Chris Maunder - Professional Profile

We have a new article submission wizard!

The short version is we have a new article submission wizard (and updated systems) that provides

- An all new, single page article editor.
- An auto-save facility in case of crashes
- The ability for members to edit "edited" articles safely. No more needing to send in updates manually.
- Simplified references to uploaded files.
- A new "Alternative article" option that allows you to create alternate versions of existing articles
- An update for Tips n' Tricks so that they now use the standard article UI
- You can now upload images and downloads for blog and tip articles.
- The ability to easily switch article types (Make an article a tip, promote a technical blog to full article, etc)

The longer version:

About 6 months ago we finally had the time to revamp the aging submission wizard. I wanted a single page editor that allowed in-page (ie Ajax) file and that looked very much like what the final article would look like. The idea is that it would feel like you were editing the article in-place. Click on the title to edit it, upload a file and add the file to the content with a single click etc. And, of course, auto-save with a simple recovery model for those bad times.

I also wanted to address the need to allow our authors more access to their articles. Currently what we do is we pick the top articles and edit them. This editing corrects formatting, spelling, cleans the downloads and generally ensures that the article conforms to our standards. However, once an article is edited by an editor it is inviolate: it can no longer be updated online by the original author.

The reason for this is that, after spending so much time fixing articles, we were getting a little frustrated when members would go an re-edit the article's we edited and re-introduce all the errors we had fixed. This is understandable because they would often simply take the copy of article they had originally written, make corrections to it, then copy and paste it over whatever we had done. So we put an ednd to that for our own sanity and made a pact with ourselves (and with you) that we would be as fast as possible in posting updates you sent in.

However, this punishes those who are good authors for the sake of protecting the few that are bad, so we've come up with a compromise, and also a solution to a subtle problem.

Previously when you posted an article using the wizard, the article would be placed in a Pending queue and would be reviewed by other members who would then approve, disapprove, and/or comment on the article. After approval the article became public and everyone was happy. Except that the author could now edit their new article, upload a bunch of inappropriate material, and have it available immediately. The solution was to modify our system so that all edits of articles create a new pending version of the article. After editing, the old version will still be seen by most members, but moderators will be able to see (and approve) the new version. Once approved the new version replaces the old version and goes live.

In doing this we had to tackle a few issues with files. We choose not to store files as database BLOBs, but as system files, so where do we store your upload files while you're editing? When you start the submission wizard you haven't chosen a section, yet you can upload files. When editing an existing article you may need to upload new versions of files (updated zips or images) but we need to ensure the old version of those files and images are still available for the current article.

We ended up introducing a "Working" directory for your new uploads in order to separate out the old and the new, but this then made life difficult for those looking to reference files in their article's HTML. Previously we had the concept of a "Basename" for an article, which was effectively the name of the article's directory, and which author's used to reference an uploaded file (eg src="basename/myfile.zip"). We've abandoned that since it causes problems with name uniqueness, and in fact abandoned the whole concept of asking members to worry about directories. Now you simply reference an uploaded file by its filename, and we make sure we track things like which file (old or new) you're talking about, as well as ensuring we adjust the references in your articles during the various stages (composing to pending to available).

We've also introduced the concept of Alterative Articles. There are many, many articles that are no longer being maintained and this is a first step to allow other members to take over abandoned articles, or to simply provide different implementations such as a different language.

To provide a symmetric article experience we've now upgraded the Tips n Tricks articles to be displayed in the same manner as traditional articles (as well as their alternatives), and now make it very simple to convert a tip to a standard article, or to any other article type. No more complaint about short articles or long tips. We can quickly recategorise as needed.

This also brings a nice benefit: you can now upload images and zips to your blog and tips articles.

With regards to moving tips to the new UI - you might notice something a little weird with your rep. We moved all the comments that were associated with tips into their own separate forum for each tip instead of having the confusing comments-per-tip-plus-bonus-forum-at-the-bottom.

This release should be conidered a Beta release, so please send in all feedback and bug reports to the Bugs and Suggestions forum.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

Good work Chris! Chris Maunder wrote: In doing this we had to tackle a few issues with files. Are all the quirks with that worked out now? I found something weird,. I have a pending update, but I am hesitant to let it go through as all the pictures are gone from "preview" page. Is the preview not working with the pictures or will my "article get broken" if I go through with my changes?
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As far as we know the kinks are gone, but we have seen a couple of issues from bugs in our old system that only manifested once we moved to the new system. It's amazing how these bugs hibernate - like cicadas. What is the URL of the article? I'll take a look and sort out whatever the issue is. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hi Chris., I went ahead and submitted so the update is now pending. It seems that the issue only shows for preview The article URL is g2log: An efficient asynchronous logger using C++11[^]
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I fixed up the links and it's all good now, though I think I may have inadvertently published a version of your article you were still working on. If you wish to rollback, go to the Revisions tab on your article, choose the version you wish to revert back to, and hit revert. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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All good, that is what I tried to do. I see tha TOC links broke (or where broken already?). I can fix them later. Thank you for the help.
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Hi Chris. I had to roll back a few versions and put in my changes again. What is needed for me to make the new version "active"? Right now it says "pending"? - Kjell
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High level members are constantly reviewing the Pending list. Once 5 of them approve it it's live. This is usually a quick process. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hello, When I try to publish my article, I see this error: "The content is either too short or default." I don't know why? and What can I do to publish the article. It's not a short article. Do not criticise, if you don't have any better idea.
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Thanks for the great change Chris! Is it possible to roll back a change after updating? I mean just in case we find out something went wrong after updating an existing article (due to maybe a bug or malfunctioning).
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Meysam Mahfouzi wrote: Is it possible to roll back a change after updating Absolutely. Hit the Revisions tab, choose the version you wish to use, and hit the Revert button. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Cool I like the new wizard, will be making use of it really soon Sacha Barber Microsoft Visual C# MVP 2008-2012 Codeproject MVP 2008-2011 Open Source Projects Cinch SL/WPF MVVM Your best friend is you. I'm my best friend too. We share the same views, and hardly ever argue My Blog : sachabarber.net
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Thanks Chris. Is there any possibility to upload the article from a HTML file? Cheers, Jani Giannoudis Meerazo.com - Resource Sharing Made Easy \| Co-founder
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This is something I've toyed with for a few years but never got around to fleshing out. My idea was to allow you guys to fill in the template, then upload the template and have the submission wizard populated based on the template you uploaded. Is that what you were thinking? cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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No. Currently I can get the article HTML for editing offline. I'm wondering how I can upload my offline document into the new Article Submission Wizard. Cheers, Jani Giannoudis Meerazo.com - Resource Sharing Made Easy \| Co-founder
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So even easier: just include the HTML file as one of the uploads and have the HTML appear inside the editor? There's always simply the option of viewing the HTML in your offline editor, copying it, and pasting it directly into the editor... cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Many thanks Chris! I didn't recognize the button '<>' for the HTML view. The symbol looks like the 'Insert HTML character' within the message editor. It would be more intuitive to label the button with 'HTML'. Cheers, Jani Giannoudis Meerazo.com - Resource Sharing Made Easy \| Co-founder
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Done! cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Great! One small suggestion: to distinguish this view command better from the formatting buttons, you may right-align (editors right edge) the 'HTML' button. Cheers, Jani Giannoudis Meerazo.com - Resource Sharing Made Easy \| Co-founder
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One thing (bug?) I noticed was that the preview and the look after "submitted" was not the same.

The preview looked like I expected it too, but the look in the pending version that I only could see after submitting it looked different
example

This is some text in the html view
and for <bold>fun</bold> I make a line break (in the html view only)

This would in the preview look like
"This is some text in the html view and for fun I make a line break (in the html view only"

But in the submitted view it would look like
"This is some text in the html view
and for fun I make a line break (in the html view only"

I.e. the line break, only visible in the html view editor was visible in the "pending article / submitted" view as well.

I got quite confused of this and kept going back to modify the article until I have "corrected" the html view part as well --- just to avoid that it would look horrendous in its final look

I noticed while editing your article that there were line breaks in the text which I corrected. These line breaks were actual HTML line breaks (<br/>), so for instance you had the line

For this reason <br />
it is always better to just do pre increments

which is rendered as:

For this reason
it is always better to just do pre increments

When you say "the preview" do you mean within the WYSIWYG editor, or when you hit the "Preview" button? If the former, then it could be that this line break matched the width of the editor screen so wasn't evident. If the latter then we have a bug!

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

With "preview" I mean the preview-button. At that time I thought it was very evident. Preview after preview-button was different from the view when the article was pending. ... but hey I did it at 2-ish at night so my mind was mush. I.e. I think it's a bug, but I wouldn't stake my life on it. Cheers -- Kjell
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KjellKod.cc wrote: At that time I thought it was very evident Just checking. Some consider the WYSIWYG a preview; some consider the preview to be what they saw in their offline HTML editor. I'm a cautious man. A bug then. I will add it to the TODO list. Thanks again for helping out with answering the endless questions. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: Thanks again for helping out with answering the endless questions. It was my pleasure. I am a huge fan of T.C.P and the spirit of its members. It's the best source of code learning out there. Great work by you guys Cheers -- Kjell
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I've tested both on live and on development and can't replicate the issue. It may have been an earlier bug we've since fixed. A few days ago I did reset the document format on a few articles that had been incorrectly set, and we also updated our rendering code.

In any case, if you see it again just let us know.

BTW - you have a ton of outstanding Draft versions of that article you recently published. Would you like me to clean up the debris for you?

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

That is great news.

Chris Maunder wrote:
BTW - you have a ton of outstanding Draft versions of that article you recently published. Would you like me to clean up the debris for you?

Yes please! I felt guilty over that. I expected a yell-at from whomever was reviewing it.

I was afraid of removing them (if even possible by me?). No doubt they where created because of my frequent and iterative

{"Modify" + Submitt + Found-FormattingProblem-NotShown-inPreview}

The alternative article concept is really good , quick question

So who have the authorative to pick it up and what if the original author does not like it.

Curios ?. I am interested in creating some alternative articles of some great authors. But with appreciation i am sure i can expect contradictions as well.

My book .NET interview questions with 500 mostly asked questions in .NET world .NET Interview questions and answers

Anyone has the right to make an alternative of any other article. Go for it! cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Another bug? Maybe caused by my abuse of the Preview-Submit?

I get comments and voting on the article from the two sources now. One I believe is a "pending review" source. Unfortunately I do not get e-mails about those comments. It is just luck that I found it.

Is it possible to merge them? Or if not close the pending review one? If not closing it, is it possible to get emails to me when someone has commented in the "wrong place"?

Real article: Number crunching: Why you should never, ever, EVER use linked-list in your code again[^]

Review or Version article: http://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/ArticleVersion.aspx?aid=340797&av=504149&msg=4185204#xx4185204xx[^]

Few suggestions:
* Provide the tool bar the the bottom of Editor. Mostly, when writing new article, the author would generally be writing at the end of editor. So, when author needs to apply some formatting he/she would need to make toolbar visible and then hit appropriate button. But then, the original text would not be visible. I have 22" monitor, and I write on about 150% of zoom in IE9. But toolbar isn't visible.

* Add more shortcuts, Ctrl+D is good, but what about "Formatted" for code? How to switch between HTML and WYSIWYG?

* Most authors don't know additional formatting, like "div=callout", and instead use "Formatted" instead. The parser would read it as text rather than special comment.

* On code pasting, convert tabs to 3-4 tabs, instead of author doing that manually. Also additional lines would come up when pasting.

The HTML of the original (to be edited) article may retain the old style file references (eg src = "MyArticle\MyArticle_Image.png"). In this case, it is necessary, but not obvious that the reference MUST be revised to src = MyArticle_Image.png. You provide a good clue by saying that uploaded files are relative to the article (or something like that). It would be better if that statement was augmented by something like "Check that the HTML references do not contain Directory names" -- hmmm I'm sure you can improve on that!
I do not know that the invalid refs are cleaned up on submission - I never had the guts to try. I do know that the invalid refs are NOT cleaned up on Preview.

I was updating 2 articles and only one showed that problem.

Jim Parsells

Thanks for the feedback, Jim. We tried to be clear on the submission wizard itself where an example of referencing files is shown within the list of uploaded files, as well as providing "insert" buttons that will do all the work for you.

The trick here is that, underneath it all, we still actually use "MyArticle\file.ext" (though this is now "1234\file.ext" since we've ditched basenames due to uniqueness headaches and just moved to using the article ID). Within the submission wizard editor we strip the "MyArticle\" from the raw HTML, then when you switch to design mode, add it back so the WYSIWYG mode shows the images.

So: it's the same as it always was, but when editing the raw HTML we do some magic so it seems like references are now relative to the directory containing the article.

Further, if you upload a file and reference the file using Directory\file.ext, then it should all still work. If it doesn't, please let me know which article and I'll dig in.

We want file handling to be painless.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

Chris,
Thanks for the quick reply! I think I will have to look harder for the "Insert" buttons!
The one thing that threw me off is that for some reason when I switched to Html view, the MyArticle\ was not switched off. I was explicitly looking for something like that since my image was not showing in Preview. In the Design view, the older Image was the one displayed. I had deleted that Image file and add/upload a new Image with the same name. The way I fixed both of these problems was to manually strip off the "MyArticle\" from the src = and also from the download files, in Html view of course.

I was making a mod to an old article that I had updated the day before (a mod to a mod). What really irritated me was that I had had the same problem with the first update and didn't note or remember how I had fixed it then - after all, it was only 12 hours between updates - I should have remembered.

Just to make it more confusing, I was doing two articles over the same time period and the first article, of about the same vintage or even older, did not have any of these problems.

Bottom line: The suggestion I made was to address a problem that should not occur.
Should you wish to chase this one, the article's ID is 11654.

Jim

I had a quick play and it seems the article is all good now. Having the old MyArticle\ appear is annoying. This most likely happened because of some bad data our end.

Some more background: initially all articles simply referred to downloads in their MyArticle directory without any recording in our database of what was actually in that directory. We fixed this by scanning the directories and recording, and associated, downloads for files.

In some cases we had servers that were out of sync and so this association was inaccurate. When this happens the submission wizard doesn't know how to trim links because it doesn't trust anything other than what the database says.

I'll make a note to clean up the data.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

Get the error "The content is either too short or default." I was trying to use the on-line wizard. I normally create a template first and the update it. So my initial template is always similar to the default and very short. Question: How much change I need to make so it is no longer considered default or too short? Thanks ...
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That error will be triggered anytime a major portion of the template exists in the content.

With the new submission wizard you don't need to publish it to save it. You can hit the Save Draft button and your current work will be saved as a draft. To view drafts, just go to the submission page[^] and you'll see, on the right hand side, your drafts.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

Thanks. When I go to the submission page, I see all the people's drafts and it is a long list. It is difficult to find my draft. It should be good idea to filter the drafts by person.
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Dr. Song Li wrote: It should be good idea to filter the drafts by person This bug has been fixed. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Cool! Thanks!
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Hi Chris, I used the new article submission wizard, and I clicked the "Save this version" button. Then the article disappears. It is no longer shown as a draft, and it is not in the article list. Where can I find this missing article? Thank you ...
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Hi Chris, After clicking the "Save this version" button, the article disappears. It could not be found in the draft, and it is not shown in the list of the articles either. Where can I find it? I marked it as "unfinished" since I am still editing. Thanks ....
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Which article (name, or URL if you remember it). Have you checked the submission page[^] to see if it's in the list of Draft articles to the right? cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hi Chris, If I remember correctly, the name is "An Example of jQuery Global Event Handlers" (or something like it). I do not remember the url anymore. I checked the submission page, I found nothing there. It says that I may be the first time user. Thank you ...
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Hi Chris,

I am unable to publish an article with the new wizard. My draft url is

http://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/SubmissionWizard.aspx?aid=382390

When I click the publish button, it leads me to a page, but the article is not published. It does not show up in my article list.

http://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/MemberArticles.aspx?amid=5002996

Would you please let me know how to publish an article?

Thanks ...

I edited the article and published it and it seems fine to me. Can you please recheck it? We're doing a site update tonight, so please let me know if you see this happen again. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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I posted what I thought was a Tip but accidentally marked as Type = Article. (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/399142/Word-wrap-without-cutting-words [^]) I cannot seem to change it now that it is published. Is that a known limitation? Matt modified 7 Jun '12 - 20:25.
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When editing the article, just go to the top-right of the article and you'll see the article type displayed. Click on it to edit and you're all set. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project \| Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Just tried it...Didn't work. "License" and "Who can edit" are changeable, "Type" is not. Clicking on the words "Type" or "Article" does nothing. Matt http://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/SubmissionWizard.aspx?aid=399142[^] Relevant piece of source of editor page: <tr> <td>Type: </td> <td> Article </td> </tr> modified 8 Jun '12 - 12:18.
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I just tried it from home with a different browser, same behavior.
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Unfortunately I gave you some misinformation: you can change the article type, but only when posting a regular article. You've posted an alternative to an existing article, meaning that your alternative must be the same type as the original article. An alternative to an article is an article, an alternative to a tip is a tip, etc.

Sorry for the confusion.

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

Chris Maunder - Professional Profile

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