Author Archives: Andrew Ozz

Andrew Ozz 11:22 pm on March 8, 2016
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Link modal (wpLink) changes in WordPress 4.5

There is a new and improved inline links dialog in the Visual Editor, see #33301. When the users type in the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org field, it uses jQuery UIUI User interface Autocomplete to search for local posts and pages.

The old modal dialog (a.k.a. wpLink) is still used for “Advanced” link options. It was simplified, the infinite scrolling bottom part was removed. Now this dialog also uses UI Autocomplete on the URL field to search for posts and pages. That makes it consistent with the inline dialog and leaves more space for plugins that want to add additional settings in it.

If your pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party uses or extends wpLink, please test it now to confirm all is working properly.

#4-5, #dev-notes, #editor

Andrew Ozz 4:31 pm on October 14, 2015
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Shortcodes roadmap — clarifications

As mentioned in the initial shortcodes roadmap post, the main purpose of this roadmap is to find the best way for improving the shortcodes APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. and moving it forward. Currently it is slow, fragile, and attempts to handle a lot of edge cases. For this, the most important part is:

  • No shortcodes in HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. tags attributes.
  • No HTML in shortcodes attributes.

There are a few things that deserve to be clarified. Simple shortcodes are great. They are easy to understand and be typed directly by the users. Example: [gallery].

Unfortunately many plugins add complex shortcodes with many attributes and often with nested shortcodes. These are a nightmare for the users. They are not intended be typed directly and can be edited by some sort of UIUI User interface. Using shortcodes to store this type of data in post_content is not a good idea. Since there is a UI for entering and editing, it would be better to use a simple shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. to “hold the place”, and save all the data in post metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress..

Many of these complex shortcodes also include HTML tags in their attributes. To keep that functionality, the second roadmap draft proposed an extended syntax that allows the shortcodes “content” (the text wrapped by [shortcode] and [/shortcode]) to be additionally separated by delimiters. That would allow for shortcode attributes to contain HTML tags that are stored in the shortcode content.

These delimiters are not intended to be typed directly by the users. They are intended for the plugins that have shortcode editing UI and cannot function without storing HTML in shortcode attributes.

At first look this makes the syntax needlessly complex. However after looking at how complex shortcodes are used now, it is relatively the same: these shortcodes cannot be typed directly and are useless without some sort of UI.

There have been questions about line breaks in shortcode content. It is possible to add support for this. However it will benefit only a very small amount of users. Since shortcodes “live” in HTML context, and line breaks are ignored there, typing in the Text editor and switching to the Visual editor will remove all line breaks. Typing in the Visual editor will add paragraph tags. So only users that never use the Visual editor and have to type long, complex shortcodes will see some benefit.

The Shortcode API Roadmap meeting is in #feature-shortcode today at 17z, which is 2015-10-14 1700.

#meeting, #roadmaps, #shortcodes

Andrew Ozz 8:30 pm on August 30, 2015
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Shortcodes roadmap

The ShortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. is well loved by developers. Thousands of plugins use it for many cool features.

Unfortunately it wasn’t documented well when it was added. Even now the documentation is somewhat incomplete. The API was also very permissive, allowing many unintended user cases.

The result of these early mistakes is that there are plugins which use shortcodes in very unintended ways: mixed with HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. tags, nested several levels deep, with huge attributes, etc.

What are shortcodes:

  • With one word: placeholders.
  • Convenient way to add dynamic content inside post_content at run time.

What shortcodes are not:

  • A way to conceal user input in post_content.
  • A way to store any type of data in post_content. There are better places and methods for that, like post metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress..

Shortcodes “live” in the same context as HTML tags. They should obey the same rules. Also — no interlinking between HTML tags and shortcodes. Think of the [ and ] being equal to < and >.

Both <p title="<b>my title</b>"> and [paragraph title="<b>my title</b>"] should be illegal for the same reasons. Also <p title="[my-span]">. I know the current shortcodes parser mostly supports these, and some plugins use them, but that will probably need to change “for the greater good”.

There is simply no good reason for trying to support mixing of shortcodes and tags with the current parser. These cases take longer time and more resources on every front-end page load. They require much more complex code to sanitize and ensure they are safe to run. If plugins cannot operate without mixing shortcodes and HTML tags, they will eventually have to implement their own placeholders and parsers, and ensure all data is sanitized properly. This will require a lot less time, effort and processing as the plugins would know what to expect.

We’ve been talking about this with @miqrogroove for a while now. There are several very interesting suggestions in his post on the subject: http://www.miqrogroove.com/blog/2015/shortcode-v44/.

We both agree that we need to create shortcodes roadmap, similar to the taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. roadmap. This will allow us to fix the shortcomings in the Shortcode API and clear the path for future improvements.

#roadmaps, #shortcodes

Andrew Ozz 1:31 am on July 9, 2015
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Editor changes in WordPress 4.3

The editor initialization was updated. The main change is that the content for both Visual and Text editors is prepared/escaped the same. We used to run the content through the PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher wpautop() when the default editor was TinyMCE. This is no longer needed as we run the textarea content through the JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. wpautop() before initializing TinyMCE.

In that terms wp_richedit_pre() and wp_htmledit_pre() were deprecated together with the richedit_pre and htmledit_pre filters. They were replaced by format_for_editor() and the format_for_editor filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output.. For more information see #32425.

Another change is the complete removal of the code for the old Distraction Free Writing mode. This code was disabled and has been unused since WordPress 4.1. We left it in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. so the authors of plugins that were using it would have plenty of time to update.

If this is essential for some plugins, the files from WordPress 4.2 can be reused. For more information see #30949.

If you are the author of a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party that uses any of the deprecated functions or filters, please update it now. If your plugin uses wp_editor(), please test it in the latest betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process..

As always, feedback is very welcome.

#4-3, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

Andrew Ozz 6:33 pm on January 18, 2014
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TinyMCE 4.0 is in core

This is a major upgrade for the WordPress editor. There are many changes in 4.0:

  • New UIUI User interface and UI APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..
  • New theme.
  • Revamped events system/API.
  • Better code quality, readability and build process.
  • Lots of (inline) documentation.
  • And generally many improvements everywhere.

All default TinyMCE plugins have been upgraded. The WordPress implementation custom plugins  were upgraded too. Looking in the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party repository, there are a lot of WordPress plugins  that add a TinyMCE plugin. Because of all the API changes, most of these plugins would need an update too. If you are the author of such plugin, please test it in trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. now.

Generally there are three groups of TinyMCE plugins added by WordPress plugins:

  • Custom plugin created specifically for the WordPress plugin. If you’ve developed this kind of plugin, please see the 3.x to 4.0 migration guide and the 4.0 API documentation.
  • WordPress plugins that add third-party or default TinyMCE plugins would (of course) need to be updated to include the 4.0 version of the plugin. The PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher global $tinymce_version can be used to determine which plugin to load.
  • Mini-plugins that only add a button to the toolbar. This works pretty much the same. It is advisable to update to use the ‘dashicons’ icon font instead of image icon.

TinyMCE 4.0 includes a ‘compat3x’ plugin that should prevent all fatal errors caused by old plugins and adds compatibility for most of the 3.x API methods. If there are any editor related JavascriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. errors while running trunk, please open a tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. quoting the first error from the browser console.

#3-9, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

Andrew Ozz 8:20 pm on January 25, 2013
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Agenda for today’s autosave and post locking team…

Agenda for today’s autosave and post locking team meeting at 21:00 UTC:

  • Assign contributors for each component: Autosave in the browser storage, Post locking, Login expiration warning.
  • Further discussion on workflow for post locking, perhaps look at the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party by jayminkapish on #18515.
  • Free-form Q&A.

#3-6, #autosave-and-post-locking

Andrew Ozz 12:58 am on January 19, 2013
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Autosave and Post Locking

Components and design

As Mark pointed out earlier, this task includes several different components:

“WP Heartbeat” APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., #23216. This will do polling or long-polling so the server is able to send data and notifications to the browser. The primary use will be for setting, monitoring or taking over a post lock. Additionally it will be used to send autosave data to the server. It looks like we won’t need long-polling for now as post locks are not that time sensitive. A “standard” polling every 15 seconds would be sufficient.

Post locking. How exactly to lock a post and how a user can take over the lock? Best would be to prevent user B from being able to edit the post while user A is still writing or editing. Some ideas discussed at the IRC meetup yesterday are to overlay a transparent div over the editor and/or set the form fields to read-only. There will be a button for user B to take over the lock, clicking it will prompt user A to save the post and close the browser tab. While user B is waiting to take over, we could show a non-editable “preview” of the content (even inside the editor) updated with every “heartbeat”.

In addition we would show whether a post is being edited on the Posts screen (list table) , perhaps with the same type of button to request taking over. Other ideas welcome.

Autosave to the browser’s local storage, #23220. Keep several revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. of the content on the user’s hard drive, saving every 10 seconds and “flushing” to the server every 2 minutes (same as currently). After saving to the server (including saving a draft or publishing), empty the local storage and start again. So at the end of creating or editing a post, the local storage will be empty.

This will require “plugging into” the revisions API for restoring revisions from the local storage and some UIUI User interface for letting the user recover the last revision from local storage when it exists.

Log-in expiration warnings. Update the current functionality to use the new heartbeat API and improve the UXUX User experience and UI. We can detect cookies expiration earlier and show a warning that would open an iframeiframe iFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser. so the user can log in again. After that interim log-in, we will need to update all nonces.

Office hours

The first feature team meeting in IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net. will be next Tuesday, 22 January at 1pm PST / 21:00 UTC. Please join us if you’re interested in participating in the development of any of the above components.

#3-6, #autosave-and-post-locking

Andrew Ozz 3:50 am on August 11, 2012
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A bunch of unused images were removed from…

A bunch of unused images were removed from coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. in changeset 21498. Several of them were background gradients that were replaced with CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. 3 gradients. The rest have been unused in core for few releases.

However there are some plugins that use a few of these images and would need updating. Best thing to do would be to copy the images locally as that makes a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party independent from core changes. If the images were gradients, best would be to use CSS 3 gradients (example).

#plugins

Andrew Ozz 7:53 am on February 14, 2012  

Team update: Editorial

The first cycle finished yesterday. First run patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. for supporting HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. in image captions is on #18311. Includes handling of the HTML in both editors and basic UIUI User interface for inserting a link in the image properties tab in the gallery.

For the second cycle: testing, refining and committing HTML support for image captions, finishing up DFW support for editors not on the write screen, other editor enhancements and code improvements for example using the native MCE dialogs for our plugins instead of thickbox.

Andrew Ozz 9:36 pm on February 9, 2012  

Team update: Tableteers

Cycle ending on February 22.
(George Stephanis and Zach Abernathy)

1. Adminadmin (and super admin) Left Nav Menu Scroll Independently ( Enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. )
The idea is for the Main Left Nav to scroll independently of the body, and metaboxes on the right to create the most usable interface for tablet users. This will create more of an “app” effect best for navigating and using the WordPress admin without the use of an actual app. It was decided not to go this way in #19994.

2. Clean Up Touch UIUI User interface for Left NavMenu / Flyouts ( Bugfixes )
While the flyout is mostly usable in it’s current state, it is not as intuitive as it needs to be for the best user experience. They are ineffective at best on the Kindle Fire’s Silk Browser, but work pretty well on the iPad. We need to examine all target devices to ensure interactivity is supported cross-device.

3. Possibly add support for dragging of metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. boxes
In the desktop version of WordPress a user has the ability to move metaboxes around to customize their interface. However, touch-and-drag support is not as intuitive on a tablet. There are possible work-arounds that need to be explored. Alternately, there is the possibility of pre-determining the number of columns and not support drag-and-drop.

4. Dashboard and write screen columns (with @media)
Determining the number of columns that are present in landscape view versus portrait view. This would need to be tested on a per device basis to determine the optimum number of columns. In WP 3.3 this effect was generated via JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors.. We should be able to yield better performance by handling this via CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets..

5. Resolve Amazon Silk Browser ( Kindle Fire ) WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. Incompatibility
Currently, the WordPress WYSIWYG (TinyMCE) does not work in the Android Fire Silk Browser, but it does on the native Android browser. This is due to the Silk browser still not supporting the `contentEditable` attribute properly.