XF 2.4 general discussion, feedback, complaints, random off topic posts, etc.

[Jeremy P]

Just curious, was there anything that triggered this faster cadence behind the scenes?

The biggest thing is probably just setting the expectation that releases are likely to be smaller on the whole. Several features in XF 2.3 were completed years prior to its ultimate release (despite what odd conspiracies might have you believe), and with the benefit of hindsight I think it would have been better to have made them available earlier even if that meant others were deferred until later. Not to say that there aren't many other factors, of course.

Also, is there a motif or theme behind this update so the community can focus our collective suggestions? Eg. XFMG, moderator and admin quality of life, statistics, low hanging features with front-end impact

QOL is the motif, but I think it's worth being clear that the scope for XF 2.4 is largely set already and expanding or changing it is the opposite of what we're trying to do . Though suggestions are useful for shaping future plans and we're hoping to be able to incorporate feedback sooner with more focused releases.

 

[🔥Iggy🔥]

the xfmg embed tool in the editor is a bridge between islands......it needs to be more robust.

pagination, search tool etc...

aww santa i been so good for real, its all i want ;P

 

[MesterPerfect]

Thank you for your continuous efforts to improve the platform and for the exciting updates coming in XenForo 2.4. As a member of the community who prioritizes accessibility, I would like to kindly request additional focus on improving accessibility support across the following areas:

1. Topic navigation within sections: Enhancing the accessibility for users navigating through topics and posts inside forums and product sections would greatly benefit users with disabilities.
2. Rich-text editor for posts: Providing more robust accessibility features in the rich-text editor, making it easier for users with screen readers or other assistive technologies to compose and format posts and replies.
3. Control panel for drag-and-drop ordering: Improving accessibility for the drag-and-drop feature in the admin control panel, especially when arranging forum sections or products, would ensure all users, regardless of their abilities, can manage their forums effectively.

I hope you will consider these suggestions as you continue to develop and enhance the platform.

 

[Mouth]

What's the hold-up with 3.0?

 

[Chris D]

It's not ready

 

[Newsman]

new editor time really curious how that is going to look and how much you can do with it

 

[Aivaras]

Tiptap has support for Markdown style syntax but it isn’t exclusively a Markdown editor.

Please have Markdown disabled by default. In the past, I had an issue where it interfered with custom BB code and corrupted posts after editing and resaving.

 

[Chris D]

I don't think that would happen with Tiptap though I could test it. Could you provide a specific example?

 

[Aivaras]

I don't think that would happen with Tiptap though I could test it. Could you provide a specific example?

It was a while ago, Chris. As far as I remember, it was a custom BB code table with relatively special syntax (think, math or physics), and something went wrong. An option to disable additional markup languages when a forum chooses not to use them would still be a welcome safeguard feature, no?

 

[Chris D]

You've always been able to do that. Again, pretty sure whatever you ran into wouldn't be an issue with the editor itself.

 

[Aivaras]

You've always been able to do that. Again, pretty sure whatever you ran into wouldn't be an issue with the editor itself.

Markdown was enabled by default when it was first introduced in XF and that caused issues in my situation, thus my hightened sense of alertness. It’s good to hear that the new editor promises to be more robust in that respect!

 

[Kintaro]

With QOL do you mean QustOm fields fiLter, right?

 

[Paul B]

Quite pOssibLy.

Or not.

We shall see ...

 

[AWS]

Good news on the shorter release cycle. After going through the vbulletin release cycle under Kiers watch and then the release cycle here I am not very optimistic things will change.

I will give props and eat my words if I am wrong.

 

[Chromaniac]

One thing that would be great with new editor is if toolbar remains functional in bbcode mode (which is staying!). Probably not happening but still worth mentioning!

 

[Chris D]

We’re keeping it but, no, it won’t retain the functionality of the toolbar.

Ultimately I would be surprised if people even need to use BB code mode anymore.

What do you feel the use case for keeping it is?

 

[Mr Lucky]

Ultimately I would be surprised if people even need to use BB code mode anymore.

This is a great point - I don't think members ever go there except by accident and then scratch their heads because the text editor is broken.

However I use it because I have some personal become that only I know about and so there are no icons. But even then , I could lose become as long as we can have view permissions for the icons. This would be good not just for my "secret" becomes but as a way to give subscribers some extra stuff that the hot polloi don't have. Oh yes they'll pay good money for superscript and strikethrough.

 

[Chromaniac]

visual mode can be messy to use with things like links and formatting and inline codes. i have never found a good way to detach cursor from previous formatting block. so one is forced to add content and remove/edit formatting to get it right. bbcode has full control where you want things to be. also with tables... it is just easier to reformat tables in bbcode mode where you can just copy paste it in a text editor and do a bulk find and replace to fix issues with pasting data from external sources and so on. it's not required all the time. but with complex posts, it is just easier to copy paste bbcode data in a text editor, make changes, paste it back and submit.

i still use wordpress in html mode with classic editor (with functional toolbar!) just because it is just easier to use it for simple posts. block editor (which is supported by tiptap so it might end up here as well) is great if you want to have complex posts... but it is just annoying when you need to post a simple content post.

i also notice that a lot of users who are not used to forums end up posting excessive or incorrect formatting coz they would post html embed code or paste formatted text in posts. fixing such posts in visual mode is just hard in my experience.

Update: Also should have mentioned that if a post has a few images, it becomes a pain to edit through it because of excessive scrolling needed. You can potentially resize image in editor using css but that probably creates an issue for users who might want to resize it as per their own liking? XenForo keeps on increasing elements that render in editor. icode was added in 2.3 iirc... I guess more are going to be added on 2.4/3.0... The mode elements that appear rendered, the harder it becomes to edit the post in piece.

 

[Chris D]

Majority of this won’t be an issue. “Excessive or incorrect formatting” is basically no longer a thing.

Unlike most editors which will essentially trust the content you’re pasting in, converting it to HTML, Tiptap has a very clearly defined schema.

Unless we have whitelisted a certain node or inline style (called marks), they won’t pollute the output of the editor.

It’s going to be a very different experience to any editor we’ve had before.

 

[XẹnPixel]

Will the editor support Mathematics extension?