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Forums use some seriously antiquated code

Hey WPMUdev,

I don’t think I’d realized the relative age of this code. It blew my mind when I want to start formatting the generated code in CSS and I found a <center> tag on the search form.

Really? That’s been obsolete since XHTML 4 dropped. I realize it’s probably one of those things in line for a complete rewrite but, wow.

Please pull the code into line with XHTML/HTML5 standards.

Sun, 7 Jul 2013 7:50:49
  • Imperative Ideas
    • HummingBird

    In addition, deleting the plugin does not remove database entries. While disabling forums should leave all data in place, actually deleting the plugin through the WP-admin should remove all traces of said system.

    Optionally, you could allow admins to back up their data for re-import later but simply leaving dead data in the WPDB is a terrible practice. I’m sure @Vladislav will agree with all of this since he’s kind of a ninja coder.

    This really should be patched next go around.

  • Imperative Ideas
    • HummingBird

    Thanks Tom,

    I loaded in Sabai, which is basically like adding StackOverflow style forums to your page. It’s probably an ideal model for you guys.

    http://demo.sabaidiscuss.com/questions/categories/more-general-questions

    Having to install the whole Sabai framework is overkill just to get a killer forum but it’s the best WP has to offer. At the moment, on community projects, I’m dropping in Sabai Forums and Arrow Chat then doing extensive skinning and it adds significant weight to a load.

    I would just love a WPMU solution that did it all efficiently. Sadly, none exists.

  • S H Mohanjith
    • Recruit

    Thank you for your valuable feedback.

    I agree about the HTML markup being antiquated.

    I disagree that we should drop tables on plugin deletion (via register_uninstall_hook). This can lead to unintentional data loss. User is just deleting the plugin not dropping the table. Dropping tables should be done with explicit permission from the user.

    e.g. Network Admin unintentionally uninstalls a plugin because it’s not network activated. However it is being used by some blogs. Then they contact the Network Admin and he reinstalls the plugin but the plugin tables are already lost.

  • Imperative Ideas
    • HummingBird

    That’s how an uninstall hook is supposed to work though. You can pop a warning (many plugins do) saying “This will delete all forum data, are you sure you want to do this?”

    By not ever removing the data, you are being a part of the database pollution problem and not a part of the solution. It’s just poor coding ethics.

    Solve it another way but don’t contribute to the mess.