DU4 Update: Text editor and Subscriptions

[EarlG]

Last edited Thu Feb 10, 2022, 12:23 AM - Edit history (1)

Since it's fund drive time I thought I should share with you some more of what we've been working on for DU4. This is a huge project and we still have a ways to go, but things are proceeding well!

Edited to add previous threads about DU4:

Ask Me Anything... About DU4
DU4 Update -- Latest Videos


TEXT EDITOR

First let's take a look at the new text editor/posting page. Well I say new, but of course one of our goals for this project was to make sure that things don't get changed around too much, so a lot of this will be very familiar to you -- we have definitely not done anything too crazy.

Here's the page in full. (Please note that these screenshots were taken on my large monitor and are taller than an actual screen height, so the aspect ratio in the first pic is a bit weird.)





Here's a closer view of the editor itself:





One of the first things you may notice is that we have a few new formatting options. Unchanged from DU3 are:


Bold [b][/b]

Italic [i][/i]

Underline [u][/u]

Link [link:https://www.yourlink.com|Your Text]

Excerpt [div class="excerpt][/div]

Blockquote [blockquote][/blockquote]


In addition, we have added to DU4:


Strikethrough [strike][/strike]

Highlight [highlight][/highlight]

Monospace formatting [monospace][/monospace]



















Meanwhile, spell check and polls are unchanged from DU3, and we have a new "Posting tips" button which provides you with information about how to embed images and tweets, what BB codes can be used, etc. (This will admittedly be more useful to newer DUers.) Oh and of course, DU wouldn't be DU without these guys:





SUBSCRIPTIONS

Since it would take a lot of explaining and screenshots to show you what we've done with Subscriptions, I thought I would make an awesome YouTube explainer video instead. Behold the power of my high quality production values! (Don't bother turning up your speakers, there is no audio). You'll have to click through to YouTube to watch it because it's kinda small when embedded in a DU post.

Anyway, there's a lot more we've been working on, but that's just what I put together for now. I dare say I might put together another update before the end of the week.

Thanks for reading

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Wow, how cool! And in the last couple of days, I was wondering when DU4 might show up!

You must have heard me.

Yeah, right!

Thanks so much, my dear EarlG!

[MontanaMama]

2. I like it.

Well done and thank you.

[Grasswire2]

3. Earl, I confess to not paying attention...

...but is there a plan to make posting photos easier? Thank you.

[EarlG]

12. Well, I'm afraid not

The main reason you can't directly upload photos to DU is not really a technical issue, it's more to do with copyright and liability. It becomes more legally complicated to allow users to upload images and host them on your own servers, depending on who owns those images. If users are merely hotlinking images from elsewhere, that's less likely to cause a problem.

[Grasswire2]

46. I guess I assumed it was technical.

We can upload pics from our hard drives, cameras whatever to FB, to twitter, other sites, with impunity.

[Celerity]

75. just use Gyazo (snapshots), or post the url directly (trim please), or use Imgur or Postimages

https://gyazo.com/

https://imgur.com/upload

https://postimages.org/

cheers

[hippywife]

63. While it's a PITA...

I can get behind this reasoning. May not be a huge issue at the moment, but it could become one down the road somewhere.

While other sites handle it by allowing copyright owners to file DMCA cease and desist notices to have their images removed, I can also see why you'd not want to add that on to all the other stuff you regularly have to deal with.

[PatSeg]

72. That is such a shame

Thanks for the explanation. I've always wondered about that.

[Stinky The Clown]

74. Call it The Scourge Of Getty Images

Bloodsuckers, they are.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Good.

While still not getting a feature to add tables, the new feature, monospace font, is VERY welcomed. I'll have to play around with it.

[canetoad]

40. I second that

Uneven columns drive me crazy.

[CurtEastPoint]

5. Will it support inserting an image in a manner other than posting a URL? That is a huge deal.

[hippywife]

62. Answered a couple comments above.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216336517#post12

[Ohio Joe]

6. Classic smilies?

Will we be getting some new ones?

[EarlG]

14. Ah, I didn't really think of it that way :)

I must admit I wasn't planning to add any new ones, it was really just a way to differentiate the classic DU smilies from the Windows/Android/iPhone emoticons that a lot of people use on DU these days.

[mercuryblues]

7. Nice. Thank you for the sneak peek n/t

[ornotna]

8. Will it go to a preview first

Before being able to post? If so, good idea.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. There is a preview button in the examples. It's green! n/t

[ornotna]

18. Yes there is

But no post button. That's why I asked.

[EarlG]

20. That's correct

DU4 forces you to preview one time before you can post. Basically when you hit that green Preview button, it takes you to the post preview page, and then at the bottom there will be a green Preview button and a blue Post button.

[ornotna]

21. I like it

Great idea.

[EarlG]

22. Here it is in practice

As you can see, the "Add to Journal" button is also included as an option after the first preview (assuming it's an OP... the reply page -- not shown here -- obviously looks a little different because it includes the post which is being replied to).

[PatSeg]

71. Yes, I believe it is Daily Kos that has a feature like that

[blogslug]

10. lol

I tried to type my reply into your image of the text editor.

Good stuff, EarlG. Always nice to see the place get a spruceup.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. I am thrilled to see that we can subscribe to people as well as groups etc!

I did enjoy the video but it went kinda fast! But I can always watch it again.

[2naSalit]

13. Looking forward to it! K&R

[brooklynite]

15. It would be helpful if formatting buttons applied to both boxes in an LBN post.

[EarlG]

19. I'll take that into consideration

It might be technically unfeasible just because the code that controls the formatting and smilies is pretty complex and trying to double it up on a page could cause all kinds of problems. On most occasions we expect an LBN excerpt to be a straight copy/paste of the source material, which is typically plain text without any additional formatting added, so we figure that most of the time it is not necessary to add any additional formatting to LBN excerpts anyway (although it can be done if necessary by typing the codes manually).

[malaise]

16. Thanks

Looks fabulous

[Hortensis]

17. Terrific! I really like some of the new options. Thanks, guys.

[Nevilledog]

23. Love the highlight option, but can you make it pink instead of yellow? Or blue...I like blue.

I think I might have trauma from all the yellow highlights I used in college and law school. I don't remember there being any other options.


P.S. I'm joking.

[moonscape]

85. Oh my, I was going to agree with

you on the blue and wasn’t even joking

[11 Bravo]

24. Very cool!

(Meanwhile, over at Freeperville, Rimjob's cesspool is still powered by an anemic hamster.)

[Alice Kramden]

25. Thank you so much

For all your hard work!

[Demsrule86]

26. Thanks! I love having the strike through back.

[NJCher]

27. Nice!

And thanks for the detailed explanation, too.

[DownriverDem]

28. Had no idea

I come here every day and didn't know about this. Yay!

[turbinetree]

29. Oh Yeah ...... the same emoji's my favorite part...

[Fla Dem]

30. Wonderful work guys. We wouldn't be here but for your dedication.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

31. Strike thru...

YAY!!

[nolabear]

32. Very cool! Thanks for the hard work!

[NoMoreRepugs]

33. WooooHooo - get those men/women a cigar!

[FakeNoose]

34. K & R Bookmarking

Thank you EarlG. I'm sure I'll be referring to your notes once I start using the new version.
This looks awesome! Thanks for all you do.

[liberalla]

35. Any ability to change font size or color? I remember having those options a long time ago.

[IcyPeas]

36. and now we know DemUnderground has a YouTube channel.

[Wounded Bear]

37. Good job, overall, but no new emojis?

Love the highlight feature, could be very useful.

Your changing some of the features to have a graphic icon, will there be hover ability where the text description will show if you hover the mouse over them? I sometimes forget what the graphic icons are for.

Oh, and I love the shadow text in the boxes to describe exactly what that area is for.

Good job, looking forward to it.

[EarlG]

53. Yes

If you hover your mouse over a button, you get a tooltip telling you what the button does.

[keithbvadu2]

38. Some great additions

Especially like strikethrough, highlight, and monospace font.

[Cha]

39. TY.. the Valentine Fund

Drive had reminded me of what was happening with DU4.

[Mr.Bill]

41. Changing things is not nice to old people.

I'm gonna report you to the AARP.

Just kidding, of course. Can't wait to see the new stuff.

[ChazII]

42. Might these changes be the reason why

several times a day, no matter what forum or thread, I will often get the message that the needs to be reloaded? Sometimes a button will appear for me to click others it is like the page is blinking. I hope that this makes sense. This has been happening since the start of the year.

[electric_blue68]

43. Ty, Earl G! And a modest request...

I've noticed that a whole lot of the emojis come from a certain style that I'm very familiar with from a different site I've frequented for a very looong time (20+ yrs).

Anyway I was wondering if you could add a version, or the same versions of their:

:zen:

:bow:

:hi5:

:lmao:

:grumpy:

:madspit:

:scream:


I think these are fun, funny, or apt for these times. Any, some, or all of these would appreciated, I think.
But no biggie. 👍

Thanks for all you do! :bow: 😁🙂

[TygrBright]

44. Dude, how groovy! Looks like the old WordPress editor, which I still use.

So I should have no adjustment troubles. And the subscriptions function is cool - can you "stack" the filters, like "See Cooking and Baking posts by TygrBright?"

interestedly,
Bright

[EarlG]

54. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that

The filter just includes or excludes from the main list depending on whether the boxes are checked or not. So if you checked Cooking & Baking and Tygrbright you'd get posts from Cooking & Baking *AND* Tygrbright, not posts from Cooking & Baking *BY* Tygrbright.

[TygrBright]

59. ah, well... we have to have something to aspire to

Once you're perfect, you die.

Keep rollin'!

appreciatively,
Bright

[BumRushDaShow]

45. Oooooo!!

Good to see "strikethrough" and "highlight" destined to come back.

[hippywife]

47. Lookin' good.

Would it be too much to ask for a slightly longer character allotment in the title, if possible? I mean, while you're there under the hood.

Thanks, ever so!

[EarlG]

55. We can take that into consideration

Off the top of my head I can't think of a reason why we shouldn't do it... I'll have to think on it. But it's a possibility.

[hippywife]

61. Cool. Thanks!

Not asking for a whole lot, just a tad more would be great.

[AmBlue]

48. Thank you so much!

For ALL you do. DU is literally home base online for so many of us. I personally could not have made it through GWB and TFG without DU (and a heaping helping of West Wing during the GWB years).

My undying gratitude to you!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

49. Are there going to be more smileys

And avatar images?

[EarlG]

56. Probably not more smilies

I think the avatars could use a refresh though.

[Crunchy Frog]

50. I still remember when you could make letters of any size and any color,

and make text or images move across the page if you wanted.

Still. It's looking good.

[EarlG]

58. Giving posters control over fonts can cause problems

It's not that we couldn't do it, but readability can suffer if people are allowed to pick their own fonts. It can be pretty jarring to keep running into that one guy who likes to do all his posts in 40 point lime green Times New Roman. During the MySpace era we allowed people much more control over the appearance of their posts, but the general consensus today seems to be that people prefer more consistent, readable text.

Someone above jokingly asked if we could have some different highlighter colors, I wouldn't be opposed to doing that

Oh and I think you're right that we used to use marquee tags to allow scrolling text. That is extremely old school!

[Takket]

51. Any chance we could get a dark mode option one day?

I would love that!

[EarlG]

52. Working on it...

[hippywife]

64. Yaaaa!

My eyes thank you!

[Sentath]

67. WooHoo

Thank You

[EarlG]

82. Not sure why that would be...

Changes to the stylesheets on our DU4 test server have nothing to do with the DU3 stylesheets (which have not been updated in quite some time), so whatever happened with that extension was not caused by ongoing work on DU4...

[Takket]

80. That's great! Hey can you also top off my champagne and get me some fresh caviar?

If it isn’t asking too much lol

Just kidding. Seriously thanks for the dark mode. Helps a lot when I’m trying to read in bed at night.

[ItsjustMe]

70. Dark Reader Was Working Great

But It doesn't work correctly now, it still works fine on all other websites.



https://darkreader.org/

[Hekate]

57. Bookmarked!

[eppur_se_muova]

60. Awww ... still no superscripts or subscripts ?

No joy for science nerds.

[EarlG]

65. You know...

I tinkered with those but I had a limited amount of button space and eventually had to decide which would likely get the most use. However... we already have a kinda "secret" formatting option which doesn't have its own button -- the ability to create lists with ul and li tags. Those can only be created by manually typing in the codes. So I'd say there's a good chance we might be able to add in superscript and subscript tags in the same way. As in, they won't have a button, but if you manually type the tags, the formatting still works.

[eppur_se_muova]

76. Thanks! Of course I'm complaining gently, as I could never do anything like DU4 myself.

I did remember that sub and sup disappeared after the infamous election night hack, and for reasons apparently connected to securing the system, so I was concerned that it wouldn't be possible to bring them back safely, at all. So *anything* that works is good.

[hippywife]

66. One final suggestion from me...

coz this just happened and reminded me. Can you change it so that external links open in a new tab/window instead of taking us out of DU? Benefits all 'round.

Thanks for listening!

[Wednesdays]

69. I'd like to add some more smilies

Don't get me wrong, this prototype looks awesome, but I'd like to have a few more smilies. The ones we have now come from a German site (I forget the location), which I've come across a couple of times, and they have many more smilies that would be very useful here IMO.

[EarlG]

77. I believe we got ours from the original forum software that DU ran on

It was an off-the-shelf forum solution that I'm pretty sure went out of business a long time ago. That forum software was heavily modified for DU2, and then we abandoned it and wrote our own software from the ground up for DU3. But of course we retained the "feel" of the original software and kept some design elements -- like the smilies.

I know there are a lot more of these classic smilies out there, if they can be tracked down. Maybe we can add some new ones as a future update.

[crickets]

73. Love the new tweaks and text editor features, EarlG!

Thanks to you and Elad for all that you do. It's really appreciated.


PS - just watched the video. The new subscription and filtering options look really cool! Thanks again.

[Auggie]

78. Clean design, great balance/contrast, and an intuitive feel--you folks do great work

Review by ad agency art director

[msfiddlestix]

79. this looks great TY! One suggestion: Update Spell Checker, please!

There are a number of commonly used Acronyms not recognized in Spell Check..

Such as DOJ, SCOTUS and others which I'm sure are at the tip of the fingers of many here..

It would be great to not have to click on "ignore" button every time DOJ or SCOTUS is mentioned in text, often numerous times in a single post.

[burrowowl]

81. Thanks for info!

[madinmaryland]

83. The YouTube link to sent me to a Billy Joel video of "piano man"

Thanks! I haven’t seen that in a long time.

[dalton99a]

84. Kick