My Textpattern Wish List

gomedia · 2012-10-15 12:17:44

This may come across as a rant – it’s not intended to be – but my hope is to get some improvements to what we’ve already got, not to change the direction or the essence of Textpattern. So don’t panic!

The essence of Textpattern, in my mind, is it’s flexibility, it’s ease of use, and the readability of its code.

All suggestions listed here can be accomplished using combinations of TXP tags or plugins. My point is that TXP could make life easier.

Some ideas have been “fixed” recently but I’ve included them anyway – if only to demonstrate that sometimes heresy can become mainstream!

And I’m not claiming that any of these ideas are original.

If you’re a traditionalist, or squeamish – look away now.

Textpattern is a CMS, not a blogging platform

“Publish on front page” off by default
~~“Accept Comments” off by default~~ (4.8.5)
get rid of default article limit=“10”
allow articles to belong to the default section
get rid of “no article tag on page” warning

A CMS builds websites, so give us the tools to do the basics

we shouldn’t have to resort to a plugin (adi_gps & others) to access URL vars (partially implemented with txp:if_request in 4.8)
all tags that generate markup to have “wraptag”, “class” and “html_id” attributes
functionality to wrap markup easily (adi_wrap)
~~I want to output a specific link, where’s txp:link id=”“?~~ (in 4.6)
introduce anchor/urlvar attributes for all tags that generate links, e.g. txp:section, txp:link (adi_link)
~~conditional functionality based on whether tags generate output (chh_if_data)~~ (txp:evaluate in 4.7)

Smoothing the path of life and improving code readability

~~all txp:if_tags to have a negative/not option – something along the lines of txp:if_not_section etc.~~ (4.7)
if_yield tag – to determine whether txp:yield contains anything (proposal submitted)
if_posted or if_future tag – a conditional for the posted date of articles (cbe_if_article_released)

Simplify

merge txp:article and txp:article_custom into one tag

Be intuitive

if I ask for something and you can’t find it, don’t give me everything in the database (I’m looking at you txp:image tag)
when replacing a file, replace its name as well – not just the contents
~~give me the images in the same order that I gave you the IDs in~~ (4.5)

The best place for security is in the core

retrieving URL vars (adi_gps & others)
processing contact form data (zem_contact)
password protecting pages (ign_password_protect)

Whitespace

It’s very easy for whitespace to get in the way, so:

if_variable, if_yield(?) etc. to have a “white space” attribute

And whilst I’m at it … I might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb

unlimited categories (rss_unlimited_categories)
unlimited custom fields (glz_custom_fields)
~~multiple yields for output_form (cbe_output_form)~~ (4.7)
a built-in article link field (similar to article image field) and a txp:article_link tag
a TXP plugin “App Store” – a standard admin tab, providing one-click, one-stop-shop plugin installation
a place for the Textpattern community to submit & vote on feature ideas
and for Christmas I want a micro-brewery

Last edited by gomedia (2022-09-01 22:00:38)

Bloke · 2012-10-15 13:35:03

Mostly reasonable. Mostly doable, I suspect. Mostly time consuming. Patches welcome :-)

we shouldn’t have to resort to a plugin to access URL vars

The cheap option would be to extend page_url to get at custom vars. No security implied. What you do with them after that is your business.

if I ask for something and you can’t find it, don’t give me everything in the database

Hear hear! I’d like to change all list tags to behave thusly:

No retrieval attributes: give me everything
Data retrieval attempt attributes (id, name, author, realname, category, yahde yahde): return specified content, BUT…
… if those requests result in no output, return nothing

That does imply a small conceptual leap of faith with the attributes; namely dividing them into those that go into creating an SQL query and those that control the results (wraptag, class, etc). Shouldn’t be much of a barrier imo, but I have a programmer mindset. Arguably returning everything when a context, value or tag-in-tag option fails to match anything feels like a bug to me. Some might counter with “be more careful” :-)

when replacing a file, replace its name as well – not just the contents

I’d like to be able to rename files too. Lot of code to cater for edge cases, and historically not been a high profile issue so it always gets left behind.

processing contact form data (zem_contact)

Not everyone uses them so adding support in the core for them feels bloaty. With all the social media about, I get the impression contact forms aren’t on people’s hit list much these days. Might be wrong.

password protecting pages (ign_password_protect)

Mmmmm. We have the password_protect tags, but they’re kind of sucky. Maybe if they were given some love they could become genuinely useful, without going overboard?

a TXP plugin “App Store” – a standard admin tab, providing one-click, one-stop-shop plugin installation

Kind of how I’d like the Plugins panel and .org to interact, but it relies on getting .org up to scratch. Got some spare time to devote that way? Can always use the extra hands.

Algaris · 2012-10-15 14:25:56

An Appleesk App store for Textpattern plugins? I’d be giddy with excitement at the prospect. Heck I’d even be willing to pay a few pounds here and there, knowing that I’d be supporting the authors and (hopefully) encouraging them to stick around and support their plugins.

when replacing a file, replace its name as well – not just the contents

Yes please. I’ve resorted to calling my files ‘term-dates’ instead of autumn-term-2012 to avoid all the hassle that goes with uploading a new file, deleting the old one and changing ID’s in my forms.

Last edited by Algaris (2012-10-15 14:27:05)

gomedia · 2012-10-15 21:05:33

Stef wrote:

Patches welcome :-) …………… Can always use the extra hands.

I’d be willing, commitments allowing, to submit some patches – but wouldn’t the high priests want to concur before allowing a smelly pilgrim into the temple to pop a note into the suggestions box? In other words, a “yes in principle” – to, for example, a new tag.

The whole “Textpattern is a CMS, not a blogging platform” bit would, I guess, need a special meeting of the star chamber – with extra supplies of beer & pork scratchings.

Standalone ideas might be safer – I can just picture my outstretched hand getting Jukka-slapped … ;-)

philwareham · 2012-10-15 21:38:59

Lol. Maybe submit some of these wishes individually to the feature ideas section of the forum and they can be discussed one at a time. I think a couple of them are already under investigation for possible inclusion in 4.6, though I just make pretty so it’s not my area of expertise.

gomedia · 2012-10-15 21:50:59

philwareham wrote:

Lol. Maybe submit some of these wishes individually to the feature ideas section of the forum and they can be discussed one at a time. I think a couple of them are already under investigation for possible inclusion in 4.6, though I just make pretty so it’s not my area of expertise.

And very pretty you make too. Thanks for the advice.

tye · 2012-10-15 22:12:42

I pretty much agree with it all Adi – I think that is a great wrap up.

etc · 2012-10-16 11:45:23

What I was pretty much missing on my (very few) Txp-made websites, is more advanced user management. On corporate or collaborative sites, you often need to restrict users by sections/number of articles/groups and so on. Stef has shown us the way, but I’d love to see it in the core.

merz1 · 2012-10-16 12:56:29

And don’t forget keyword handling via TXP core (tru_tags) :)

Having an admin widget/area (build your) ‘navigation(s)’ code would also flatten the TXP learning curve a lot.

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#1 2012-10-15 12:17:44

My Textpattern Wish List

#2 2012-10-15 13:35:03

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#3 2012-10-15 14:25:56

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#4 2012-10-15 21:05:33

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#5 2012-10-15 21:38:59

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#6 2012-10-15 21:50:59

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#7 2012-10-15 22:12:42

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#8 2012-10-16 11:45:23

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

#9 2012-10-16 12:56:29

Re: My Textpattern Wish List

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