2019-03-17 Feature request for minimal formatting in description box

Hi @jaykaybee,

the WordPress editor on the forums is from bbPress I think. This editor might be an OK addition, but I’m not sure if I can use this without any obstructions. Also, it’s not that intelligent. If you close a tag yourself, it does not reset the buttons.

Thanks you for looking up some editors. I checked them but I think they are far too heavy. The problem with HTML editors is that most of the time it gives you more tags than you need, with consequences for the layout and such.

I have searched a lot for simple editors, also now (just look at the time between this and my previous reply). At this moment there is one which I have considered (but is pretty old). It’s https://nicedit.com/demos.php?demo=2, but also this one assigns extra tags which you don’t need. It wraps everything in <div>-tags.

At this moment, I will not implement an HTML editor. I might look again at nicEdit later on, so I’ll leave this thread open for now.

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

Yes the forum editor is BBpress which WordPress developers also built, as they state in https://codex.www.ads-software.com/FAQ_Forums.

That is actually my other alternative for hosting a directory, is to make it a BBpress forum that is “one-way” – in other words, has no comments or interaction, but consists of short posts from me (the directory author). I tested this out and it is reasonably feasible. It involves a lot of CSS to strip out everything that is NOT needed and leave just the bare bones forum topic “posts” (again, closed to comments). You get some nice features from BBpress, including search, tags, a reasonable text edit box, and an RSS feed for each topic. I am going to implement a small version of my directory in BBpress and also in Name Directory. I have a feeling that the simplicity of Name Directory (one plug in and no CSS adjustments) will win out. I will keep you posted.

PS NicEdit looks very promising. I don’t understand the issue of div tags, but other than that, looks great! I wonder if they would be responsive to your feedback on div tags, maybe that can be made optional? I am happy to write them in support of your request if you go that direction.

Hey @jaykaybee,

Yes I think BBPress (without user interaction) will work too for you. I’ll check their editor out. NicEdit is good too, it seems to be abandoned, but the code is still available ??

Having <div> tags specifically isn’t an issue. The issue is that I don’t know on forehand how the CSS/site of the user is going to behave. So the least HTML tags the better. When a users types in his/her own HTML, they will know what’s coming. That’s an advantage I think.

I’ll try to checkout the NicEdit code in the coming days to see if it can be modified.

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

hey @jaykaybee,

are you still deciding whether or not to use Name Directory? I just have a user which is exploring the ability for an editor. As I also have a general settings page now I might add support for it to be toggled ??

Curious to hear from you, as we had some nice discussions about the plugin earlier on.

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

Hi Jeroen,

Short answer: I’m still evaluating Name Directory and comparing to my other solutions (see below)

Long answer:

I rejected using BBpress because configuring it was challenging for me. It turned into a lot of css to make it look how I wanted. It was a bit of a hairball.

Then I tested using the blog entry capability (standard) of WordPress. This was initially too cumbersome, but then I installed a plugin called Admin Columns Pro, and that was a great improvement because I can edit directly in the backend admin section. So I can add multiple entries from the same (backend admin) interface, quickly. My frustration with using blog entries was that I could not see how to partition out the blog entries for a name index, making it apart from other blog entries. They would show up in searches and when people hit “next entry” etc.

Then I discovered Content Views plugin which allows me to configure blog posts displayed on a page (like Name Directory). And also learned how to use custom menus to put a menu in a sidebar with tags, by category if needed.

Then I used Ivory Search to add a search box confining search to these particular blog posts (by tag or category)

All this allows me to use standard blog posts as the content, and yet display as I desire, while keeping these blog posts partitioned from other displays (or searches, indexing, etc) of blog posts

See screenshot:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddm2m7n47rc1syb/Screenshot%202019-07-17%2014.34.39.png?dl=0

and when you click on a directory item (e.g. the first one in the screenshot above)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcfytgmvdi49ouz/Screenshot%202019-07-17%2014.36.48.png?dl=0

Now I have to look at whether with all this configuration I have really added much value over Name Directory. I think perhaps not. Your solution is very elegant and simple and does 75% of what I need/want, with one plugin!

My wishes for Name Directory to get to 80 or 90% of my desired functionality would be: allow the titles to have links in them; and allow some formatting in the description (as we were discussing here).

I appreciate your great work!

Hey @jaykaybee,

thanks for elaborating and sharing your journey into WordPress. The thing that might come to Name Directory is the formatting.

I don’t think the links in titles would come to Name Directory, as I have to be able to reliably get a first charachter out of it.

There is another user (ahua), which also uses Name Directory for lots and lots of directories. He created a page for every directory he has so he can give some text before the listing starts. These pages go into a certain category, which WordPress can list. If that’s not what you need, you might be able to do so with the Content Views.
His example of a page with a Name Directory: https://www.whakapapaclub.nz/lists/eastern-maori-electoral-roll-1919/
His overal listing page: https://www.whakapapaclub.nz/category/lists/

Maybe that’s another approach for you to realize what you are looking for?

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

hey @jaykaybee,

please checkout v1.14.1 of the plugin, it now features a simple WYSIWYG editor ?? You do have to enable it in the (Name Directory) General Settings first by the way.

Please let me know if this is what you were looking for, I do hope so.

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

I really like the editor!

What I am a little confused about is that in the editor, I can enter paragraph breaks, and create some white space in my name description.

But then when the directory displays, and both the abbreviated/limited description, AND the full “read more” description, only display as run-on text, with no paragraph formatting (ie no vertical white space even where I entered a new paragraph space).

Is this the intended behavior?

See screenshot at https://www.dropbox.com/s/56gelkzs8ygdbbf/Screenshot%202019-08-10%2021.15.06.png?dl=0

Thanks again for your work on this great resource. I am still evaluating my options for a long-term project.

In my ideal world, you would allow links in the name itself, because then the user could skim a long list of “names” (in my case, resources), and click on the URL in the name to jump to the resource or to another relevant page. I think this would allow quick browsing and jumping to resources, without having to expand the “more description”. Also, the page that is “jumped to” could have all the formatting we want, whereas the “more description” could remain very lean.

I think though you are pointing to technical difficulties with allowing the name field to contain a link.

I think these are probably surmountable, for example, with an instruction that the first word cannot be a link.

PS those are great pages using multiple directories, I will keep them in mind as examples.

Hey @jaykaybee,

thanks for letting me know and test it. I will check it out to see if I can figure out if and what goes wrong.

As for the surmountability of the link in the name, sure it’s possible, technically. But I also know, and I don’t mean this the wrong way, people don’t really read. The issues that will arise with something that has a caveat like this will end up with me. The plugin is taking quite a lot of time for me already and as a young father I am not looking for a lot more.
But, I can create a custom version of Name Directory for you if you like and made your deciscion.

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

Thanks Jeroen, that’s a fair offer. I’ll keep you posted on how things evolve for me.

Hi @jaykaybee,

I can’t seem to replay the screenshot on my own development site. Would it be possible for you to export the list you have in your example, so I can import it here?

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters

Forgot to mention: using CSS you can also mount the description (which can contain your link) and the name itself next to eachother (instead of above/under). This way people can also skim through a list of resources and click where appropriate. The Read More link can be disabled btw ??

Kind regards,

Jeroen Peters