Add subscript and superscript

1 Requirements

Currently the page text editor only supports the mark ups str, emp, imp and additional formatting as comment, quotation, accentuated and code.
 
It would be very desirable to also have the basic formatting options superscript and subscript, especially when editing chemical and mathematical formulas and units like degree Celsius.
 
As implementation was not so hard, it was already done for our local ILIAS installation and is provided as a diff against ILIAS version 4.3.4.
The patch is attached at the end of this page.
 
Please note that a db migration step may be needed for existing content (as stated in the discussion section below) which is not provided by the patch.
 
The patch is provided "AS IS" without warranties of any kind.
The patch, if applied, may leave your installation non functional, lead to loss of data and loss of profits.

2 Additional Information

• Idea / concept: Dietrich Streifert, dietrich.streifert@googlemail.com
• Funding: ILIAS-Verein for integration and migration
• Maintainer: Alexander Killing, LEIFOS
• Implementation of the feature was done by Alex Killing
  
• Tested by: Matthias Kunkel

3 Discussion

Alex Killing, 19 Dec 2013: Some of the code changes should not be necessary, since they are done in unused code, but this does not do any harm. But as far as I see, the patch does not take care of existing content styles (which would need a db migration step), right?

Dietrich Streifert, 20 Dec 2013: Right, we are starting from scratch, nothing to migrate yet. So there is no migration step included in the patch. I've changed the text in section 1 and 5 accordingly and added a hint to the implementation point at section 2.
Could you please explain a bit more how existing content is affected by the patch? Thank you.

Dietrich Streifert, 11 Feb 2014: Any plans to discuss this on a jour fix for release 4.5?
Further: It would be very interresting to know how this affects existing content.
If subscript or superscript is already present in existing content couldn't that contant stay as is? Additional informations would be great!
Thank you.

Alex Killing, 13 Apr 2014: I support the request (including db migration of existing styles).

Matthias Kunkel, 13 Apr 2014: I support this request, too. Based on the recommendations by the maintainer and the head of development I schedule the feature for 4.5.
 
@ Alexander Killing: are you re-using the code provided by Dietrich Streifert or implementing an own solution?

Matthias Kunkel, 26 Oct 2014: Postponed due to missing funding / ressources.

Matthias Kunkel, 20 Feb 2015: Funding is available and contract settled.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], May 19, 2015: It's great to have sub- and superscript in the page editor with 5.1. But we should consider to modify the default line height of paragraphs. The following screenshot shows that the current line height is not sufficient - at least for superscripted characters. And in the end, more space between lines improves readability. A line height of 140% is recommended for example by the page ‘The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard’ (see also Design Revision Part 2).

Another issue is sub- or superscirpt in wiki links. Of course, this cannot be supported by ILIAS. But at the time being, ILIAS allows to save a paragraph with a sub- or superscripted character and does not notify the user when saving it. ILIAS just shows the text with brackets around. If a syntax check and notification is too complicated I can deal with the current behaviour.

4 Implementation

Testcases

• http://testrail.ilias.de/index.php?/cases/view/5089 : Text als Superscript /Subscript formatieren
• http://testrail.ilias.de/index.php?/cases/view/5094 : Text Content Menü in Administration anpassen
• http://testrail.ilias.de/index.php?/cases/view/5095 : CSS-Klassen zur Formatierung von Text anpassen

Approval

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], May 20, 2015: tested successfully and approved.