carbonphyber
(?)Community Member
Offline
- Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:37:41 +0000
I'm spending my spare time writing a new BBCode parser to replace the two we currently use. It will make improvements that many users have asked for (going back further than the Spring Cleaning of 2012). This will include
While I'm at it, I would like to ask the community if it has any ideas for improvements.
Are there specific BBCode tags or changes to the BBCode parser that you think would improve Gaia?
Please keep in mind that I need to make sure that all features are safe (from an account standpoint), safe (from an appropriate content standpoint), reasonably quick, and that the features add value -- so I won't be able to accommodate all ideas.
I am, however, willing to listen and accept input and ideas from users and incorporate them if they meet my criteria and many other users agree they would benefit the community.
My suggestion:
I would like to see an "abbreviation" tag like this:
It would translate into the HTML "ABBR" tag as such:
You will see a special style (maybe a dotted-underline or a different background color) and be able to hover the mouse over the term to see a tooltip of the abbreviation title.
UPDATE: 2013-03-13
I will confirm that these features are in the new parser:
tags:
The HTML markup is changing (a little for the new BBCode parser features like forums, a lot for the old bbcode parser features like guilds and PMs). It will be more semantic:
The security settings of the new BBCode parser are written strictly for the new parser. You will be able to type computer language code into BBCode features and see the expected result... it won't get unnecessarily mangled in overzealous filtering attempts.
Also, stray backslashes will no longer occur and this character pair:
The same emoticons are available (although I removed the short version of the "cool" emoticon since that is frequently a pain). Emoticons are going to still be required for now... any changes to that will require a lot more work as that will be a per-feature setting.
Plaintext that appears to be a URL will still definitely work if the URL is the only text on the line and might still work if it's on the same line as other non-URL text. Plaintext URLs inside "code" or "codein" tags should no longer be altered.
All tags will auto-close (except perhaps code, codein, url and img, imgleft, imgright, tags).
If a tag is malformed or has an invalid parameter, the parser will not try to fix it for you... it will just skip over the tag.
I will update the WYSIWYG buttons/toolbar to reflect the new/changed tags. Most BBCode features (forum posts, guild posts, guilds home, journals, profile comments, profile "about", signature, marketplace shop, etc) will have the same CSS styling.
In the future, I will try to make a client-side parser as well so you can see your edits without having to submit a form to the server (perhaps even as you type).
I will make a new "BBCode sandbox" feature available to all users so you can test the new code and compare it to existing features. Once that is out and running, I will start migrating features to use the new parser and updating the CSS styles and the WYSIWYG toolbar+buttons.
- making the tags parse correctly (as I define it),
make BBCode render and look the same on all features across the site,
Official documentation
While I'm at it, I would like to ask the community if it has any ideas for improvements.
Are there specific BBCode tags or changes to the BBCode parser that you think would improve Gaia?
Please keep in mind that I need to make sure that all features are safe (from an account standpoint), safe (from an appropriate content standpoint), reasonably quick, and that the features add value -- so I won't be able to accommodate all ideas.
I am, however, willing to listen and accept input and ideas from users and incorporate them if they meet my criteria and many other users agree they would benefit the community.
My suggestion:
I would like to see an "abbreviation" tag like this:
[abbr="ZeroOmega is the BRONY KING!"]ZeroOmega[/abbr]
It would translate into the HTML "ABBR" tag as such:
<abbr title="ZeroOmega is the BRONY KING!" ...>ZeroOmega</abbr>
You will see a special style (maybe a dotted-underline or a different background color) and be able to hover the mouse over the term to see a tooltip of the abbreviation title.
UPDATE: 2013-03-13
I will confirm that these features are in the new parser:
tags:
b,
i,
u,
strike,
s (alias to "strike" ) **NEW!
size (any number between 1 and 128 ),
color (most CSS options "#FFF", "#FFFFFF", and english-colors such as "red" and "transparent" ),
hilight (background color. inline tag. default: yellow. same color options as "color" tag ) **NEW!
spoiler (with an optional title parameter... but character selection for the title is limited. nesting is allowed ),
url (no more "malformed URL", it will just plaintext the tag if the URL is not acceptable ),
img (same parameter rules as "url" ),
imgleft (same parameter rules as "url" ),
imgright (same parameter rules as "url" ),
quote,
code,
codein (an inline version of the code tag... suggestions for a different tag name are welcome) **NEW!
align (defaults to "left" )
left (align)
center (align)
right (align)
justify (align) **NEW!
indent (add 15px of space to either the left or the right) **NEW!
list (with most/all of the CSS list-style-type"s available as parameters) **NEW options!
* (list item... must be under the "list" tag)
The HTML markup is changing (a little for the new BBCode parser features like forums, a lot for the old bbcode parser features like guilds and PMs). It will be more semantic:
b => strong
i => em
strike => del
i => em
strike => del
The security settings of the new BBCode parser are written strictly for the new parser. You will be able to type computer language code into BBCode features and see the expected result... it won't get unnecessarily mangled in overzealous filtering attempts.
Also, stray backslashes will no longer occur and this character pair:
" )
will no longer turn into & quot; )
... which used to be emoticon-ed.The same emoticons are available (although I removed the short version of the "cool" emoticon since that is frequently a pain). Emoticons are going to still be required for now... any changes to that will require a lot more work as that will be a per-feature setting.
Plaintext that appears to be a URL will still definitely work if the URL is the only text on the line and might still work if it's on the same line as other non-URL text. Plaintext URLs inside "code" or "codein" tags should no longer be altered.
All tags will auto-close (except perhaps code, codein, url and img, imgleft, imgright, tags).
If a tag is malformed or has an invalid parameter, the parser will not try to fix it for you... it will just skip over the tag.
I will update the WYSIWYG buttons/toolbar to reflect the new/changed tags. Most BBCode features (forum posts, guild posts, guilds home, journals, profile comments, profile "about", signature, marketplace shop, etc) will have the same CSS styling.
In the future, I will try to make a client-side parser as well so you can see your edits without having to submit a form to the server (perhaps even as you type).
I will make a new "BBCode sandbox" feature available to all users so you can test the new code and compare it to existing features. Once that is out and running, I will start migrating features to use the new parser and updating the CSS styles and the WYSIWYG toolbar+buttons.
