Planned/In Progress 🤩 XenForo 2.2 Forum Updates

[Adam]

Hi everyone! Not as many quickfire updates recently. I am currently holding out for XenForo 2.2 which should be launching very soon. This will bring:

• Much improved text editor
  

• New post types with voting & solutions (available in certain Q&A style categories)
  

• Automated activity summary digest newsletters
  
• Improved PWA support

• Improved search, new search forums and SEO

• Improved user settings including profile banners & security features
  

As soon as this is out, I'll be able to ensure all the latest styles are compatible and roll this out ASAP. I am really excited about the positive additions. They don't give specific dates until launched, but it will be very soon. I will keep you all posted! :-)

 

[Gummibeer]

Much improved text editor

It's still WYSIWYG so what has been improved?^^
Have they fixed the jumping cursor? Speed up the emoji finder (Rocket to the rescue)? Fixed some issues when backend validation fails without any reason and rejects posting until going into WYSIWYG mode and back? 🤔

 

[Adam]

It's still WYSIWYG so what has been improved?^^
Have they fixed the jumping cursor? Speed up the emoji finder (Rocket to the rescue)? Fixed some issues when backend validation fails without any reason and rejects posting until going into WYSIWYG mode and back? 🤔

Yes better emoji picker and much smoother experience with more reliable cursors and mobile support. This is a major version upgrade of the existing one that I've not heard any complaints about so looking forward to those improvements!

It'll also give me the scope to add better markdown support with a permanent toggle to remove unnecessary options for those that would prefer to use Markdown by default. I wanted to add to this one but holding off since will have to do all over again for new version!

 

[Gummibeer]

It'll also give me the scope to add better markdown support with a permanent toggle for those that would prefer to always use it.

ME! 🖐️🎉🚀🎈
markdown rules! 😅🤩

 

[RobinHood]

They took away the preview button text, and then put it back again. They should ditch the text again to clean it up. Once you figure out where the button is you don't need the text to spell it out for you every time.

I think they need to ditch the quick insert button too, can't see a way they'll make it useful enough to warrant the intrusion.

 

[Adam]

They took away the preview button text, and then put it back again. They should ditch the text again to clean it up. Once you figure out where the button is you don't need the text to spell it out for you every time.

I think they need to ditch the quick insert button too, can't see a way they'll make it useful enough to warrant the intrusion.

Totally agree on the quick insert. I'll be removing that as soon as I get my hands on it!

 

[Adam]

Public beta released today! I will be setting up a test site to build the new functionality out and launch the moment it is stable. It comes with improved article functionality which has the potential to replace the currently in-development Webwide blog. We'll see. Will keep you posted!

 

[Adam]

Upcoming Article Thread Types will form the foundation of the blog: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/article-thread-and-forum-updates-and-improvements.183723/ in conjunction with the tagging system which will be repurposed for blog use only giving all users the opportunity to contribute (with approval) and be featured on a more prominent feed. Canonical URL support will be provided for those wishing to republish.

Thread types including questions, discussions, polls and articles will allow for greater thread customisation and much much improved Q&A system: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/thread-type-tools.183720/

Giphy integration brings inline GIF search and posting: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/giphy-integration-image-proxy-bypass-and-audio-uploads.183721/

Audio uploads also available but not sure how much use we would get out of those.

Beta 2 launched today. Since we're a relatively small community, I am very impatient and capable of fixing minor bugs if needed it is likely I will go live with a RC given that there are no known security issues (unlikely seeing as that it is a, although feature packed, minor release and they are using it themselves on the XenForo community).

Very very excited about the possibilities this all unlocks to really take the platform to the next level. This will also be some great fuel as a 'V2' for some fresh promotion and community building.

 

[Adam]

Assuming the busy XenForo forum continues to run fine on this version, you can expect these changes live by the end of August. I know how much we all hate 'soon'! Unfortunately that's all the timeline I was given too by XF devs but there does not seem to be any breaking complaints about Beta on multiple busier forums so far. 😄

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1291476219213406208

 

[Gummibeer]

@Adam will the blog post canonical work like Dev or medium by importing a full content RSS feed? Or do I have to copy every post my own? 🤔

 

[Adam]

The plan at the moment is to work like Dev where you can submit an article post in to any forum category using the post editor (which will also be much improved) with a canonical URL custom field to ensure you protect your own SEO and have a backlink to your site.

When creating a thread you'll pick from Discussion, Q&A, Poll, Article. Options might depend on the category.

It is also possible to import RSS feeds to automatically create posts which may be an option for users who consistently put out high quality stuff that deserves to be listed like I'm sure yours will be.

To launch it will probably just be manual but if people like the blog implementation then RSS can definitely be on the roadmap. :)

You can see a bit like what that looks like here: https://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen/

You can see that the first post has its own styling (ours will look much better!) then a standard forum discussion underneath in place of comments. These will be mixed in with discussions in forum listings but selected posts will be pulled in to a featured carousel on the homepage (which will be hideable for users who don't wish to see them).

 

[Gummibeer]

Okay, possibly the RSS could be a benefit unlocked by a trophy. Like after posting 5-10+ posts by hand or whatever.
And will you want HTML or markdown or both? Right now I'm checking all the tools to cross post and would like to see how well they can use the same feed.

 

[Adam]

Nice idea! If we pull from RSS it'll be HTML. Posts made manually will still have to be in BB code with some Markdown support or pasting rendered content in to the WYSIWYG should do a lot of the formatting for you. An unfortunate limitation of the software but something I'm working hard to make as flexible as possible!

 

[Adam]

Also wondering about implementing web monetisation for people to add in their profiles and be displayed on their articles/threads. I know support is still very limited but we might as well be a starter! Fields for BuyMeACoffee, Ko-fi, GitHub sponsors and Patreon will be available too.

 

[Adam]

New forum update delayed until 5th September (sorry!) but other changes such as category changes, branding, OG images, etc. will be phased in before then.