New Create Entries management page

[denise]

This post is to report bugs in the new Create Entries page. This is a complete rewrite of the old Update page, in order to allow for future expansion and new features such as draft posts, scheduled posts, recurring posts, expanding the range of what can be posted to your journal, and a whole host of other awesome things.

When reporting bugs, please include:

* The browser name, browser version number, and operating system you're using
* The steps you took to reproduce the problem
* Whether or not you've tested the same steps in another browser (and if so, which)
* Whether you get the same result every time you try the same steps, or if it only happens sometimes

If we can't reproduce the problem under the same browser and operating system, we may also ask you for a list of any browser extensions you have installed.

Not all features are completely implemented in the new Create Entries page yet. The biggest thing currently missing is the Rich Text editor -- the only option is the plain-old-HTML option. The design of the page is geared towards changing concepts and visual/workflow metaphors around what it means to "post an entry", too -- because of the forthcoming draft and scheduled posts, we needed to adapt some of the language and some of the ways we present concepts -- even though the draft and scheduled post functionality isn't ready to be released yet. So, if something looks awkward or like it doesn't quite fit, it's probably there to allow for something we'll be releasing in the future. (You can still mention it, though!)

Things we also consider to be bugs that should be reported, in addition to something not working right:

* if you can't figure out what to do at any step of the update process
* if you have accessibility-related problems (with your screenreader, with the tab order of the page, with the workflow, etc)
* if something about the new workflow completely breaks the way you use your journal, and you can't figure out any way to work around it (there may be a way to do what you're used to doing, but if you can't figure it out, that's something we might change or might want to document, etc)

You can enable or disable beta testing at any point.

Not yet enabled

* Rich Text editing
* Using the new Create Entries page for editing existing entries
* Using the new Create Entries page for comm admins deleting posts or performing admin overrides
* Draft posts of any type, including the in-browser saved drafts that exist right now

Known/Reported Bugs

* some difficulties crossposting, looks like possibly date-related? we're trying to figure it out.

Should be fixed

* Settings not properly saving when using the "gear" customize-this-page popup; some modules disappear
* Create Entries form being repeated after posting an entry
* Error in link to Beta Features at top of page
* Error messages when using new update page in older versions of Firefox
* Difficulties with IE (oh, IE)
* Errors with time being truncated
* inactive icons showing in the icon browser
* minsecurity of journal not reflecting properly in update form
* whole host of display glitches

Comments

[momijizukamori]

Okay, thanks!

[starwatcher]

Thank you. Denise explained that under a similar comment in her notification post, but I forgot to come here and say that my question had been answered.

Yeah, there's lots more that goes into development than I even want to be aware of. But I guess it's human nature to want "this" instead of "that." Figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Sorry to bother you.

[momijizukamori]

No problem - and maybe someday we will have more options! But we gotta get through the hard bits before that can even get contemplated, heh.

[melissamaples]

1. Yay, thank you.

2. Oh wow, how did I not see that. Yes, that issue is resolved now, thank you. User density.

3. Hmmm, would be cool if this could be a user option (old way / new way).

4. The way I have it the page currently set up, the two buttons are right next to each other (or rather one is on top of the other). For me the fact that they say different things is more confusing than the number of buttons. I think if they do the same thing they should say the same thing. That said, now that I know they do the same thing I'll just ignore one of them, no biggie.

5. I value accessibility for everyone over my privileged nitpicky bs, so I will happily adjust to the current page element positioning. I'm glad we do have some drag and drop capabilities, and I love that we can hide elements of the page that we don't use — that's really helpful.

Thanks to you and Denise and the whole team for all your hard work!

[trobadora]

Oh, that's interesting, I can see why people would want that! Though I'm not actually seeing how that works - new/misspelled tags seem to display identically to established ones once they're entered? And the old form already had autocomplete. (Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something!)

For how the tags display, would it be possible to make the comma-separated list an option that users could select? Or is that entirely impossible with the new code?

[momijizukamori]

Hmm, they should be styled differently - are they not for you?

'fediverse' is an existing tag for me, 'fabric yay' is a new one.

It's not impossible but we're really, really at the point where we need to get this out of beta first, which means any changes that aren't 'this is functionally broken' aren't gonna happen right now, sorry!

[momijizukamori]

2) glad that worked, heh

3) It's not impossible but we're really, really at the point where we need to get this out of beta first, which means any changes that aren't 'this is functionally broken' aren't gonna happen right now, unfortunately!

4) Ahh, that makes sense - I'm guessing you have a lot of modules turned off, they're farther apart otherwise (like they're nearly a full vertical screen apart for me).

[trobadora]

Oh! No, you're totally right - there's a difference with the new tag having a dotted line border, that didn't register for me at all. I was only looking at the tag itself, not the border. Thanks for your patience!

[momijizukamori]

np! Yeah, it's a little subtle but it's there :)

Position of "post to" button

[starwatcher]

I just realized --

I post to several journals. Specific subject-headings will appear with the 1st letter typed if I've selected the journal to which I post.

But the way the page is set up now, I need to scroll past the text-entry box, click to select the relevant journal, then scroll up to type subject-heading and fill in the text box.

I tried the two-column view, but that element does not fit on the side even if I drag the text-window narrower.

I figured out a work-around -- make the text-box smaller top-to-bottom, so that the "Post - To where - Preview" element is visible when I open the 'create entries' page. But after I choose "to where," I need to drag the text entry box bigger for comfortable typing, so I still need extra steps to make an entry.

Is it feasible to have a separate "post to" selection above the text-entry box, as it was in the previous style? Perhaps a separate "post to" button above, while the current one continues to share the "Post - To - Preview" element below the text-entry box, so folks could click which is most convenient for them?

Probably not, or someone would already have thought of it. But if you could explain why it won't work, I'll find it easier to live with. (Though I'll still grumble to myself in the privacy of my own thoughts.)



EDIT: Bah, humbug! When I opened a new 'create entry' page, I learned that the text-entry box doesn't stay at the smaller size I set it to. I.E: my supposed "work-around" won't actually work, because the page continues to open with a box that fills the screen, rather than the smaller size I dragged it to.

If you can't add a "Post to where" button above the text-entry box (which I expect), would it be possible for the text-entry box to remain the size the user drags it to, as a default when opened?


I use Firefox on a Windows laptop, both updated to the latest versions.

[katuah]

Heeeyyy I'm new at this beta testing thing, hopefully this is useful feedback. I have not yet had time to read all previous comments, so I don't know if this stuff has been reported yet or not.

Posting from Firefox 119.0.1 64-bit on Mac OS 10.15.7

I don't see ANY calendar or time changing option AT ALL. I wondered if maybe I could post and then edit after posting, but nope. I see no way to change the timestamp of the post. This pretty much sucks, as I often start a post and then don't finish it for ages, and I regularly update the time to match the actual final posting time and not the time I start writing.

Also, auto-draft-save isn't working. I discovered this somewhat by accident. I decided I'd copy off my draft, refresh and start a new post in order to reset the timestamp (as described above). When I went to start the new post it asked if I wanted to restore, I said yes, but it didn't actually restore anything.

If it matters, the POST button is waaaaay down on the left, very much removed from the rest of the buttons and boxes. I'm surprised it's not on the right next to the PREVIEW, as it is showing up _here_ as I type this comment! This seems like an odd disparity/inconsistency in the user interface.

Will let you know if I get a chance to test on another OS/browser.

[fjorlief]

I noticed the same thing, about being able to edit the time/date stamp... couldn't find any way to do so when using the beta version. Sorry that I can't say what system I am using other than that my browser is Firefox, I am too ignorant.

[pangolin20]

Hmmm, I can do so, if I go to settings and enable "Display Date" there. Could you try that?

[denise]

- The entry date/time is in the "Display Date" settings panel -- I don't remember if it's enabled by default, and I'll take another look at what's enabled by default vs what's not (it's been a long, long time since we looked at that), but you can enable it by hitting "Settings" in the upper right corner and checking the box for "Display Date".

- The auto-save draft function is copied wholesale from the old entry page, and it's really (like, really) old and doesn't work perfectly in modern browsers. We're doing what we can with it, but the code is essentially 25 years old by now and it's really rough going troubleshooting it. We are going to be replacing it with a more integrated on-site draft function, but it's a terrible catch22: we need to get this out of beta to be able to do both the extensive backend and frontend work that needs to be done in order to accomplish it. So the current version is a best approximation at copying the previous behavior, and we know it's busted in a lot of ways; I'm sorry.

- Can you give me a screenshot of what you mean with the post buttons? We deliberately have the 'preview' button set apart from the 'post' button somewhat, because putting it right next to the post button triggered some weird brain behavior for folks, but I want to make sure you're not having a display problem.

[meghan9436]

Under the old create entries page, I　often switched back and forth between the rich text editor and raw html editor. On the new create entries page, I was able to switch from the casual html editor to the raw html editor, but it doesn't allow me to go back to any other editor. Now I'm stuck with the raw html editor.

[dreadlordmrson]

Coming back again to say that with continued use of the new tag system, it continues to be really awkward and get in my way often.
The tag checking is laggy. I type part of a tag and try to tab to fill the tag but I have to wait a second first or it fills whatever tag is as the start of my category instead of the proper tag.
I have a lot of tags like
[c: games: videogames]
But if I type [c: games: vi] and hit tab too fast, it fills out the first entry in [c: games] as [c: games: analysis] instead.

Also any time I make a mistake in my tags it's fussy to edit.

Also I used to be able to fill out partial categories with the old tag system:
[c: his] autofill to [c: history] add [: j] then autofill again to get [c: history: japan], but now autofill would just complete the tag as [c: history] so I either have to edit the tag or type all the way to [c: history: j] before autocompleting.

It's really slowing me down a lot and frustrating me.

ETA: [Removed a different ETA].

[fjorlief]

Oh! Thank you... that did make it possible for me to do what I needed to!! It does work to allow me to edit the date

[pangolin20]

Happy to have helped!

[silveredeye]

less of a bug and more of a feature request

Would it be possible to make the text size in the Rich Text Editor customizable somehow? I used the old create entries page at 120% browser zoom, because the RTE text was so tiny. The new create entries page is reasonable-sized in other regards... which means zooming in enough to make the RTE text readable for me makes everything else kinda huge. I couldn't get a Stylus script to target the RTE (I might be using the wrong css selector, though), and going through the browser's developer options is starting to get a bit old.

I'm 100% sure simply increasing the RTE text size would break the page for other people's workflows, so something like a setting to change the RTE's visible font size (not that of the entry when it's posted) would probably be optimal. But I get it if it's simply too hard given the age of this codebase. :)

I'm on Firefox 120.0 on Linux Ubuntu.

[oursin]

I can't seem to change my default icon? I do so but it changes right back to the existing default icon.

[ashkitty]

After hitting Post, the page told me there was an unclosed bold tag in the entry. I looked it over, previewed it, but there wasn't actually. (There is a bold tag, it's closed.) It wouldn't let me just post anyway, so had to turn the beta testing off and use the old page.

*Firefox 120.0.1 on Windows 10 (64bit)
*I tried retyping the tags, and refreshing, but then just turned off the new page.
*I have not tested in another browser
*This is the only entry I've posted with the new page but will come back if it happens again.

[snickfic]

When I select a custom access filter for a post, if I change my mind and want to pick a different one instead, I can't do that directly. I can select "A custom filtered entry" from the dropdown, but it won't prompt me again with all my filters. Instead I have to choose a different option (like "Private") and then switch back to "A custom filtered entry," at which point my list of filters comes up again. It's not a dealbreaker, obviously, just a nitpick I wanted to let you guys know about if you hadn't seen it yet.

* Firefox 120.0.1 on Windows 10 (64bit)
* This happens every time
* I've also tried it on Brave 1.60.125, Chromium 119.0.6045.199

[matsushima]

Is there no auto-save feature any more? It just ate my post and I couldn't get it back, despite the page having been open long enough for a draft to have saved, I think…

I hope it was just a one-off. I relied on that feature. (I'm clumsy and hit [ctrl]+[R] when I meant to hit [ctrl]+[T] sometimes.)

[juan_gandhi]

Hey, I've been using beta for a while, but where's "set post date"? I'm currently having fun filling my blog with dates from the past, hoping to go as deep as when I was 3 years old (I kind of have a very very good memory).

[denise]

Click the "rearrange panels" link in the top right corner and enable the "Display Date" panel! (We chose which panels were default-enabled based on how often the function in them was used, and very very few people change the dates on posts when they're posting, so that one didn't make the threshold.)