New XHP editor online for testing and feedback

Hello everyone,

Olivier and I have been working on a new XHP editor, to simplify the
editing of help documentation. The goals of this editor are:

* Ease of use -- with syntax highlighting and autocompletion
* Web-based -- so it can be used immediately
* Integrated -- into the Gerrit/Git workflow

We're still working on that final point, but for now, you can try the
editor here:

https://newdesign.libreoffice.org/new_help_editor/index.html

To test the autocompletion, start with a blank document and type a "<"
character. You'll see that "helpdocument" is suggested as a top-level
tag. Hit enter to complete it, then add ">".

Now go to another line and add "<" again, and you'll see child tags
suggested: "meta" and "body". You can also close the "helpdocument" tag.
For some tags that have parameters, the editor will show them as well.

Underneath, you see various buttons: undo/redo, starting a new document
(with the basic structure), and various tags/sections. Rendering on the
right-hand pane doesn't work yet, but Olivier is looking at that.

Anyway, play around with it, see what you think, and if you want the
full code to test changes, Olivier can show you how to get it!

Hi Mike, Olivier,

Hello everyone,

Olivier and I have been working on a new XHP editor, to simplify the
editing of help documentation. The goals of this editor are:

* Ease of use -- with syntax highlighting and autocompletion
* Web-based -- so it can be used immediately
* Integrated -- into the Gerrit/Git workflow

We're still working on that final point, but for now, you can try the
editor here:

https://newdesign.libreoffice.org/new_help_editor/index.html

To test the autocompletion, start with a blank document and type a "<"
character. You'll see that "helpdocument" is suggested as a top-level
tag. Hit enter to complete it, then add ">".

Autocompletion is working correctly for me. I'm not sure the <br> tag is
needed because often it's placed at the wrong place for translators. We
get a better structure for translation segmentation if it's a new
paragraph.

Now go to another line and add "<" again, and you'll see child tags
suggested: "meta" and "body". You can also close the "helpdocument" tag.
For some tags that have parameters, the editor will show them as well.

Underneath, you see various buttons: undo/redo, starting a new document
(with the basic structure), and various tags/sections. Rendering on the
right-hand pane doesn't work yet, but Olivier is looking at that.

the <ahelp> button is not working, otherwise all the others are working
correctly. When the Save changes button will be implemented, will I get
a file to commit?
I didn't check thoroughly the structure, do you want me to check it or
did you already did it?

Anyway, play around with it, see what you think, and if you want the
full code to test changes, Olivier can show you how to get it!

Thanks a lot for your work, it seems a lot easier to write help files
with this great tool :slight_smile:
Cheers
Sophie

Hi Help Authors, L10n Translators and developers

Following Mike's announcement, I have improved and fixed a bit the XHP
editor, and changed the page address (*) (apologies)

The editor is still work in progress, but starts to become interesting
for creating and editing Help pages.

What's new

Hello Olivier et. al.,

will the editor in any way change underlying string/text
non-changed-with-editing code (i.e. if a small edit of one word is
performed, does the whole chunk of help page save/change (regarding also
xml checks and corrections and beautification?).

Did you try any tests, how many fuzzy strings does a small edit of one word
on an average hep page in English cause in git/po files? I am just worried
that this might cause a lot of fuzzy (not fully translated) strings in l10n
projects and a lot of collateral damage for l10n teams. But I might just be
too much worried.

Thanks, m.

V V pon., 14. jan. 2019 ob 12:43 je oseba Olivier Hallot <
olivier.hallot@libreoffice.org> napisala:

Hello Martin

Hello Olivier et. al.,

will the editor in any way change underlying string/text
non-changed-with-editing code (i.e. if a small edit of one word is
performed, does the whole chunk of help page save/change (regarding also
xml checks and corrections and beautification?).

Apparently not. Changes are only by lines.

But XML beautification will affect many lines and can generate patches
with many lines changes, although it will not affect translation (which
is controlled by the attribute localize=.

Did you try any tests, how many fuzzy strings does a small edit of one word
on an average hep page in English cause in git/po files? I am just worried
that this might cause a lot of fuzzy (not fully translated) strings in l10n
projects and a lot of collateral damage for l10n teams. But I might just be
too much worried.

This is independent of the editor. We have not enabled "beautifiers" or
any other plugins that parses the XHP lines. Untouched lines stay untouched.

Any translatable tag (paragraphs mostly, including headings (*)) that is
changed triggers a retranslation (fuzzy), including white space
movements here and there in the paragraph. The list of tags that are
translatable by default is listed in this wiki page:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Rules_for_writing_Help_pages_contents#Tips_for_XML_Tags

Better then, change white space position only if the paragraph has a
relevant contents change.

And you are invited to test and evaluate the editor for Help pages. I
just patched a page using the rendering for testing and validating,
without having to build the whole help.

Kind regards

Olivier