XenForo 2.0 Discussion

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Sim said:
Any chance you've managed to make addons self-contained and include-able via composer rather than needing to manually import an xml file after deploying files to multiple locations? Would be awesome to be able to host addons on packagist.

Failing that - I would at least like to see all assets for an addon deployed to a single folder so that we can use auto-deployment tools, and if there's still an xml definition file, a command line interface to deploy them so this can be automated as well.
Click to expand...
We aren't really targeting installation via composer. It may be doable with a custom type, but it's not something we're currently investigating. Generally speaking, composer isn't likely to be something available to a majority of our customers.

We have isolated add-ons as far as possible, but that certainly also depends on the add-on. Add-ons aren't necessarily just PHP code; they may contain various external assets (JS, images/styling related elements) which need to be in a web accessible directory.

Add-ons are packaged quite differently and there are already some helpful tools for working with them.
 
Seems there are two areas involved: coding convenience and frontend usefulness or design.

Coding usefulness - not my expertise at all but several good developers have already said to me they are not impressed. They say it's a lot of change to cope with for not very much reward.

Frontend? That I do know about. Well the design in the screenshots is LESS attractive than XF is now. At least XF now has some copntrast in its colours. XF2 is all blah blue, which is lowest common denominator design. Safe safe design to an extreme. It's possible to stay safe (use blue, white) and yet keep it interesting. Classic XF did this. XF2 has watered it down to anaemia.

On features, so far we have -
- a navigation control system we don't need. Nodes as Tabs does the navbar beautifully. If XF had put in a navig control system years ago it would have been great. They didn't. I can't see why time is wasted on this when we already have the functionality - free, strong simple interface, well supported.
- widgets - not my passion but I do notice there are lots of addons for this. I see that some are maturely developed and have a good reputation. Is this necessary? Wouldn't it be better to use this energy on the CMS product masses of people have yelled for since XF started?
(Both these features are duplicated effort then)

- default avatar - NO NO NO this is the OPPOSITE of what is needed. If anything make the default a total blah grey rectangle! We want the default avatar to be so boring and faceless people want to change it. A cute personalised initial is going to cut down on personal effort on avatars.

So my verdict is I can't see the point. Not so far. Thank heavens XF1.5 is good enough - XF2 will be next summer before it filters into general use, and another year or two before support ends on 1.5. Maybe by then XF2 can work on some useful and interesting things.
 
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@Morgain Not to mention that Xenforo needs a downvote button as part of your post proves.
I really hope to see a more advanced rating function in xenforo 2.
I'm sure we can turn the default avatar off though. Which I will do for the reasons you describe.
 
I do have one question about those screenshots...

Are those save buttons in the correct place? They just look wrong to me... I know they may change between now and a stable release (and I hope they do)...

Liam
 
Liam W said:
I do have one question about those screenshots...

Are those save buttons in the correct place? They just look wrong to me... I know they may change between now and a stable release (and I hope they do)...

Liam
Click to expand...
Are you referring to this screenshot in particular?

xf2-nav_form-png.138997


They are in the correct place, and should be staying there.

It's actually a similar location to where they are in XF1:

upload_2016-8-14_18-11-17.webp

Take the above as an example; if you consider that effectively the labels and the controls are in different columns, the submit buttons are always in the controls column. So it's effectively not actually changed.
 
@Chris D so just to make sure, there will be no way to turn off the auto-generated avatars, and they're not image-based (or they are somehow generated on the fly so there are no image files to replace them with)?

And there will be no fall back option to return to image-based avatars?

I suppose an add-on can add that functionality, but a shame another add-on is needed for such a simple feature...
 
Is default avatar data (bg color, symbol) passed into template or avatars are generated 'on the fly' after templates compile?
So for example can I take this data and change not only background color but other properties like border-color, box-shadow in accordance with this data? No JS involved of course.
 
Just to be totally clear, users can of course still upload any avatar they like, and there is still Gravatar support.

If users do not upload an image, instead of serving one of the current gender based (or question mark) default images, the default avatar is basically a piece of HTML with a background colour and a slightly darker or lighter text colour, and the text inside the avatar is just a single letter from their name.

You would be able to reintroduce an image avatar yourself, likely with some CSS, or change the appearance of the default letter styling with CSS.

A way to introduce the image avatar yourself would likely involve some CSS which effectively hides the text, and replaces the solid background colour with an image, and position it accordingly.

As for whether we would change the behaviour, a suggestion could be made for consideration; this is just what we've got so far.
 
CyberAP said:
Is default avatar data (bg color, symbol) passed into template or avatars are generated 'on the fly' after templates compile?
So for example can I take this data and change not only background color but other properties like border-color, box-shadow in accordance with this data? No JS involved of course.
Click to expand...
It would be possible to extend the method that creates the avatar fairly trivially.
 
Chris D said:
Just to be totally clear, users can of course still upload any avatar they like, and there is still Gravatar support.

If users do not upload an image, instead of serving one of the current gender based (or question mark) default images, the default avatar is basically a piece of HTML with a background colour and a slightly darker or lighter text colour, and the text inside the avatar is just a single letter from their name.

You would be able to reintroduce an image avatar yourself, likely with some CSS, or change the appearance of the default letter styling with CSS.

A way to introduce the image avatar yourself would likely involve some CSS which effectively hides the text, and replaces the solid background colour with an image, and position it accordingly.

As for whether we would change the behaviour, a suggestion could be made for consideration; this is just what we've got so far.
Click to expand...

You know that this really should be optional, half the people will want to turn it off most likely.
 
I find that estimate to be a bit on the high side.

A lot of platforms provide something similar by default without, AFAIK, any way to turn it off. As it happens, it should be possible with CSS (at minimum, at least, if there isn't eventually a way to switch it off).
 
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