Documentation re: formatting posts submitted by email

[kanguyen]

There has been some previous discussion regarding some Wiki-type formatting that happens when posts are submitted by email, which has particularly impacted people who are attempting to submit code snippets by email. I believe the safest way to post code snippets is through the web interface just to be on the safe side, but I've also procured a document that outlines the formatting that is applied to content submitted by email.

This is related to a Jive Product Enhancement/Bug IDs: CS-13412.

I believe their intention is to remove this Wiki functionality though this would be done as part of a major product upgrade (nothing of that nature planned for some time).

Hope this documentation helps you guys make some sense of what happens when email content is processed. I've been told that everything in this documentation works except for the line break, though I have not tested these myself.

[Jochem van Dieten]

kanguyen wrote on 2009-06-09 16:47:

There has been some previous discussion regarding some Wiki-type formatting that happens when posts are submitted by email, which has particularly impacted people who are attempting to submit code snippets by email. I believe the safest way to post code snippets is through the web interface just to be on the safe side, but I've also procured a document that outlines the formatting that is applied to content submitted by email.

This is the documentation for the formatting codes in the web forums

from Clearspace 2.0.x. That plain text editor was replaced with the RTE

editor the web forums for Clearspace 2.5.x, so it isn't really

applicable anymore for the web forums.

It is also not useful for anything we do with email because it is simply

too incomplete. For instance, none of the special formatting codes based

on angular brackets are mentioned. It nowhere mentions what the

algorithm is that incorrectly transforms messageIDs to mailto: links.

Nothing about the conversion of the characters used to indicate quoting.

Nothing about the way it deals with flowed vs. hard linebreaks.

No points for Jive.

I believe their intention is to remove this Wiki functionality though this would be done as part of a major product upgrade (nothing of that nature planned for some time).

If it isn't planned for the 3.5 release which is supposed to come in

August then I suppose it is going to be the 4.0 release next April at

best. So essentially email participation for all the forums that deal

with code will be broken for a year.

I guess an email interface isn't really a core requirement after all.

Jochem

--

Jochem van Dieten

http://jochem.vandieten.net/

[kanguyen]

Jochem, you had asked me for existing documentation on what formatting codes would work over email. I have provided what currently exists and it is by no means complete nor accurate, as I specifically noted in my last message. If you reference the attachment, there is an explanation of the use of the angular brackets as well as quoting. There are many of the other formatting codes that do work, some of them don't. I've done some limited testing and the results can be seen here.

You have already posted several times about the known issues with posting code snippets, so I know it is no surprise to you that not everything in the attached documentation works.

The attachment was never intended to be a complete source of documentation of the algorithms and transformations performed. My apologies if this was your expectation.

[S_D_A_]

Well somebody needs to post a comprehensive list on what we may expect with e-mail going forward in terms of time. If Jochem is right; There is no way I'm sticking around for a year waiting for a proper bidirectional e-mail gateway . If Adobe is serious about having e-mail contributors; they will do this sooner rather than later. There is no sense fixing the repeating posts bug if we don't have proper e-mail threading, either.

These forums are a mess and we need them fixed to be useable for the regulars. Patience isn't infinite.

If e-mail isn't a priority, then please make the following issues a priority in the web interface;

1. Fix the font choice and spelling choice in the editor to STICK
2. Have some way for the user to at a glance know which posts are new since the last visit, which ones have been read previously
3. Add a mechanism to be able to "ignore" individuals that one isn't interested in reading.

That's all I can think of now.

[Jochem van Dieten]

kanguyen wrote on 2009-06-09 19:08:

If you reference the attachment, there is an explanation of the use of the angular brackets as well as quoting.

I see examples of the use of square brackets and curly brackets, but not

of angular brackets.

The attachment was never intended to be a complete source of documentation of the algorithms and transformations performed. My apologies if this was your expectation.

It was not my expectation. My expectations of Jive in the area of

everything email related have pretty much reached the absolute zero.

I just wanted to make the consequence abundantly clear since there have

been some 'we thought it was fixed' issues.

Jochem

--

Jochem van Dieten

http://jochem.vandieten.net/