LegendBegins

Ask an Admin, v2.

In my version of the parser, if a user posts bad BBCode to the forum, it attempts to do error-correction, so any incorrect tags are automatically converted into the correct ones, and any missing tags are added to the end (it still displays the Some tags appear to be misaligned. error).

@LegendBegins

I've modified my version of the parser. Now, whenever a user inputs tags that don't match, it highlights them for the user, displays the Some tags appear to be misaligned. error, and keeps searching for the appropriate ending tag. So [b]Bad data[/i] Bad data 2[/b] would look like the following:

Error System

Does that align better with what you all might want from the BBCode checker?

For anyone who wants to help, I'm still accepting test data over PM, so feel free to message me terribly broken BBCode to try out.

Ask an Admin, v2.

@Kuro

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll add it to the list.

Ask an Admin, v2.

@Roach

It does have to handle the errors in some way or another (including not processing the tags at all), so while I can remove the auto-correct features, it needs to do something with the broken BBCode. Does it scan for the correct closing tag and then return everything in between as plaintext (can also break styling), does it try to unwind until it's at the base level of the post, send that as plaintext, and then parse the rest as BBCode (i.e. the existing system)? Does it send the entire thing as plaintext?

It's a difficult problem to solve.

Combat Wombat

Welcome to the Guild!

Ask an Admin, v2.

@Kuro

On one hand, it won't mess up any RPs that rely on broken BBCode functions right now—it's not retroactive.

As for BBCode-heavy RPs, it shouldn't mess anything up unless they decide to make a post with errors in it (and if they do, even the existing Guild system will break those posts—it just doesn't try to self-correct and recover). I really like the spellcheck suggestion and I can easily add something like "misaligned tag <tagName> at character <number>." I can try to add something that highlights the error too.

Ask an Admin, v2.

Opinions Needed

While a dangerous thing to ask for, I'd like some opinions on the error-handling of the BBCode parser. More specifically, how would you as a user like to see the parser handle BBCode errors? We've all had the experience of hitting that Preview button and getting the dreaded Some tags appear to be misaligned. And when we see that, we're inspired to fix the issue and make our posts. But what if we didn't?

To clarify, what would you expect to happen if you made a post with broken BBCode? What would you expect to see in the Preview window? Right now, the Guild takes any BBCode that has an error and refuses to display any style in that BBCode "nest." For example, [b][i]Test[/b][/b][i]Test2[/i] displays as [b][i]Test[/b][/b]Test2.

In my version of the parser, if a user posts bad BBCode to the forum, it attempts to do error-correction, so any incorrect tags are automatically converted into the correct ones, and any missing tags are added to the end (it still displays the Some tags appear to be misaligned. error). There are pros and cons to every approach, and because it's going to be an error state either way, I would expect that most users are going to fix the error before posting it to the Guild. But I'd like to hear your opinions on what you would expect/like to happen in the Preview window and the forum if there's an error in your BBCode. Or if it doesn't matter, I'd like to hear that too.



As a final note, I'd love to collect more test cases, so if you'd like to help me out, PM me the most horrendously broken BBCode you can imagine. I'll plug it in and see what it does. If you don't mind putting a letter between each tag so I can see what it does at every step, I'd appreciate that too.

Name Change Request

Denny -> Dio

Done.

Hello

Welcome back! Good luck with your RPs.