to trim down the number of icons in the toolbar, a toggle would probably have done everybody a favor, along with a remember state. Just to toggle between a basic editor with five or six buttons and a full editor bar for people who prefer to have all options at hand. This is just pure pain, and for any board that actually utilizes rich text content it's become unusable.

Rant aside, I like a couple of the other changes. Thread types look very good so far.

If you think from most of the user point of view, there are only few who looks at the formatting options, most of the time user just type and post.

Peoples who makes use of formatting will definately know, where to find it.

The adding of quote (+ button) annoying, it pops on every next line when you click enter.

 

[gogo]

Thank you Chris!
Any reason why a mobile app was not considered yet for XF 2.2?

What about those add-ons? You can't leave them behind. The xenforo core alone can't satisfy the our needs.

 

[Lukas W.]

Peoples who makes use of formatting will definately know, where to find it.

I'm not struggling the slightest to find anything. I'm struggling to use it. So much that I'll just stop creating rich text content whatsoever.

 

[NicolasZN]

We don't currently believe it is the right direction.

Have to agree. Users on most XF forums won't be thinking of "XenForo", they'll be thinking of their specific community. A XenForo app would have to go the Tapatalk or free forum host route where it's set up to look like a network of related communities, so it's easy for everybody to find the one they're looking for.
Similarly, given how modified so many boards are, those modifications may not translate as cleanly into an app environment.
Every website having its own app is something the internet is certainly trending away from again at this point.

 

[NicolasZN]

I'm not struggling the slightest to find anything. I'm struggling to use it. So much that I'll just stop creating rich text content whatsoever.

Is this not something that each board owner will resolve on their own community by selecting which options appear and which are beneath menus?

 

[Matthew S]

Is this thread an example of an article? I'm really digging the collapsed OP and pagination.

 

[RobParker]

Do we have a thread dedicated to feedback (moaning) about the editor? I appreciate that given the many options, you guys might not be seeing what we are but it does seem pretty badly designed.

 

[Chris D]

There's not a general thread, no, nor should there be, really. We can see feedback in here and if there are specific changes you would like to see, a new thread should be created as a suggestion.

 

[gogo]

Possible to add a button for reloading/refreshing the page in pwa?

 

[Chris D]

Just for the avoidance of doubt, and while this is an extreme example as it's just display all buttons unconditionally, the concept of the "groups" is optional. There is still a button manager and you can still list the buttons in any configuration that you want on your own forums.

 

[Alpha1]

The new editor will need some getting used to. It will be interesting to see how the larger public will handle it.
I am not seeing an 'install app' at all on Android. Is Firefox supported?