IE problems created unordered list from pasted list

[mkoepke]

IE is not working correctly when pasting a list of text.

1. On test site with IE, paste the following list:

* Escape from "Corporate-Cubical Hell"
* A Series of Law-Lectures
* The Weather
* An Overnight Jazz D.J.
* A 6-Pack on my Patio

2. Highlight text and hit bulleted list toolbar item.

3. Only a single bullet is created on the line above the Escape... line Source code generated:

<ul>
    <li><br />
    * Escape from &quot;Corporate-Cubical Hell&quot;<br />
    * A Series of Law-Lectures<br />
    * The Weather<br />
    * An Overnight Jazz D.J.<br />
    * A 6-Pack on my Patio</li>
</ul>

Same behavior is pasting with Ctrl+v, Paste toolbar, Paste as Plain Text, or Paste from Word (with Ctrl+v)

FF generates a bulleted list using the steps above. Source code:

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
    <li>* Escape from &quot;Corporate-Cubical Hell&quot;</li>
    <li>* A Series of Law-Lectures</li>
    <li>* The Weather</li>
    <li>* An Overnight Jazz D.J.</li>
    <li>* A 6-Pack on my Patio</li>
</ul>

[fredck]

The point here, which requires discussions, is how should we handle blocks with <br/> when EnterMode=p (or div)?

In a normal situation, lines separated by a <br/> represent a "single block". Each block is separated by <p>s.

I'm not saying that IE has the correct behavior, or Firefox is correct instead. But, we aim to provide the same results with both browsers.

I'm sure that, no matter which choice me make here, people will always be complaining that the editor doesn't behaves the other way. Maybe make it configurable, making the code much more complex?

[martinkou]

Tidied up the description to make it more readable.

[martinkou]

If we use the behavior of "Paste As Plain Text" while the caret is inside a list as reference, it seems the behavior in IE, rather than in Firefox, is more consistent with the other parts of FCKeditor.

"Paste As Plain Text" inside a list, in EnterMode=p, as in the SVN version, works like this:

1. If a single line break is encountered, no new list item is created. Instead, create a <br>. 1. If double line breaks are encountered, create a new list item.

So, if you want to create a list by pasting in EnterMode=p, the currently most acceptable way is this:

* Escape from "Corporate-Cubical Hell"

* A Series of Law-Lectures

* The Weather

* An Overnight Jazz D.J.

* A 6-Pack on my Patio

Select the pasted text and press "Insert/Remove List", or create a list first and use the "Paste As Plain Text" button - it works the same in both IE and Firefox.

Note that the "single line break -> <br>, double line breaks -> new item" can be very counterintuitive for casual users, however. MS Word does not behave like that.

[martinkou]

Fixed with [631].

Click here for more info about our SVN system.

[martinkou]

[631] does not work when EnterMode=br and trying to create list from the following HTML code:

line1<br />
line2<br />
line3

[martinkou]

Upon further consideration, it seems to me that simple preprocessing/postprocessing hacks, like the one implemented in [631], cannot suffice. There are far too many ways these simple hacks can go wrong, they are complicated themselves, and relying on IE's built-in list commands can bring other caveats (other than not be able to transform things separated by <br> into separate list items).

While I was trying to improve the preprocessing hack in [631] to make it work for the test case I suggested, I noticed that the hack got so complicated that its logical complexity wouldn't be too different than implementing the list insertion/deletion logic on our own.

If we were to implement our own list insertion/deletion logic, there are some guidelines available: http://www.mozilla.org/editor/list-rules.html

[martinkou]

Oh, I almost forgot why I'm posting the message above. And I just noticed I was contradicting myself... the hacks in [631] and what I was trying to implement are not simple, but they are naive in assuming IE's editor list commands would work flawlessly after the items are split into <p> blocks.

If we were to implement the insert/delete list commands ourselves, we need to implement some DOM operations like finding the starting/ending point of a paragraph (need to account for things like <br> and <hr>), wrapping DOM nodes inside <ul>/<ol> and <li> elements, finding the right point to insert the <ul>/<ol> elements, etc. In my hindsight, I think the style system that Fred is implementing now (but still not in the SVN) could have some of these operations implemented, and I could use them instead of implementing my own from ground zero.

[martinkou]

Oh my god, it seems the Trac system has a bug as well, and my last comment overrided Mike's comment. Good thing I can still see his comment in my email. Reposting here to set the record straight.

I didn't think that this a should be easy. 

What I do believe though in whatever the "right" answer is is that IE 
and FF should work the same.  With 2.4 that is now the case.  FF gives 
you a list and IE a single LI with all items pasted in.

Just make them work the same way.

Mike

[martinkou]

I've opened #1178 as a collection of list problems that are significant for v2.5.