Andy Zhao (he/him) for The DEV Team

Posted on Dec 29, 2018

dev.to Repo Recap from the Past Week

#changelog #meta #opensource

And we're back with another recap. We're back to our regular scheduled programming of covering a single week: December 16 to December 22.

Features

@ben added haptic feedback for a few missing places for the iOS app.
- Link to PR
We reduced our bundle size by... a lot. Thanks to @ben; check out his post and PR for more details.
- Link to PR
  
  We reduced our vendor.js from 210kb to 16kb in about five minutes of work and ten lines of code
  
  Ben Halpern ・ Dec 20 '18
  
  #javascript #webdev #webperf #webpack
We now have two year badges. Thanks to everyone who has been with us for two whole years! Badge automation by @ben, badge design by @liana.
- Link to PR

Bugs Fixes and Other Contributions

Thanks to @ashwinv11 for adding heading tags to all our <header> tags!
- Link to PR
Thanks to @moriczgergo for adding a better description about publishing via RSS!
- Link to PR
Thanks to @vinistock for starting the PR to add the Sail gem!
- Link to PR
Thanks to @link2twenty for laying down the groundwork for dark mode with CSS variables! There are multiple PRs -- check them out below:
@ben fixed an issue with our Twitter Liquid tag not rendering the text in retweets. If you have this issue with your posts, resaving it should render it properly.
- Link to PR
Thanks to @imadityang fixed webpack-dev-server for docker-compose! More details below.
- Link to PR
We had an issue with highlighting text in Connect. This is now resolved, thanks to @mariocsee!
- Link to PR
We recently added Tag Moderation! Check out the page for more information, including how to become one! PR by @jess
- Link to PR
We fixed an issue with the reaction button not rendering properly in notifications page. Let us know if you have see any issues related it to that.
- Link to PR
Thanks for fixing a typo on the organization admin page, @anant90!
- Link to PR

New Issues

@antogarand reported an issue where the horizontal scroll bar of a codeblock is unusable. More details below:
Header following a code block - scrollbar overlapse #1332
AntonyGarand posted on Dec 16, 2018
Describe the bug Making a header next to a code block with a horizontal scrollbar makes an area overlapping with the scrollbar and the header.

Tested under Firefox only.

This makes us select the text instead of / while moving the scrollbar, which is annoying.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Create a blog post with the following content:
```
-``` Ignore the prefixed -, this is for the github markdown. --- Continuing the line to get a scrollbar, you can ignore this content.
-```
# This is a header. It should overlap with the scrollbar.
```
Preview or post it, and try moving the horizontal scrollbar by selecting an area above the header text.

Expected behavior The scrollbar moves without selecting the text.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):
- OS: Windows
- Browser: Firefox
- Version: 64.0
Additional context

This can be fixed with the following CSS:
```
div.highlight + h1 {
    margin-top: 50px;
}
```
Where h1 can be h1-h6.
</div> <div class="gh-btn-container"><a class="gh-btn" href="https://github.com/thepracticaldev/dev.to/issues/1332">View on GitHub</a></div>
@yafkari requested a feature where you could add articles to your Pocket list.

Add the option to share an article on pocket #1344

zechtyounes posted on Dec 17, 2018

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I think it would be great if we can add directly in one-click an article to pocket. Reading and listening to articles works well with dev.to

Describe the solution you'd like

Simply add an "Save to pocket" option to the sharing options

Additional context

éI would like to take this opportunity to highlight that issue #150 should be open againé

View on GitHub

@imadityang reported an issue where the save button renders incorrectly in the reading list after clicking "LOAD MORE POSTS".
Incorrect render of Saved/Bookmarked button in the reading list #1347
ghost posted on Dec 17, 2018
Describe the bug clicking the "LOAD MORE POSTS" button in the readinglist, the "SAVED" bookmarks button after each article becomes "SAVE" showing as if posts are not bookmarked. See screenshots below

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. Go to your reading list - here
2. Now below every post you should see a "SAVED" button indicating post is bookmarked.
3. Scroll down and click "LOAD MORE POSTS"
4. Now, below every post you will see a "SAVE" button as if posts are not bookmarked.
Screenshots
- Normal Reading list:
- When i click "LOAD MORE POSTS" button:
Desktop (please complete the following information):
- OS: Windows 10
- Browser: Firefox(No Extensions)
Additional context Normal button:
<button class="article-engagement-count bookmark-engage selected">
When the "LOAD MORE POSTS" button is clicked, the class selected class is removed making button:
<button class="article-engagement-count bookmark-engage">
View on GitHub

@2lach requested a UX improvement where you could update all the weights of your followed tags with one click.

Should be able to update all followed tags with one click #1346

2lach posted on Dec 17, 2018

Problem/ feature request: On the Followed tags page the user can only submit a single new value for follow weight per submit.

Current page:

Proposed solution Since i suppose most users of dev.to (myself included) update several topics at the same time, I suggest a update all button. This way there is no need for several clicks when updating follow weights = () => which makes happier users and also less data traffic with fewer requests.

Solution illustrated:

Alternatives Keep it as is or maybe just save all edited values in localStorage so the input doesn't loose it on Submit. Not as awesome as with an update all button. but still the follow weight is a nice feature in an already awesome community.

Have an awesome day!

View on GitHub

@alextakitani started a discussion about having a section in your profile called "Share my Development Setup".

Share my Development Setup #1353

alextakitani posted on Dec 18, 2018

I was writing a blog post to share my dev setup with my colleagues so they can copy the parts that make sense to theirs. I like to read posts like that, always end up learning a thing or two.

I maintain a script on a gist that installs and configure my dev machine, and I try to keep it up to date, so I can always rebuild everything if needed.

So, while drafting that post, I through that I should build a website for people to share their setup, and while searching for a domain name that I liked I remembered of dev.to. I think it should be the perfect home for it since is focused on devs, open source with a nice community.

So what I suggest is a page, for each user to share his setup. It should have tags so others could search for things like "rails" "ubuntu" "postgres" "vscode" etc.

Users should be encouraged to keep things easy to reproduce, either for they own use as for others as bash scripts, docker images, puppet recipes or something like.

It should be "likeable" so people can sort when searching for a setup.

It also should be "followable" so people that like that setup get an notification when something changes.

Also, comments would allow others to contribute with tips for the user.

I think it would be a great thing for beginners to have a nice setup ready, and for experienced users to learn about new tools.

It would be great if any new setup or any big change into a existing one gets into the Feed.

View on GitHub

@bencodezen requested a feature where you can schedule when a post publishes.

Schedule content for future publishing #1363

bencodezen posted on Dec 19, 2018

Problem

I am unable to schedule content for future publishing

In order to create a consistent flow of content for users, it is critical to have the ability to schedule posts since life often gets in the way. And to be honest, it's hard for the writing muse to strike with inspiration sometimes and it'd be nice to schedule out posts for a future date.

Solution

Utilize the frontmatter publish property to designate the publish time

Currently the publish property takes a boolean of true or false, but it should also accept a date/time value in ISO-8601 format (which I assume most authors on dev.to are familiar with) that runs a script to set the markdown property to true after the given time.

Alternatives

Form inputs like WordPress for managing the properties of a post

As someone who used to author content in WordPress, they had a section to manage the data state of a post (i.e., published or draft, time to publish, time updated, tags, etc.). However, while this seems straightforward, I know that this would put a fair amount of work on the team, so I'm suggesting the simplest solution in order to get the feature out sooner rather than later.

Questions

If you have any questions or want to chat more about it, feel free to reach out to me!

View on GitHub

@codemouse92 reported an issue where bullets did not render in a tag's wiki seciton.

No bullets in tag wiki markdown #1368

CodeMouse92 posted on Dec 19, 2018

Markdown bulleted lists (with a * at the start of each line) do not render in the tag wiki sections.

For example, this is the Markdown for the #cpp tag...

C++ is a compiled programming language developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1985. It offers features of imperative, object-oriented, and generic programming.

The current language standard is C++17.

## Documentation

* [cppreference.com](https://cppreference.com/)
* [CPlusPlus.com](http://cplusplus.com/)

## Compilers

* [Clang/LLVM](https://clang.llvm.org/)
* [GCC](https://gcc.gnu.org/)
* [Microsoft Visual C++](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/)

[Complete list...](http://www.stroustrup.com/compilers.html)

The output, however, does not put each bulleted item on a new line, nor render the bullets themselves. (See https://dev.to/t/cpp)

View on GitHub

@dance2die requested that articles imported via RSS have their editor version based on your user settings.
Use the editor version set in settings for imported drafts #1384
dance2die posted on Dec 20, 2018
🙏 Feature Request

After setting the editor version to v2, new posts can be written using v2 editor. But drafts imported from RSS uses v1 editor.

🏃‍♀️ Demo
1. Below shows that the editor is set to v2
2. Creating a new post uses v2 editor
3. but clicking on edit for the imported draft uses v1 editor.
💭 Suggestion

New post & existing posts (I used the word draft above) should use the editor version set in the Settings > Features.

🔁 Alternative Solution

An alternative is to let authors choose an editor in the Edit page.

➕ Additional context

This feature was suggested by @maestromac in #1314
View on GitHub

@rhymes reported a bug where the V2 editor settings modal has a broken layout in smaller screens.
Editor v2 upload image overlay breaks layout with small screen on upload #1389
rhymes posted on Dec 21, 2018
Describe the bug

Opening the upload image overlay in the v2 editor with a 13" inch screen and trying to upload an image, breaks the layout.

The content (the section direct url) also disappears below the bottom toolbar

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. Resize the browser window (my screen is 13" with 1280x800 resolution)
2. Go https://dev.to/new with the v2 editor
3. Click on "browse" and select an image
4. See error
Expected behavior

The overlay should enlarge with the new content added

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):
- OS: macOS 10.14.2
- Browser: Firefox
- Version: 64
View on GitHub

@chiangs requested a feature that allows you to create different types of reading lists and share them.

Saved and shareable curated lists of saved articles #1391

chiangs posted on Dec 21, 2018

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I would love to create several reading lists, or dynamically filter them and share that filtered list via a unique link to my colleagues and mates in topic specific group.

Describe the solution you'd like Example use case:

I’m the admin for ngStavanger and would like to post up a link in our slack channel or fb group. A member clicks on it and immediately gets the curated reading list of my saved / filtered articles of Angular subjects from dev.to.

View on GitHub

@abraham reported a bug where images are not responsive in emails (notably Gmail).
Images in emails are not responsive in Gmail #1393
abraham posted on Dec 21, 2018
Describe the bug

Images in comment notification emails can be large and not display in a scaled manor.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. Comment on a post.
2. Have someone else reply to your comment with an embedded image.
3. Look at the comment notification email in Gmail on the web.
Expected behavior

I would expect that the image would be no wider than the width of the displayed email.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):
- OS: Ubuntu 18.10
- Browser: Chrome
- Version: 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
Additional context

The particular comment I was notified about: https://dev.to/rhymes/comment/7kna

Potential solutions: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10711638/how-to-dynamically-resize-an-image-inside-an-email-client
View on GitHub

@yafkari reported a bug where the save button is inconsistently rendered in the reading list.
Bug with the save button in the reading list appears randomly #1395
zechtyounes posted on Dec 22, 2018
Describe the bug When you click on an article in the reading list and want to return to your list, the posts are marked as unsaved. (SAVE)

The problem appears only on mobile, with chrome but not every time.

It's a bit complicated to explain but I'll try.

To Reproduce

To reproduce on smartphone
- Start from your homepage.
- Click on the left icon to access the reading list
- Click on a random article in your reading list
- Click on the DEV button, to go back to your feed
- Click on the left icon to access the reading list again
- if the bug didn't appear, scroll down to refresh (not the refresh chrome button)
Normally the SAVED button will have become SAVE, otherwise try again, like I said the problem doesn't appear every time.

Smartphone (please complete the following information):
- Device: OnePlus 5T
- OS: OxygenOS 5.1.1
- Browser: Chrome
- Version: 71.0.3578.99
Additional context Maybe the same problem as issue #1347
View on GitHub

@rhymes requested a feature that allows you to filter a someone's posts based the tags of they've used.
Filter user posts in profile page by tag #1396
rhymes posted on Dec 22, 2018
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Some users have many posts on their profile pages, it would be nice to be able to filter those by tag.

Describe the solution you'd like

I envision this feature split in two sub features:
- a "tag cloud" in a box on the right side of the profile page
- when a tag is clicked the profile page reloads/refetches ony with the posts belonging to such tag
Not sure about the UX of going back to the unfiltered list
View on GitHub

As always, we encourage you to add any thoughts to the issues. Discussing them helps us iterate on ideas, and adding details to bugs helps us fix them. Thanks for reading, and see you in the new year!