A better preview function for Vanilla 2?

I've never liked the tiny, little, non-resizeable preview window. To my eyes, it doesn't actually previde much of a preview of what your comment is going to look like. It has always felt worse than the V1 comment preview to me.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask
(just start hacking some text into the comment box and you'll see the preview directly below)

Why can't the preview be like this? No need for a button at all then :P This style of comment preview feels *very* Vanilla 2 to me - it just fits in nicely I think.

Looks like it's using WMD/Showdown.... Why haven't I come across this before...?

Thoughts?

bobtheman

hum, sorry @[-Stash-] but im not fond of it

also, writing a 2k - 3k character comment would be visually annoying.

off topic but every time i attempt to copy in your handle, it reminds me of a feature that I would love to have in V2, name completion. Just like IRC, typing [-S and hitting TAB would complete the name for you. I'll start a new discussion for this

[-Stash-]

There's a dropdown to disable it, or make it click-to-preview only as well. I know I won't convince you, I'm just saying ;)

Dykam

@bobtheman, linking to nicks is already there, just not the completion.

[-Stash-]

@Dykam, only I'm "special" because linking my name doesn't work :'(

I do like the idea of tab-autocompletion for @name linking though. It's a great idea.

Dykam

Indeed, sounds like a great addition.

Mark

Hey - what do you guys think of the preview feature that GitHub uses? They basically have "Write" and "Preview" tabs overtop of the comment box. "Write" is highlighted by default, and if you click "Preview", it turns hides the input and shows you exactly your comment. Pretty slick, I think...

"Write":


"Preview":

[-Stash-]

Much better than what we've got now!

Eliminates the whole "Damn, I meant to preview, not post" thing as well. Gets my vote.

Also addresses the shortcomings in the current preview (shape, size, not being able to just hit "post" if everthing's good... etc). Maybe make them a bit more tab-like in style?

Dykam

Hmm, making it tab style sounds like making it possible too hook in extra tabs, like for example for discussion first-posts a poll editor.

MatthewAlan

I love the idea. It's a great idea, and it leaves plenty of room to add stuff later without a whole bunch of clutter. So, add a plus towards that feature for me.

[-Stash-]

@Dykam, that's an excellent way to add a poll! Just have a pol tab and if you put stuf in it, hey presto you have a poll :D Very cool idea.

MatthewAlan

That's what I thought. It keeps everything uncluttered, which keeps with Vanillas simplicity.

miquel

+1 @Dykam
sounds pretty good!

bobtheman

i like the idea, instead of adding a new button/link though.. the button could just change. like now we have the preview button, clicking that could change the comment box to show the preview like you've shown @Mark in your image examples and also change the preview button to "write". so you could click the "write" button to go back.

also, the edit button could work the same way, instead of loading in a new window.

I like this idea as long as there are no issues with embed scripts. IE youtube/polls/etc embed scripts when they are previewed almost always mess up and the script changes. Im sure everyone here can relate to this issue.

@Mark What do you think about the name completion idea... this would be very handy.

Mark

I love the name completion idea. As long as someone else writes it :P

Dykam

@bobtheman, what do you mean? Are you relating to the messy way Wordpress handles their input? VanillaForums doesn't have this problem as they parse the data display time, and leave it unprocessed in-between.

[-Stash-]

@bobtheman, Oooh, I like the idea of edit-in-place for comments :) Clicking the current edit button would just add in that extra "tab line" as in @Mark's images.

I don't see why embedded scripts should mess up so long as switching to the preview mode re-triggers scripts on the page. I believe this is usually a pretty trivial thing when using jQuery?

bobtheman

@Dykam
your right, vanilla isnt effected by this issue. :)

Dykam

@[-Stash-], extra tab line not required, you could easily transform the edit button line into a tabline, making edit save, and adding a preview button.

[-Stash-]

@Dykam, eh, I like the way it is now - very, very minimal and clean. Changing the edit button into a tab line visible all the time on every comment would make it feel very vBulletin/phpBB.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what it is you're saying... (entirely possible).

Dykam

Oh, in some way I assumed the edit button is permanently visible, which isn't the case, I in some way missed that while it was right in front of my eyes :P

bobtheman

i say, have the preview button load the preview in same window like @Mark referenced. then when your previewing the preview button changes to write so you can change back

edit should do the same, load in the same window

Dykam

I would still prefer having a tab, as it would be more extendable. Though when the HTML is properly set up, this also could be done via pure CSS. That is, whether it shows like a tab or like a button.

Mark

FYI - I've gotten all the in-place editing/previewing working in my dev branch. Will push to master this week.

[-Stash-]

I very much look forward to seeing this!