Extedit_XH

[cmb]

Hello Community,

I've just released Extedit_XH 1alpha1.

Extedit_XH facilitates to have an arbitrary amount of so called "extedits", i.e. content areas, which can be edited by users logged in via Memberpages_XH or Register_XH. The plugin offers basically the same functionality as One Page for simpleMultiUser, but uses the editor of CMSimple_XH. For security reasons the file browser is replaced with a minimal image picker.

Any feedback is welcome.

Christoph

[svasti]

Ah, so you have beefed up the little userfuncs.php script a whole lot...
Just tested it... My test surrounding crashed right away, because I still had the exedit userfunc active.

Very nice you made it into a full plugin. I hope you don't mind some hints for improvement:

The image picker shows all images in the same hight and no image names. Thats not so practical when images are very small or when you have several sizes of the same image. I'd prefer if smaller images are shown in actual size. Bigger images should of course be reduced. Size of image (height x width in px) would be a helpful addition, may be name also.

Same for CKeditor.

Setting for "image subfolder" is to me incomprehensible.

Whether the editor should have access to the general image folder ("0") or to his own subfolder ("1").

General image folder is clear, but where is "his" (is the editor a he?) subfolder?

--------------

Some idea:
As you have now made textareas editable for logged in members, you ccccooouuulld think about enlarging this plugin...

1. Allow different users to edit the text... maybe work with access level? And add some protection so that not 2 people edit at the same time?
2. Have backups generated
3. Think about some structure, where several people can work an a project... e.g. user manual of CMSimple_XH. Now different people can enter and edit text. We just need another tool to connect these textareas and connect them to pages. These pages don't have to be CMSImple_XH pages, You could generate an additional page menu (like stylemanager does) on the page, where "super"-extedit is called.

svasti

[cmb]

I hope you don't mind some hints for improvement:

Of course not---on the contrary I appreciate any suggestions.

The image picker shows all images in the same hight and no image names.

The current solution was most easy to implement and to offers a reasonable display of different image sizes. Of course this could be improved. The file names might be added as title attributes; this can easily be done in plugins/extedit/views/imagepicker.htm.

Same for CKeditor.

I've left out the image picker for CKeditor for now. Surely this has to be added.

Setting for "image subfolder" is to me incomprehensible.

Would have been for me too, if I hadn't written the plugin. With "editor" in this case the editing user is meant (a (s)he), and his/her subfolder is a subfolder with his/her name, e.g. images/cmb/.

As you have now made textareas editable for logged in members, you ccccooouuulld think about enlarging this plugin...
[...]

Extedit_XH is meant as a replacement for (One Page for) Simple Multi User, as the old plugin is quite useful/popular, but the OpenWYSIWYG editor is rather outdated. I prefer to stick with its very limited capabilities with regard to "multi user" functionality. I already thought about alternatively allowing a user group/accesslevel as first parameter instead of the user name, but I wasn't sure about the syntax, and if that's really necessary at all. Besides it would require some additional file locking. Keeping backups might be a good idea, but it would clutter the extedit content folder. Hmm, I have to think about it...

Think about some structure, where several people can work an a project... e.g. user manual of CMSimple_XH. Now different people can enter and edit text. We just need another tool to connect these textareas and connect them to pages. These pages don't have to be CMSImple_XH pages, You could generate an additional page menu (like stylemanager does) on the page, where "super"-extedit is called.

That would basically be another CMS in CMSimple. IMO that's not the right way. And after all: CMSimple is meant as a "single" user CMS, and that's were it can play off its advantages. There are many good CMSs out there which offer multi-user capabilities, and several tools which allow shared collaboration---IMO no need to reinvent the wheel, particularly as flat-file based systems have their limitations.

We should not to try to make CMSimple an allrounder. Plugins like Extedit_XH and Forum_XH are not meant to replace existing solutions, but rather to deliver a minimal alternative, if that is sufficient. For example if your willing to build a site were people can exchange about a topic, use a real forum software---don't use CMSimple_XH with Forum_XH! Use the right tool for the job at hand. You may add Forum_XH to a website of a small club to offer some limited capabilities for the, say, 20 members to communicate online.

In this way one could think of a simple Wiki plugin for CMSimple---even much simpler than DokuWiki, which could allow for some minimal collaboration. But that's another story...

[svasti]

In this way one could think of a simple Wiki plugin for CMSimple---even much simpler than DokuWiki, which could allow for some minimal collaboration.

That's what I was thinking about... something simple, intuitive, for 2, 3 at most 4 people to collaborate, where dokuwiki would be overkill. Something as simple to implement as your Forum_XH.

Actually I was thinking about our user manual...

But you are right, things should remain simple to stay in line with the basic concept of CMSimple.

One general problem I am facing is that sometimes 2 people want to share editing... But they don't want to change the cms. Hm, what to do... loginlocker_XH isn't so thrilling yet.

svasti

[cmb]

One general problem I am facing is that sometimes 2 people want to share editing... But they don't want to change the cms. Hm, what to do... loginlocker_XH isn't so thrilling yet.

Yes, indeed a quite common scenario: the "single" admin is in fact a small group (2-3). Editing in parallel has to be avoided at all cost, as this will not only lead to the problem I had recently described in OpenDevelopment, but could even lead to data corruption and loss (no file locks are implemented in the back-end, neither for the core, nor the pluginloader, nor most plugins).

So sticking with some kind of login lock is mandatory. Unfortunately the LoginLocker 1.0 has some drawbacks and version 1.1 was totally buggy (my fault). I'll try to implement a better solution, but I'm not sure, if I'm able to as it's getting quite tricky there (think of multiple browser windows/tabs).

[cmb]

Hello Community,

I have just released Extedit_XH 1.0beta1.

Besides making some minor improvements and doing some major internal refactoring, I have added a German manual and a Danish localization (the latter contributed by maeg -- thanks!). Furthermore the plugin now requires CMSimple_XH >= 1.6 and PHP >= 5.0.0.

Enjoy,
Christoph

[cmb]

Hi everybody!

I have just released Extedit_XH 1.0rc1.

I have fixed two potential security issues and made some further improvements. For details see the changelog.

Please test this release candidate carefully, particularly with regard to further vulnerabilities.

I'm looking forward to your feedback!

[cmb]

Hi everybody!

I have just released Extedit_XH 1.0rc2.

Thanks to Ele I've fixed a critical bug where the contents of the extedits were only be shown to users who were authorized to edit the contents. For details see the changelog.

Please test this release candidate carefully!

I'm looking forward to your feedback!

[cmb]

Hi everybody!

I have just released Extedit_XH 1.0. After 4 years finally the first stable release. \o/

I've documented the fileinfo extension requirement. For details see the changelog.

Enjoy!

[cmb]

Hi everybody!

Extedit_XH 1.1 has just been released.

A remote code injection vulnerability has been found and fixed. All users are strongly encouraged to update as soon as possible. For details see the changelog.

Enjoy!