ReviewPost 6.0 Questions

[carsafety]

Originally Posted by Chuck S

Have you checked your template showproduct maybe?

http://www.photopost.com/forum/1302294-post18.html

I really do not see any replies from the last discussion where I said I did anything to your site as the discussion on the second page here just say I posted your exact post on my site and it displays fine.

You can send any data for me to look at your site if you want maybe we can find out what your issue is but if we can not replicate it anywhere else hard to post some fix for something we can not break anywhere.

Well right- in the past you had uploaded a file change or made some other change without any details. So, I have no idea what was changed, except that it was working for some time until one of the updates likely replaced a file.

All I know is that currently it looks perfect in the WYSIWYG editor (like in the image attached in post 22 of this thread), but extra two line breaks are added between every line of the product description when it is displayed on the page. These breaks must be being added somewhere.

For example, if you look at this page:

Dreamtime - CarseatMoms Product Gallery

You can see all the line breaks in the description area. These are not present at all when you look at them in the editor. They are being added somewhere else I think, because there's nothing I can remove in the editor at all. Unless there is some bug with the editor, though that doesn't explain why it had been working prior to one of the recent updates.

In looking back on all the posts like #33, it does look like one of the files you modified was indeed showproduct.php as I apparently found it had been updated which led to another issue, so that might be a place I can look to see if it is adding line breaks to descriptions somewhere. Of course, there may have been others I don't know for sure. But if you happen to recall anything, please let me know and I will try to make the change, then if it reverts in a future update, I know what to fix on my own;-)

[Chuck S]

Like I said I do not see anywhere in any discussion where I modified any file. I said in email posting from what I see we have discussion on TINYMCE editor and how you where maybe inserting posts might be causing your issue.

Because as I noted if I do a post in the editor but do not add extra intentional breaks etc things displayed fine. I beleive I even showed those in this thread.

Now as a test I added at the top of the showproduct template on your site a line to remove break tags and low and behold look at your description.

Basically somewhere in how your formatting the posts before you put them into the application your adding in returns or something that is putting in more break tags because our program will convert a return to a break as it should in html.

[carsafety]

Originally Posted by Chuck S

Like I said I do not see anywhere in any discussion where I modified any file. I said in email posting from what I see we have discussion on TINYMCE editor and how you where maybe inserting posts might be causing your issue.

Because as I noted if I do a post in the editor but do not add extra intentional breaks etc things displayed fine. I beleive I even showed those in this thread.

Now as a test I added at the top of the showproduct template on your site a line to remove break tags and low and behold look at your description.

Basically somewhere in how your formatting the posts before you put them into the application your adding in returns or something that is putting in more break tags because our program will convert a return to a break as it should in html.

Right- what happened is that I noticed that a change I had made to a file for amazon affiliate code was not working. When I looked at the file, I observed that it had been changed when you had been uploading files and corresponded to the time when the problem with the spacing was fixed, so I assumed you had fixed something. Perhaps coincidental, or maybe you simply uploaded a file for another reason that replaced a corrupted file or who knows what.

Anyway, I've been doing some experimenting based on reading back in this thread. If I turn of the advanced editor and look at the file with no editor, there are still no added line breaks.

What I did next was save it, and that instantly removed the line breaks in that post (but also a few intended line breaks as well).

Is it possible there is something in the advanced editor that would add an invisible line break of some type that is not shown in the WYSIWYG display or even shown in the html version if you turn off the editor altogether, but still gets parsed and converted into a double line break?

I apparently can go back and do this disabling of the editor one by one as I re-save all my product uploads to get rid of the added double line breaks, so there is a work around. Unfortunately, my moderators don't code in html so uploading html versions of product descriptions without an editor isn't really an option:-(

The other problem with this option is that intentional line breaks are also apparently now missing in some reviews, for example this one that I have not touched at all. Perhaps this is a result of something you just did recently? I am noticing that extra line breaks are gone in some reviews and they look fine now, but others like the one below are totally messed up as the intended breaks are gone.

Ambassador/High Rise - CarseatMoms Product Gallery

At some point on the line after you did the paid update to version 6.0, everything was displaying correctly and I'm pretty sure you didn't manually edit every review, so some other thing changed that caused the formatting to work. I know the only change I make after an update is to add my amazon affiliate code to showproduct.php and I am pretty sure that's not the cause I hope!

[carsafety]

Whatever you did when you said, "Now as a test I added at the top of the showproduct template on your site a line to remove break tags and low and behold look at your description." seems to have fixed a large majority of my product uploads and they now look as they looked prior to one of the updates.

There are a few that have some issues such as the one I lined in the last post, but I suspect those may have some other problem. I'll have to go through each one manually I think, but it now seems to be back to where it was before I updated to 6.03 or possibly 6.02.

Update: The few that I mentioned that have "issues" are not actually broken. They were some early products that were uploaded at a time when the list function was not working, so the moderators used manual asterisks or inserted a bullet instead and then used line breaks. I'll fix these manually now that the list feature is working as intended and reflects what you see using the advanced editor.

[carsafety]

Seems to be working as intended now, even with the advanced editor but I have some more testing to do.

Can you please specify what you changed in showproduct template for future reference?

[Chuck S]

You can look at the top of your showproduct template to see what I did all I did was remove break tags from descriptions.

Like I said however these descriptions are being done copying pasting from somewhere else there are tons of line returns in the actual code.

There are other ways to come about the issue it all depends on exactly how your porting the info in. If the issue is with doing whatever your doing just using the wysiwyg editor then there might be a line that you can adjust there.

The point I have made all along here is nobody but you has the issue and we have not been able to replicate it in the code using your own posts.

I know what your end result is you have all these break tags which I know has to do with how the data is being entered because returns are converted to breaks. return lines are used in emails in html a return is converted to a break tag or in the case of full line breaks it becomes two break tags.

[carsafety]

Ultimately, the problem we have is that what you see in the product upload editor is not what appears on the page once you save it. When you have a number of different people using different local editors to save their work so it isn't lost, they rely on the reviewpost editor to be a true WYSIWYG, which doesn't seem to be the case.

As you may recall, we had to do a lot of workarounds in the past because a lot of formatting features did not used to work correctly earlier in version 5, including lists, italics, bold, etc. Now that these are fixed, the moderators who create the product uploads could indeed create them from within the reviewpost advanced editor, but I think many prefer to save local copies of their work (in Word or notepad or whatever they use) and simply paste into the reviewpost editor. Some create in a regular vbulletin post then copy/paste so I have a backup online as well.

I'm sure this pasting is the cause of added line breaks. But what is confusing for them is that it looks correct in the editor view, then the line breaks appear later when they save and see it on the page, but they can't actually remove the breaks if they go back into the editor. So perhaps it is indeed a bug with the editor that does not show a break or return or whatever, but still saves it and is then coverted to a line break for display on the page.

I think we can probably work around this now, because it is working again like it was some time ago. Is this the line you added?

Content visible to verified customers only.

Now I have a reference and I can put this back in if a future update removes it:-)

Originally Posted by Chuck S

You can look at the top of your showproduct template to see what I did all I did was remove break tags from descriptions.

Like I said however these descriptions are being done copying pasting from somewhere else there are tons of line returns in the actual code.

There are other ways to come about the issue it all depends on exactly how your porting the info in. If the issue is with doing whatever your doing just using the wysiwyg editor then there might be a line that you can adjust there.

The point I have made all along here is nobody but you has the issue and we have not been able to replicate it in the code using your own posts.

I know what your end result is you have all these break tags which I know has to do with how the data is being entered because returns are converted to breaks. return lines are used in emails in html a return is converted to a break tag or in the case of full line breaks it becomes two break tags.

[Chuck S]

Yes that is the line I added as a test I found a login in our helpdesk that worked.

Like I said it is all about what it is that is being done for me to comment further. I am just trying to remember from a 4 month old discussion where I have already outlined the same replies I have done before.

If I take the output from the page and remove break tags so I am left with the straight html and wording of your description and put that in the editor it shows fine for me so the issue lies in whatever line breaks is being done when the things are being. I have no idea where your doing the line breaks.

[carsafety]

Originally Posted by Chuck S

Yes that is the line I added as a test I found a login in our helpdesk that worked.

Like I said it is all about what it is that is being done for me to comment further. I am just trying to remember from a 4 month old discussion where I have already outlined the same replies I have done before.

If I take the output from the page and remove break tags so I am left with the straight html and wording of your description and put that in the editor it shows fine for me so the issue lies in whatever line breaks is being done when the things are being. I have no idea where your doing the line breaks.

Wherever the bug is with between the advanced editor and how the uploads are being created with copy/paste, it seems to be fixed now with that line you entered into showproduct template. I guess you don't need that line if you work entirely within the advanced editor, but obviously I have a lot of reviews created in older versions and I was hoping to just get them back to how they looked before, which seems to be the case now.

I'll check with the various moderators working on reviews and make sure everything looks OK. I just went through one section and they all looked great, so thank you for that modification line of code. Since they all have to use the advanced editor within reviewpost and some may be copy/pasting from other editors, I guess this is what we will have to work with. Of course, if it was just one person doing it one way and creating product uploads only within the reviewpost editor, then this may not affect anyone else other than me. I'm not sure why the advanced editor doesn't show these line breaks after you paste, but as long as there is a fix now it should be fine. Thanks!

[Chuck S]

Your post changed in front of my eyes. Yeah just let me know specifically how or what your doing as like I said I can take the actual description and post it fine so not quite sure what the issue you are having is.

[carsafety]

Originally Posted by Chuck S

Your post changed in front of my eyes. Yeah just let me know specifically how or what your doing as like I said I can take the actual description and post it fine so not quite sure what the issue you are having is.

Thanks again for your help! I'll go through the other categories and make any necessary formatting fixes, but at least now with your fix they can be made to display as intended. Plus, now that I have that line of code, I can add it back if I have to update to 6.04 or something and it gets lost, so I think all is good now unless one of the other moderators uploading products runs into an issue with the fix.

[Chuck S]

Okay well not a problem. You can start separate threads for any other things you might need help with.

You posted another issue but then deleted it.

[carsafety]

So far, the fix seems to be working fine. Moderators can again format posts created in a word processor or a vbulletin post and paste into the reviewpost advanced editor, while maintaining the correct spacing. Thanks!

[Chuck S]

There is your isssue then doing it in a word processor LOL Only took 3 pages for you to finally say that.

Like I said the issue here is like when you type and you go to another line you hit the return key on and a double return is a double break. Our application correctly processes all that which is why no one can replicate your issue.

The issue is wholly related to what formatting is being done.

[carsafety]

Originally Posted by Chuck S

There is your isssue then doing it in a word processor LOL Only took 3 pages for you to finally say that.

I really don't know how people create their product uploads, so I don't know for sure, it's just a guess. It's always smart to create a local copy somehow to prevent data loss before you enter anything online, especially anything that took time to create. Most of those creating product uploads enter them into a regular vB4 forum post so there is a backup copy, because I know they are all familiar with the vB4 editor. Some may use notepad, wordpad, Word or whatever else they have. I really have no idea the technique they use, but we are trying to standardize it somewhat now given these issues. Some certainly used whatever method they found to avoid the shortcomings of version 5 with the formatting glitches and so they found a way to workaround that.

Like I said the issue here is like when you type and you go to another line you hit the return key on and a double return is a double break. Our application correctly processes all that which is why no one can replicate your issue.

The issue is wholly related to what formatting is being done.

Right- but the issue is that even if all those creating product uploads do it their own way, it would be nice if what they see in the ReviewPost advanced editor is how it appears on the product page when they are done. That's the ultimate issue, because even if one person's method adds extra returns or line breaks or whatever, they can't fix it if they can't see it in the RP advanced editor field. As it was prior to the fix you made yesterday, there was simply no way for anyone to remove those line breaks, even if their own method of creating the content added them. For whatever reason, there was no line spacing in the editor preview but two line breaks were added when the product was displayed.

Without your fix, their only choice was to start from scratch in the reviewpost editor. That's also not ideal, because like in vB4 or any online website, you can often lose data if you create it at the website. Not a big deal for a short post, but a real waste of time if you spend 30 minutes creating a product page and it glitches when you submit it for any reason from losing wi-fi to a server hang or whatever!

Anyway, it's all working nicely with your fix, but I do think it would be nice if the RP editor was true WYSIWYG, such that anyone uploading content could use whatever content creation method they prefer and still be able to tweak the layout once they paste it into reviewpost.

[Chuck S]

Most people use the actual editor box and type there description comment etc.

The tinymce editor is a true WYSIWYG EDITOR but that means the user actually type html text etc and it will display etc as intended.

The problem here lies in your using some 3rd party process to do the reviews and then copying pasting them which is also we you are the only person who has this issue.

I know this is a long standing issue for you but at least I know you now where using a word processor.

I am glad the fix works for your situation.

[carsafety]

Well, I don't know about most people, but those entering these product uploads are just typical community forum members with no expertise in coding or anything. They just do whatever they do normally as far as creating content and I expect any members in other communities would not all standardize one one exact method either. When I verified the issue, I used the vB4 editor to save my test products, not any kind of word processor, so I know at minimum that can cause the extra returns that are invisible in the reviewpost advanced editor. Since it doesn't show those line extra line breaks, it is definitely not always What You See is What You Get! So, perhaps it's an issue with the advanced editor, but it's still a potential issue others might find useful in regard to the fix here someday.

[Chuck S]

I am saying those people type the description in the box provided do not experience the problem. The issue as I am following here is coming from transferring from the word processor the editor. Remember I did my own testing copying pasting your very reviews in the review editor it worked fine.

The only difference here is obviously I did not type up a formatted reply in a word processor.

All I have said all along is that is where the returns are being done.

Your fix for you would actually cause a bug for everyone else because we want a line return to be converted to a break in descriptions comments otherwise you would not have any formatting.

My fix is a fix for you because how ever your doing things is causing you DOUBLE RETURNS which results in double spaces.

[carsafety]

It must be something from copying from the vBulletin editor, then, rather than a Word processor, because I'm not certain anyone actually did it from a Word Processor, though it is possible. And while some may have used a processor and some did not, the two extra line breaks appeared in every single product upload, so perhaps it was simply the pasting that added the extra breaks that did not show up within the editor.

The difference is that even with the fix as it is now, we can add line spacing within the editor as necessary and it shows up exactly as it appears on the page, so we can still space things out as much as we like, just like it had been when it was fixed before one of the recent updates. Without the fix, we could not remove the spaces within the editor because they were essentially invisible.

Obviously, if everyone creates in the advanced editor like you said, it should be fine, and probably also for those just buying version 6, who did not have to work around the lack of certain formatting when in version 5 from a year ago.

[Chuck S]

All I am saying here is there seem to be DOUBLE RETURNS that is the issue and those double returns appear to be in whatever your doing.