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forum post editor

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1 Description

  • It should be possible to format text with headings, bold, italic, indents and font without the use of HTML coding.
  • It should be possible to publish media files in forum posts

2 Status

3 Additional Information

  • If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: julia.kehl@let.ethz.ch (ETH Zürich : LET), studer@ilub.unibe.ch (Universität Bern)

4 Discussion

JF 5 May 2009
  • General options are: BB codes like PHPBB, TinyMCE or ILIAS page editor.
  • ILIAS editor would be overkill in the current version
  • BB codes are clean and would not lead to any XSS problems.
  • A reduced "secure" TinyMCE solution would be probably the best option. Security is crucial in the forum, so any server-side "white-list" procedure would be ok.

NET ETHZ, iLUB Uni Bern - 3 Juni 2009

JF 05 June 2009: Problems of using the ILIAS page editor:
  • The page editor uses an interna XML structure that separates design from content (using style sheets). E.g. "bold" is a non-semantic markup that would not be allowed to be used in the editor directly.
  • The XML structure makes it very difficult to use HTML editors like Tiny to edit the XML content. Tiny e.g. implements a different concept of media files than ILIAS. It also does not support extended features like google maps or the upcoming accordions.

We still think that it is not necessary to use the same editor for Wikis/Learning Modules and Forums since the requirements are different. The content/style separation is not important in forums. The WYSIWYG requirement and easiness in use is very important for forums. We also do not understand the requirement of Forum/Wiki transformation, since they are structured differently. However, we support the idea of (dynamically) embedding forum threads in content modules, e.g. in a Wiki, like discussed in a past development meeting.

Therefor we prefer to use a limited TinyMCE in the forums. We also discussed the way images should be supported. The way images are aligned in TinyMCE is sometimes confusing. A simpler way would be to attach images as thumbnails at the end of a posting.

Alex, 7 July 2009: We should use http://htmlpurifier.org/ to filter out any malicious HTML code to prevent XSS attacks.

JF, 13 July 2009: Michael is already working on this feature and we would highly appreciate if we can manage to provide it for 4.0.

5 Follow-up

The following Editor-Features were implemented for V 4.0 with TinyMCE:
  • Bold (str)
  • Italic (emp)
  • Underline
  • Insert Hyperlink (xln)
  • Insert Media
  • Attach File (Dateien)
  • Quote (quot)
  • Formulas (tex)
  • Code
  • Ordered List
  • Unordered List

Picture of the editor:

All other Features can be switched on/off in the administration to ensure that editing stays simple and reduced to the most important features.

The following features have not been developed yet - and they are not necessary for the ELBA2-project.
• The upload of an image has to be simpyfied – is has to be possible to embed images without using the media manager. It only needs a button “Browse” and “Add” and the user is invited to upload the image from his computer and the uploaded image will be show in the forum directly..
• The Media-Manager has to be expanded that embedded objects (as youtube) are allowed.
• Quoting: It should be possible to insert a <br> befor the quoting-box so it will be easier to move the quoting-box.

ILIAS_LM 2011-05-12:

What about an "undo"-button? Is it already on the list of follow ups?
EDIT: Postet the question now to the newer topic Default tiny options

Last edited: 20. Jul 2012, 14:41, Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]