bbcode suggestions

[127.0.0.1]

1. Do any of you post on neowin.net? some aspects of their bbc code are better or more user friendly.  for instance, when you click on the add image button, a popup input box asks you to enter the img url. same with the ftp, email and url button. it then closes the tag for you after your input.

2. more optional parameters for the img tag. such as hspace, vspace, border, align, title.

3. rehaul the way font colors are used. make them theme friendly. green or red font color on one theme might stand out, however on another theme it might blend in with the background. thus i propose using classes for font colors. ie. [font color=green] will not envoke a <font color=green> tag but a span tag like this <span class=green>. this way the class can be configured with each theme so it always stands out against the background.

[Christian Land]

1. i think this depends on what you like... personally, i hate those pop-ups...

2. in my personal opinion useless but could be added quite easily, i guess...

3. IMHO totally useless... if i write [ color = green ] i want green text... not something that could probably be green but on other themes would be yellow... if i wanted something like that, i would recommend a color=random tag

[Grudge]

1) Purely a theme thing that could be easily changed

2) I guess they could be added, at the moment you can only do width and/or height. However, I don't think anyone would use any others - would be VERY easy to mod though as it's just some more regex's into subs

3) As Snowcrash said not really possible. For one you would have to have a class for every colour set up in the CSS for every theme! That would mean tiny increases in load time but real hastle for theme writers, plus like SnowCrash said people would get confused if they said they wanted green and it came out red!

Also - the BIG problem with the last suggestion is that users can supply any colour they want (in HTML format) obviously there would be nothing you could do about that

[127.0.0.1]

i'm not crazy about popups either. but how many of use those bbc tags anyway? we enter the code ourselves. its mainy for noobs.

re #2. the extra parameters for the img tag are pretty useless for the board alone. i'm thinking beyond that. they'd be mostly used for annoucement boards that are posted on a blog, where img placement and style might be more useful.

re #3. i understand what you're saying. but your green text might be illegible for someone using a different theme.

oh well. i guess my ideas sucked ass.

[Grudge]

I'm not saying they sucked I was just pointing out that they are porbably not that important at the moment! Though I still think idea 3 was pretty pointless

As for the pop-up thing, I personally do see the benefit of making it a user option in their profile to switch them on, but I think I'm pretty much on my own on that one

[pulpitfire]

i like the pop up idea.  for example, my wife and i use a board for her high school Science classes.  some of them quickly pick up on how to use bbc.  others just aren't into code, and were puzzled how to get the font color to change, and add images.  anything that would make it closer to a word processor would probably be easier and more comfortable for everyone (except maybe developers).  as for the vspace and hspace, it doesn't have to be a top priority or a built-in feature in the first release, but why not gradually refine the options?

[souleman]

I personally like the pop-up idea also.  I have had people come to a forum that I set up and they were used to a forum that had the pop-ups.  They couldn't figure out how to post a link...  They never looked at the BBC code on any other forum, so they didn't realize that they just put the link between the url tags. 

[Compuart]

I don't dislike the popup idea, and I think it will probably be added to SMF at some point.

I'd also like some more flexibility, especially when it comes to parameters. The current (preg_match-based) parser isn't flexible enough to handle parameters in a random order. I'm currently working on a parser that does the parsing manually (i.e. no preg_matches) and that always outputs an xHTML-compatible result. Not sure though whether this will be a feature or a mod.

[SparkieGeek]

sounds like a good idea, I always thought the BBcode could be improved.

How are you gonna deal with (correct) alt attributes for images?

[Compuart]

How are you gonna deal with (correct) alt attributes for images?

Currently they are left empty, which complies with the xHTML standard. However, it would of course be nicer to allow adding a description by (for example) allowing this format:

Code Select Expand

[img=http://path.to/image.gif]Here is a nice description of the image[/img]

These kind of tags could easily be added to the new parser.

[[Unknown]]

I actually have ideas for better ways of doing things for the bbc than popups, but they aren't ready enough to do anything about.

-[Unknown]

[Anguz]

Compuart, I love the idea for the improved img tag

I'm planning to add some new tags as a mod, but it's nice to see that the existing ones will be improved (^^)

[Daniel D.]

I hate Pop-Ups.

[Cccddd]

I hate Pop-Ups.

[Ben_S]

Likewise, the current select and click works superbly.

[klumy]

in some cases popups are very useful.

e.g. if you want to enter a a long list.
each popup window would represent a listitem

[pulpitfire]

Likewise, the current select and click works superbly.

it is cool, compared to the older version of having to click it, and then manually placing your text between the tags.  however, i wouldn't be against giving others the option of using pop-ups, if it is easier for their group of users.

[nil]

What if you could choose in your options wheither the BBc worked the way it does now or with pop-ups?  The pop-up system is great for noobs but if you are 1337 or don't like th pop-ups you could turn them off in your personal options.

[127.0.0.1]

re: description in alt tags

common misconception. descriptions should be put in the title tag.  alt tags only render a popup description on IE, which they should fix. if you noticed an alt tag does not render anything on mozilla browsers.

just wanted to let you know if you're working on that

[SparkieGeek]

re: description in alt tags

common misconception. descriptions should be put in the title tag.  alt tags only render a popup description on IE, which they should fix. if you noticed an alt tag does not render anything on mozilla browsers.

just wanted to let you know if you're working on that

ALT attribute should contain text that conveys the same information as the image. That could be a description.