Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

philwareham · 2014-01-24 13:06:45

OK, thanks etc.

I think the way forward is for me to put the new grid layout in place, then provide some static HTML mockups for discussion on how we can move forward (taking into account that the write tab layout and elements need to be customisable for users).

etc · 2014-01-24 13:32:43

I’m very limited UI-speaking, sorry, but still:

modern browsers handle resize and draggable attributes, so the grid could be dynamic;
we could test some element-wise improvements(?), like inputs growing up and centered on focus;
separate live textile preview is preferable (for me) to direct input enhancements (wysiwyg, syntax highlight, …)

And thanks for your hard work!

sacripant · 2014-01-24 13:35:48

For a light improvment of Pages and Forms tab, Behave.js is very interesting :

it’s very light.
Result is allways a textarea. Just improve textarea typing. It’s perhaps important because some users use “It’s all text” for open textarea content in text editor.
It add
- Hard and Soft Tabs
- Auto Open/Close Parenthesis, Brackets, Braces, Double and Single Quotes
- Auto delete a paired character
- Overwrite a paired character
- Multi-line Indentation/Unindentation
- Automatic Indentation

And it’s possible to extend possibility with Hooks

The only thing I miss on the admin side are txp tags… compose one’s own write panel, wouldn’t it be loverly?

I’m talking about exactly the same idea in 2009 in french forum

etc · 2014-01-24 13:55:01

sacripant wrote #278436:

I’m talking about exactly the same idea in 2009 in french forum

Stef has written the great smd_tabber, but the road is still long.

philwareham · 2014-01-24 14:11:00

Yep, Behave.js looks like it could work, too. Lots of suggestions coming in, keep them coming!

monkeyninja · 2014-01-24 19:03:26

After a bit more thought I’ve realised another thing that bugs me about working directly from within Textpattern (and other CMSs) is that lack of ability to easily save my progress. By this I mean that from my text editor I can regularly hit cmd+s and save where I am. I know I can regularly click Publish/Save but it is not as convenient and only really works whilst in a draft mode.

I know this is a big change to the workings of Textpattern, but it would be great if you could save a working copy of an article that is live without the working copy being published until you’re ready for it. If Textpattern had this sort of functionality built in I’d probably be more inclined to work from within the Admin area. This sort of thing is also missing from other CMSs I’ve worked with (or available, but not easily implemented/worked with).

GugUser wrote #278420:

As others have written, there are different points of view and ways of working. I for my part I don’t like working with Word and could reverse your sentence: “I suspect there is something really wrong with the way Word in general is handling this.”

;-)

I’m definitely not supporting the use of Word to produce content. It has caused numerous headaches in the past when dealing with customers copying and pasting from Word to TinyMCE (although I’m beginning to figure out how best to configure TinyMCE to fix these issues). I always advise copying and pasting from a text editor rather than a word processor if people must do this.

philwareham · 2014-01-24 19:23:05

Drupal has a way of working on draft versions of articles whilst there is also a live version, it also keeps previous draft iterations so you can revert back to if things go wrong. It’s a bit of a clunky system in practice though – I have clients that just forget to publish their draft and leave the incorrect live version published instead for weeks. It probably bloats the database quite a bit too. There’s probably a better way to handle it if we do it.

monkeyninja · 2014-01-24 20:07:51

philwareham wrote #278456:

Drupal has a way of working on draft versions of articles whilst there is also a live version, it also keeps previous draft iterations so you can revert back to if things go wrong. It’s a bit of a clunky system in practice though – I have clients that just forget to publish their draft and leave the incorrect live version published instead for weeks. It probably bloats the database quite a bit too. There’s probably a better way to handle it if we do it.

Yeah, Drupal has its revisions, but it felt overly complicated to me when I worked a lot with it. We tended to disable it as a result. The only time we got it effectively working was when we installed a module that added a workflow to the publishing of content. I don’t think there is need for a revisions system to be in core, but just to be able to have a copy of the current working draft separate to the current published version. It would be relatively simple to show in the interface that the version in the editor is just a draft I would have thought.

etc · 2014-01-24 21:09:32

monkeyninja wrote #278459:

I don’t think there is need for a revisions system to be in core, but just to be able to have a copy of the current working draft separate to the current published version.

It can be stored locally, in your browser, using localStorage. That’s (almost) txp-independent and easy to implement.

phiw13 · 2014-01-26 07:15:22

etc wrote #278463:

It can be stored locally, in your browser, using localStorage. That’s (almost) txp-independent and easy to implement.

But that makes it browser dependent. The only reason I sometimes work in the textarea for an article is when I’m working on a draft that I’ll probably edit further from a different machine. Or to give a different example: various persons work together on one article (editor, authors) from different locations; the revisions of the article are only available in one browser cache.

etc · 2014-01-26 10:00:11

phiw13 wrote #278495:

The only reason I sometimes work in the textarea for an article is when I’m working on a draft that I’ll probably edit further from a different machine.

I guess, otherwise you prefer your fav text editor, because of indentation, syntax highlighting, and so on? That’s the point of this discussion: give authors more reasons to use txp textarea, the possibility to save and reedit an article later (even offline) being one of them. Of course, you’ll have to upload your draft somewhere to share it (with yourself or others), but that’s true for external text editors too.

Maybe, articles need some new revisions field, ideally incremental?

phiw13 · 2014-01-26 11:51:14

etc wrote #278496:

I guess, otherwise you prefer your fav text editor,

Yes, absolutely – across various machines, and have done so for ages.
(this reply was composed in my favorite text editor)

because of indentation, syntax highlighting, and so on?

Wrong, actually. For writing I use plain text editor, and I don’t plan to change that. But that is all beside the point of the discussion.

That’s the point of this discussion: […] the possibility to save and reedit an article later (even offline) being one of them.

Indeed, that is something I’d like to see in TXP: a (light?) version history mechanism. Your post to which I replied to suggested localstorage, I then pointed out the limit of that mechanism as it is browser + machine specific.

The rest of the discussion, syntax highlighting and the like doesn’t interest me much, I don’t have any use for it, personally. Like Stef (Bloke) upthread and eventually some others, I’ll hope it is as unobtrusive as possible, or can be turned off. A better preview mechanism than what is currently available is probably something I can see on my wish list, but more for my clients than for me.

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#25 2014-01-24 13:06:45

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

#26 2014-01-24 13:32:43

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

#27 2014-01-24 13:35:48

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

#28 2014-01-24 13:55:01

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

sacripant wrote #278436:

#29 2014-01-24 14:11:00

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

#30 2014-01-24 19:03:26

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

GugUser wrote #278420:

#31 2014-01-24 19:23:05

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

#32 2014-01-24 20:07:51

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

philwareham wrote #278456:

#33 2014-01-24 21:09:32

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

monkeyninja wrote #278459:

#34 2014-01-26 07:15:22

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

etc wrote #278463:

#35 2014-01-26 10:00:11

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

phiw13 wrote #278495:

#36 2014-01-26 11:51:14

Re: Improvements to editor (write page, code pages)

etc wrote #278496:

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