Matt wrote:
It is a great idea, but there are some issues with doing this.
The first is, we can't automatically update the display as you type because we will end up rendering partial / broken bbcode that will cause a bit of chaos on the page. Additionally, our bbcode can get very heavy to process, so rapidly rendering large blocks of bbcode as you make small changes would potentially be too taxing on the server. For those two reasons, a display within the same page as the editor won't work.
An alternative is a button that pops up a preview of your code in a preview box that you can just hit escape to close. We can definitely do this, but it also has one issue off the top of my head, which is that the HTML output it shows will not be rendered within the context of the target page. Some bbcode acts and / or appears differently depending on whether it's on a guide page or a forum page etc... Changes in width can also affect it, where guide content is a different width from comments, and comments are not the same width across the site. So you might carefully craft your bbcode to look pixel perfect in the pop up preview, but then when you publish and view your actual guide or comment, it's a bit different.
We could try it though - a pop up preview that you hit escape to close - but I am worried that such display inconsistencies will lead to more headache. We wouldn't really be sure how far off they would be without some testing though, so we could look in to enabling such a feature as an opt-in beta test and get some feedback from you guys.
The first is, we can't automatically update the display as you type because we will end up rendering partial / broken bbcode that will cause a bit of chaos on the page. Additionally, our bbcode can get very heavy to process, so rapidly rendering large blocks of bbcode as you make small changes would potentially be too taxing on the server. For those two reasons, a display within the same page as the editor won't work.
An alternative is a button that pops up a preview of your code in a preview box that you can just hit escape to close. We can definitely do this, but it also has one issue off the top of my head, which is that the HTML output it shows will not be rendered within the context of the target page. Some bbcode acts and / or appears differently depending on whether it's on a guide page or a forum page etc... Changes in width can also affect it, where guide content is a different width from comments, and comments are not the same width across the site. So you might carefully craft your bbcode to look pixel perfect in the pop up preview, but then when you publish and view your actual guide or comment, it's a bit different.
We could try it though - a pop up preview that you hit escape to close - but I am worried that such display inconsistencies will lead to more headache. We wouldn't really be sure how far off they would be without some testing though, so we could look in to enabling such a feature as an opt-in beta test and get some feedback from you guys.
Wow!! It's so amazing that admins respond to these threads, great stuff!! :)
Keep up the good work in keeping our community around, thank you so much and God bless. :)
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The first is, we can't automatically update the display as you type because we will end up rendering partial / broken bbcode that will cause a bit of chaos on the page. Additionally, our bbcode can get very heavy to process, so rapidly rendering large blocks of bbcode as you make small changes would potentially be too taxing on the server. For those two reasons, a display within the same page as the editor won't work.
An alternative is a button that pops up a preview of your code in a preview box that you can just hit escape to close. We can definitely do this, but it also has one issue off the top of my head, which is that the HTML output it shows will not be rendered within the context of the target page. Some bbcode acts and / or appears differently depending on whether it's on a guide page or a forum page etc... Changes in width can also affect it, where guide content is a different width from comments, and comments are not the same width across the site. So you might carefully craft your bbcode to look pixel perfect in the pop up preview, but then when you publish and view your actual guide or comment, it's a bit different.
We could try it though - a pop up preview that you hit escape to close - but I am worried that such display inconsistencies will lead to more headache. We wouldn't really be sure how far off they would be without some testing though, so we could look in to enabling such a feature as an opt-in beta test and get some feedback from you guys.