Is the HTML editor of Roundcube a topic here at all? I haven't seen many posts about it here (only 2 of 11,418 that I have in the dev list folder), so I'm raising this question before I'm going to complain about lots of issues that I'm having with it.
As I'm using Roundcube more and more for running my own new business, unfortunately I'm more or less forced to use this editor (although I hate HTML messages) - business partners are sending (and expecting) logos, tables and that kind a stuff.
But I need to mention two issues that are really bothering me most:
I have created a sophisticated and fancy HTML signature, which starts this way:
<div class="pre"><span class="sig" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /><br />-- <br /><strong>Michael Heydekamp</strong><br /> [...]
After initiating a new message and typing the word "Test" in the body, the HTML source code starts this way:
<p> </p> <div id="_rc_sig"> <div class="pre"><span class="sig" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Test<br /><br />-- <br /><strong>Michael Heydekamp</strong><br /> [...]
The two issues are:
If I decide to change the identity during (or after) composing, the whole text is gone! Apparently this is because the text (in this example just "Test", but in can be lots of pages) is inserted after the "<div id="_rc_sig">. If I manually move this line in the source behind the text (but before the signature), then I can change the identity during omposing without any problem. But this can't be the way it should work, as you can't expect the average Roundcube user to edit the HTML source.
The "<p> </p>" is disturbing as it causes an unnecessary blank line/paragraph at the top of the message which can not be easily removed. At least I didn't find a good and always working way yet.
Any chance to improve/fix this...?
As I said, there are lots of other issues, which I won't and even can't describe for the moment (e.g. that pressing Enter does sometimes create a new line (<br />, but sometimes a new paragraph (<p>). You're never sure what will happen.
Response would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Michael Heydekamp Co-Admin freexp.de Düsseldorf/Germany
On 07/24/2015 12:26 AM, Michael Heydekamp wrote:
Is the HTML editor of Roundcube a topic here at all? I haven't seen many posts about it here (only 2 of 11,418 that I have in the dev list folder), so I'm raising this question before I'm going to complain about lots of issues that I'm having with it.
Sure, but personally I don't like messing with the HTML editor ;) And it's external code.
- If I decide to change the identity during (or after) composing, the whole text is gone! Apparently this is because the text (in this example just "Test", but in can be lots of pages) is inserted after the "<div id="_rc_sig">. If I manually move this line in the source behind the text (but before the signature), then I can change the identity during omposing without any problem. But this can't be the way it should work, as you can't expect the average Roundcube user to edit the HTML source.
Did you try with different browser? the <p> </p> line is there to give you an opportunity to enter text before the signature. I think it's also because handling of <div>s in the editor is not very intuitive and for example you can't put cursor before the <div> if it's the first element (if I remember correctly).
TinyMCE supports <div> elements but there are some issues and they definitely might be confusing for people not familiar with HTML.
- The "<p> </p>" is disturbing as it causes an unnecessary blank line/paragraph at the top of the message which can not be easily removed. At least I didn't find a good and always working way yet.
Put cursor in that line and press Delete key. Works for me in Firefox. What are your signature position settings? Why do you say it is unnecessary? You're supposed to put some text before the signature, no?
As I said, there are lots of other issues, which I won't and even can't describe for the moment (e.g. that pressing Enter does sometimes create a new line (<br />, but sometimes a new paragraph (<p>). You're never sure what will happen.
This probably depends on the cursor position inside <div> or <pre> or <span> it produces <br>, inside <p> it produces another <p>, or sth like that. There's Shift+Enter combination that changes <p>-newline into <br>.
Am 24.07.2015 08:43, schrieb A.L.E.C:
On 07/24/2015 12:26 AM, Michael Heydekamp wrote:
Is the HTML editor of Roundcube a topic here at all? I haven't seen many posts about it here (only 2 of 11,418 that I have in the dev list folder), so I'm raising this question before I'm going to complain about lots of issues that I'm having with it.
Sure, but personally I don't like messing with the HTML editor ;) And it's external code.
Thanks for response, Alec.
That's what I thought and I can very well understand it. OTOH the HTML editor is integrated in RC and should be usable (at least to a certain extent). Currently it's driving me nuts, and as RC is the only mail client I'm using, there's no way around for me to struggle with it.
- If I decide to change the identity during (or after) composing, the whole text is gone! Apparently this is because the text (in this example just "Test", but in can be lots of pages) is inserted after the "<div id="_rc_sig">. If I manually move this line in the source behind the text (but before the signature), then I can change the identity during omposing without any problem. But this can't be the way it should work, as you can't expect the average Roundcube user to edit the HTML source.
Did you try with different browser?
I tried with FF only.
the <p> </p> line is there to give you an opportunity to enter text before the signature.
If that is the intention of that line, it doesn't work. At least not when composing a new message. I have seen different behaviour here and there when composing a new message vs. replying to another one, but it's really hard to track how this beast will behave. It doesn't seem to be consistent.
I think it's also because handling of <div>s in the editor is not very intuitive and for example you can't put cursor before the <div> if it's the first element (if I remember correctly).
You are most probably right.
TinyMCE supports <div> elements but there are some issues and they definitely might be confusing for people not familiar with HTML.
Well, but users should not necessarily be HTML experts to compose a HTML message.
- The "<p> </p>" is disturbing as it causes an unnecessary blank line/paragraph at the top of the message which can not be easily removed. At least I didn't find a good and always working way yet.
Put cursor in that line and press Delete key. Works for me in Firefox. What are your signature position settings? Why do you say it is unnecessary? You're supposed to put some text before the signature, no?
Exactly, but it doesn't work this way. As I'm writing business messages, I use top posting (signature before quote).
If I press the Del key when composing a new message, I just delete the NEXT line and am still writing "within" the signature (which causes the text to disappear when changing the identity, as described above). Backspace should delete the previous blank line/paragraph (i.e. the "<p> </p>"), but it doesn't do that.
Sometimes I managed to get rid of it, but don't ask me how. My impression is that you first need to type a longer text before you have a chance to get rid of this first empty line/paragraph.
Furthermore, looking at the source of some of my sent messages, I'm seeing lots of superfluos and insane HTML declarations at the beginning of a message, such as (I'm line-formatting and un-QP'ing them for better readability) - this is an example WITH the blank paragraph at the top because of the "<p> </p>":
<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> </head> <body style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif'> <p> </p> <div> <div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"> <span class="sig" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Hello Nicolas,</span></div> <div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"> </div> <div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"> <span class="sig" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> so I understand that [... bla blubb ...]
The "body-style" tag correctly declares a sans-serif font family, which is then overridden in a "div class" declaration with a monospace font, which is then overridden in the next line with sans-serif again, then (after the salutation "Hello Nicolas") again - and even twice! - overridden with monospace, which is then - as the message continues - overridden with sans-serif again.
Jesus - what sense does that code bloat make...?
This is a similar example, but WITHOUT the blank paragraph at the top because it's lacking of the "<p> </p>" (however I managed that):
<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> </head> <body style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif'> <div> <div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"> <span class="sig" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Hallo Niki,</span></div> <div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"> </div> <div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"> <span class="sig" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> ich hab Dich bei den beiden letzten Mails [... bla blubb ...]
I'm attaching the source of my sig, just in case you want (and have the patience) to play with it.
Please let me know if we can/want to deal with these issues here one by one (because the solution of one issue might fix other issues as well). Then I'll try to describe them in detail and in a replicable way. This description is a lot of work, so I'll do it only if someone will be dealing with it.
Cheers,
Michael Heydekamp Co-Admin freexp.de Düsseldorf/Germany
On 07/25/2015 09:44 PM, Michael Heydekamp wrote:
I'm attaching the source of my sig, just in case you want (and have the patience) to play with it.
<div class="pre"> is there probably because you did switch from plain text into html in identity signature field once. I think removing these divs could fix some of your issues. Replace it with <p>.
Am 26.07.2015 09:50, schrieb A.L.E.C:
On 07/25/2015 09:44 PM, Michael Heydekamp wrote:
I'm attaching the source of my sig, just in case you want (and have the patience) to play with it.
<div class="pre"> is there probably because you did switch from plain text into html in identity signature field once. I think removing these divs could fix some of your issues. Replace it with <p>.
Thanks, I'll check that (although I think it's unlikely that it will fix the issues that I'm seeing).
Question to this one:
Am 01.08.2015 17:11, schrieb GitHub:
Branch: refs/heads/master Home: https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail Commit: d5f6d655da2b95da2851d50e421665af8bf5f2f1
https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/commit/d5f6d655da2b95da2851d50e42... Author: Aleksander Machniak alec@alec.pl Date: 2015-08-01 (Sat, 01 Aug 2015)
Changed paths: M program/steps/mail/compose.inc M program/steps/mail/sendmail.inc
Log Message:
Workaround TinyMCE issue with <p> </p> sequence (#1490463)
What exactly is the workaround here? Since then, I believe to see that when I'm replying to a message (even to an own message), that a lot of empty lines/paragraphs are added to the quoted part. That was also the case before to some extent, but not that extreme - at least this is my impression.
Might this workaround be the reason for that...?
Cheers,
Michael Heydekamp Co-Admin freexp.de Düsseldorf/Germany
On 08/11/2015 08:01 PM, Michael Heydekamp wrote:
What exactly is the workaround here? Since then, I believe to see that when I'm replying to a message (even to an own message), that a lot of empty lines/paragraphs are added to the quoted part. That was also the case before to some extent, but not that extreme - at least this is my impression.
Maybe related. That commit changed the behaviour in a way that all
<p> </p> sequences are converted to <p><br /></p>, which should give the same visual effect, but have one adventage. TinyMCE sees such "lines" as empty, not with a space as it was before the change. At least in Firefox, maybe other browsers handle this different?
-
A.L.E.C -
Michael Heydekamp