PSA: RTE data loss warning

[azurelunatic]

I got word of an LJ RTE bug that is causing data loss in composing and/or editing entries, so really, avoid the RTE on LiveJournal until it's fixed.

If you have the <lj user> tag more than once in your entries, with a user first and then a community, the RTE is eating the data between those tags.

This is if you are doing it all in the RTE, switch over to the RTE to post, switch to HTML mode to post, switch briefly into the RTE to look at it, have it in the RTE at all, either composing or editing ... in short, this is a bad, bad, bad bug if you use the <lj user> tag and the RTE.

Keep an eye on lj_releases for word on when it's safe to use the RTE again. (I will probably forget to tell you, because I loathe the thing like burning, and THIS IS JUST ANOTHER SIGN, MY FRIENDS, A SIGN OF THE TIMES. *marches about with cardboard "TITS AGAINST THE RTE!" sign, mumbling and shouting*)

Comments

[charmian]

Darn, they always seem to be having problems with that thing. 0_o (I always use the simpler editor) But I thought they got it from an external source rather than coding it themselves? Is it just that incompatible w/ LJ code or something?

[afuna]

They're using the FCKEditor, which is external, but with some LJ-specific extensions to handle lj-cuts, lj-user tags, and embeds. Also to handle uploads from scrapbook. The extensions to accommodate scrapbook don't usually cause any problems; but the ones that handle the user tags and cuts have been known to be, ahhh, finicky. Especially the lj-user!

The most common problem is that too much of the entry is believed to be part of the lj-user tag, so that extra part of the entry is "eaten" by the user tag.

[charmian]

Huh, I see. Thanks for the info.

[afuna]

Meant to edit this into the original entry, but tossing it in here, to clarify that DW's also using the same editor:

DW also uses the FCKEditor, but (I believe) we're not bitten by this particular bug, because we're using different versions. LJ recently updated to a more recent version of FCKEditor, which fixed a bunch of older bugs, but unfortunately led to this bug (the RTE is evil). DW still has the older version, which means we still have the older bugs, and we'll need to figure out how to fix those without introducing worse bugs (see also: the RTE is evil)

[charmian]

Huh, is this the only rich text editor available, which can be used? Are there others which are less buggy and evil? I know Wordpress has a RTE (which I don't use either), and it seems like many other blogging sites have that capacity.

[afuna]

There are a bunch of other rich text editors available. Personally, I'm partial to http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/, but I haven't tried writing a plugin for it. And there's the newer version of FCKEditor... (CKEditor?) . Again, though, it's not quite the RTE itself that's buggy; it's mostly been the integration of custom tags with the RTE (and conversion from RTE to HTML and back again when switching tabs) which has caused problems.

While I'd like to think that switching editors and starting from scratch could give us a better chance at writing our extensions without causing additional problems, there is also the chance that we'd end up rewriting old bugs into it, since we'd be overlooking problems that had already been fixed *rueful*

[thedivinegoat]

I have nothing but this icon.

[azurelunatic]

*approves*

[afuna]

Oh BWAH, RTE :-(

[lacey]

Another reason not to use the RTE! Though I am occasionally guilty of it, try like hell not to.

[watersword]

Oh, RTE, why you still here?

[mathsnerd]

This is why HTML is LOVE.

[azurelunatic]

Yes.

Perhaps there should be a colorbar.

[mathsnerd]

I would sport one, if we were to have one. ;)

[azurelunatic]

There's an interest: http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=tits+against+the+rte

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

Erm... I don't quite get this one? I've seen the phrase "tits <something>" batted about a lot recently, but don't know what it means. =/

[azurelunatic]

I'm not sure what the current thing is (I don't think I've seen it; can you point to some examples?) but "Tits Against the RTE" is one of those weird and oddly specific injokes, which started out as a "Look, if you take away the RTE, we'll show you our tits" promise to a developer, and turned into a somewhat less specific "I'm against the RTE" sort of thing.

[sraun]

Have they just had on-going problems with the RTE editor?

I prefer the plain-text 'I'll enter all my own codes, thank you' editor. I never bothered to figure out either the RTE or HTML editors.

[azurelunatic]

The RTE has been a pain in the neck and parts southward from Day 1. As a volunteer, I hear more about the RTE when it is broken than the average LJ user, and thus I am distinctly tired of it, though not as tired as the people who have responsibilities in that support category, and I suppose the developers must be pretty tired of it too.

The just-plain-text one is known as the HTML editor, because you get to see all the details of your HTML and code it by hand.

[sraun]

For some reason I keep thinking there are three options, with the third being a WYSIWYG HTML. Not certain why - not paying attention, I guess. Also, I infrequently post using livejournal.com - I usually use semagic.

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

thank you for the heads up!

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I didn't even know there was a problem with the darned thing. XD Since I have JS disabled most of the time, I rarely ever use the RTE except when I'm too lazy to hand-type the tags for a lengthy table or list. XD

[hakeber.livejournal.com]

So timely, this post! I just had to point a friend to your post, as she has apparently fallen victim to this bug.

Me, I would never ever use RTE. Give me plain text every time, let me write (and munge) the code on my own, thankyoufverymuch.

[azurelunatic]

I use it myself on occasion, mostly when I have copied something that's already formatted and want to preserve the formatting. I use the one on DW on a weekly basis for the spam reports, since I copy a whole great honking table with links in it, so it can be useful. (I grudgingly admit.) But on the whole, it's manual coding for me.