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The Path to Richer Text: Input Format Improvements in Drupal 7
David_Rothstein
David_Rothstein Dec 10, 2008
Abstract: 

Input formats and text filters are one of the scariest parts of Drupal, but also one of the most important. As "guardians at the gate," input formats let users contribute text to a site in a way that can be both easy and safe. This session will focus on what input formats are, how they work, and some of the new, exciting features in Drupal 7 that will make them work even better and enable great new functionality (WYSIWYGs in core, perhaps?).

Presenters: 

David Rothstein

Agenda

The session will be a mix of concrete examples, conceptual ideas, some (easy to understand) code, and a bit of audience participation. Some topics to be covered:

  • Introduction: Why might a math teacher hate Drupal?
  • Textareas galore: Boldly going where no input format has gone before
  • You want it, you got it: Setting a default input format (by role, by node type, or by anything else)
  • Put on your safety goggles: Integrating input formats with permissions
  • Default formats versus fallback formats: Why you should care
  • Advanced topics and discussion: What do we need going forward? In particular, we can try to discuss some of the ongoing requirements for clean support of alternative rich text entry options (e.g., WYSIWYGs) in Drupal core.

Goals

The hope is that audience members will come away with a deeper understanding of how input formats work and what they will be able to do with them in Drupal 7, as either a developer or site administrator. Everyone who is interested in understanding more about the concept of input formats is welcome to attend and can benefit regardless of previous Drupal experience.

Speakers

So far just David Rothstein, but I'm open to co-presenters. There are a lot of people out there who have a lot of knowledge to share regarding input formats and rich text formatting.