I've never hidden my frustrations with XF 1.1's editor (which is based on TinyMCE). In 1.2, we have entirely removed the existing editor and replaced it with a new one based on Redactor:
So obviously this looks quite a bit different--and I know plenty of people didn't like the 1.1 editor look--but the functionality is there. So what advantages do we have? Well there are various ones:
Much lighter code and faster to load. Redactor depends on jQuery and benefits from that.
When pasting, most formatting is removed (though some is kept). However, if you're pasting from one XenForo editor to another (or within the same one), all formatting is maintained.
White space is maintained for code tags when pasting from Webkit. This was an...
Have you seen...?
This forum spotlights some of XenForo's interesting features. Spotlights on features in upcoming releases will be posted here.
We missed last week, but lets make it up with a look at a bunch of new things coming in 1.2. We do still have various "big" things to show, but we'll save them for another day.
Template editing improvements: tabs, ctrl-s, auto tabbing
The template editor in the admin CP is now easier to code directly within with a few changes:
Pressing tab will now insert an actual tab.
You can save the template using ctrl+s (or cmd+s).
When you press enter on a line that starts with whitespace, the next line will automatically start with that amount of whitespace. (Basically, this keeps your tab depth.)
If you highlight multiple lines, you can use tab or shift-tab to indent or outdent all of the selected lines automatically.
<xen:set> improvements...
A large forum will probably get a lot of reports, so in 1.2 we've tried to streamline the reporting system and make it easier for moderators to work with. Let's see what new options there are...
Reporting to a forum
Before I start, if you're one of those people that really doesn't like the default reporting system, you can turn it off and have reports create threads in a forum. If you have a workflow around this, then you can go back to using it but obviously you'll need to setup things like prefixes or workflows to define how to mark "closed" reports, etc.
If you choose this option, none of the changes that I'm listing below apply to you, so you can just ignore the rest of this message if you want. ;)
Updated reports counter
The...
Let's take a break from some of the bigger feature improvements coming in 1.2 and look at some of the smaller tweaks. This isn't necessarily an exhaustive list. I can't really remember everything. ;)
User thread title editing
A new permission has been added to control whether users can edit the titles of their own threads. This is automatically tied into the post editing length permission.
This also includes editing the prefix as well.
Style property cache size reduced
If you have a number of styles installed, you may have had to fight with MySQL max_allowed_packet due to the style property cache size. The cache will now only store changes from the default value, reducing the size of the cache per style.
Template compilation...
In our second updating about template improvements, we're focusing on tools to make it easier to keep your changes up-to-date and to see what changes you've been making.
Template Merging
First up is the ability to merge changes into templates after upgrading XenForo, an add-on, or a distributable style.
This is done via the existing outdated template interface:
You have the option to automatically merge changes if possible. This will merge any updates where a conflict is not detected. If a conflict is detected, you will need to use the manual merge interface, which you can access by clicking on "merge changes" for a template. Here's what you'll see:
The yellow and blue highlighted blocks indicate the changes that are being...
Anyone who has developed add-ons for XenForo 1.1 knows that template hooks are a pain. They're a pain for us too, to say the least. Plenty of people have installed the Template Modification System add-on. We've been planning a TMS-like system for some time, before the XenForo add-on was ever actually released.
XenForo 1.2 will deprecate the template hook system and introduce it's own template modification system to make it easier for add-on developers to change templates. Note that I'm primarily focused on add-on developers here. It is possible to create your own custom template modifications if you're not an add-on developer, but unless you have multiple styles, I'd recommend just making the changes to the templates directly.
Let's...
Route Filters are a new system in XenForo 1.2 to allow you to change the standard URLs generated by XenForo, including any URLs generated by add-ons.
It's a fairly simple system to show, but it's very powerful with a little thought. Let's look at what you can set with it:
Other than a list of route filters, that's really it for the system. So how about a few examples...
Changing a route prefix
There's an add-on that does this right now, but we can do it simply from here. For example, if you want to change the resources URL to downloads, you'd just enter resources/ in the find box and downloads/ in the replace box.
Instantly, any links to http://xenforo.com/community/resources/ would become...
XenForo 1.2 now has a new collection of permissions to control what your users can put in their signatures.
For performance reasons, these restrictions are only checked when a user tries to change their signature. It will not invalidate existing signatures.
The easiest thing to do is to simply show the permissions that can be set:
For user friendliness, if a user tries to use a BB code tag that they don't have permission to use, it will simply be stripped out. For other errors (too many images, too long, etc), the user will receive an error.
Post edit history and logging has been one of the most requested features and it will be a core feature in XenForo 1.2.
Post Edit Logging
Post edit logging is the simpler of the two features. It adds an indication to the post when it has been edited. We have intentionally kept this feature simple for the average user. They have no reason that they have to enter; if they're inclined, they can always include the reason in the message.
We do track the last person to edit the message, but this is not displayed. It could be easily added with an add-on. In most cases, the last edit will be by the owner and the average user likely doesn't care about who edited it. If a moderator needs to know, the history gives much more detailed...
While many of you will have seen the Resource Manager from a user viewpoint here, you haven't seen what's available for the admin. Below are screenshots of the main options for the RM, what controls you have over a category, and the permissions available. There are some other things like cache rebuilding and moderator logging that the RM does, but they're not particularly interesting.
So, let's look at some rather big images then...
General Options
Category Controls
Permissions
In the first of our spotlights on new features in 1.2, we're going to be looking at 2 user management improvements in particular. Keep an eye on this forum to see when we post more teasers. :)
Note that any features we demonstrate here are still in development, so things about them may change before they're released in a 1.2 beta.
User Merging
The first feature is rather important, though fairly simple to explain. In 1.2, you can now merge 2 users. The "source" user will have all of their content assigned to the "target" user and then the "source" user will be deleted.
It's very easy to use. From the user edit page in the admin CP, you can choose to merge:
Then it's just a matter of choosing who you want to merge into...
1.1.4 includes some additional anti-spam options for the registration form. These are small enough improvements that they can be done for a 1.1.x release. You will see some deeper integration of additional tools (such as the previously-shown StopForumSpam) in 1.2. As always, targeted attacks may potentially be able to mitigate some anti-spam techniques.
Built-in Registration Timer
A registration timer system is now built-in to the registration form. For a valid user, they simply cannot submit the form until the time is up. If a person submits the form without waiting long enough, they will need to wait again until to submit the registration.
This can be configured in the admin control panel:
Unique Registration Key
This...
The XenForo 1.1 'warning' system allows board staff to handle trouble-making users in a structured and manageable way.
Update, October 15 2011:
I've made some changes and improvements...
