[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #40951: New Text Widget - Switching Between Visual/Text Editor Strips Out Code

[WordPress Trac]

#40951: New Text Widget - Switching Between Visual/Text Editor Strips Out Code
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 Reporter:  dwrippe       |       Owner:  westonruter
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  accepted
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  4.8.1
Component:  Widgets       |     Version:  4.8
 Severity:  major         |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch   |     Focuses:
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Comment (by FolioVision):

 Thanks Weston for the update on current status and the detailed summary of
 the offsite discussion. Quite honestly Trac is where this kind of
 conversation belongs if core wants to be inclusive and not exclusive. You
 proposed:

 > I think the best suggestion that has been proposed is this: when loading
 the form for a Text widget, just as on the frontend it checks to see if it
 was previously saved from an older version of WordPress before TinyMCE was
 added to the Text widget. If it is such a pre-existing Text widget
 instance, then use heuristics to detect if TinyMCE would negatively impact
 the contents of the widget, including the auto-p checkbox being unchecked,
 whether there are empty tags, and whether there are span, div, script, or
 style tags. When the Text widget is in this legacy mode, it can have a
 notice that informs users of the new HTML Code widget and that it should
 be used going forward.

 To my mind this seems far too complex and prone to false negatives. It's
 more a face saver for the original very wrong policy. What would be
 reliable and simple would be: To detect the kind of widget. If it's an
 older text widget just leave it as a text widget. Nothing breaks on 4.8.1
 upgrades. Confidence restored in WordPress updates.

 Going forward novice users can use the HTML widget (I hope that prompt not
 to use the very robust and useful text widget won't be too annoying). In
 this case WordPress core won't be breaking everyone's site because one
 person arbitrarily decided to kill WordPress's core widget in a futile
 hope of appealing to SquareSpace users and pushing market share another
 0.5 per cent higher instead of actually improving WordPress and making the
 lives of existing users better.

 PS. Improving the lives of existing users would be the better way to
 increase marketshare. Persuade people to bring their friends instead of
 sending them running from the hills due to the high maintenance costs and
 admin time required just to survive such updates.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40951#comment:67>
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