[deleted]
jordanjay29 no ! I definitely saw it - I'm sure of it..... I just can't recall where 
No preview when starting a new discussion
4 days later
JasperVriends Also I sometimes use the post editor to see the markup and then paste it into the 'new discussion' modal. So this is my work around.
This is my workaround also, and a workaround i recommend to our users.
but a button that even takes you to a new preview page or something would be greatly appriciated by our community
7 months later
Yes, I need this too.
6 months later
tolgaaaltas can't find this extension on flarum.cloud
I think this should be included even as core feature. This is common in all (?) forums I know.
aisbergde FreeFlarum is run by a community member and we have no control over it. They have a process for requesting new extensions.
This feature will probably make it to core eventually, but it's currently not a priority.
3 months later
I know this is an old post, but add me to the list of people who would really like to see this feature. Markdown is always a little idiosyncratic so having the ability to preview before posting is especially important.
I notice that when you edit a post, you can see the changes in real time just behind the post window. Why not make the same thing happen when you create a new post? That would be an elegant solution (no extra 'preview' windows etc.).
@Powermage or @JasperVriends , you both mention using the 'post editor', but I can't figure out how to get there? Are you editing an old post and then canceling the edit?
This is an amazing project, thank you everyone who is involved for your stellar work!
Creating a discussion would move you to a page where the discussion will be as if when it's posted. This will be a client-side only page, and would work the same as the preview post feature. I really miss this feature too aswell, and I think that it should be a core one. Why would we be able to preview posts, but not new discussions? My suggestion would require some modifications in extensions too, I think (for example, tags extension adds the tags to the discussion, which would have to be also rendered).
Another idea would be to just add WYSIWYG editor to Flarum. Some extensions already tried this approach, and this one seems quite up-to-date, however it doesn't seem to get much attention, which could make the developer not passionate about it in the future, but if it'll be worked on, it's gonna be fantastic and I really like the idea: https://discuss.flarum.org/d/25590
SKevo I actually have a strong preference to not have a WYSIWYG editor by default (although an extension would be fine!).
But I've made many mistakes on new discussions that I've had to edit simply because I wasn't able to preview before posting. For example, I created several posts with email links of the form [email link](mailto:email@example.com) before realizing that these links don't render properly, and I had to go back and edit them all. These kinds of mistakes will definitely happen for people who aren't Markdown pros, and it will be a very frustrating (and messy!) user experience.
10 months later
Any news on this? I am interested in previewing the discussion before creating it.
- Edited
It’s doable to have a preview tab because @JasperVriends did it for the blog and support extensions. But, I’m guessing it’s against the minimal design philosophy of Flarum core or just not a high priority. And/or, not everyone likes the idea. In short, no news on this feature that I know of at this time.
6 months later
- Edited
I also feel often a frustration with the lack of preview when i post the first message, I always have to edit it a lot afterwards - richtext editor extension helps a little, sure, but it's not the same thing.
Without considering all the code it would need (it's maybe heavy), the options i could see would be:
- When you create a thread, add in composer a "preview before posting" button nearby the "Post reply" button, which would send the user to their (preview) thread not yet posted, appearing the background of composer, like for any other message. People who like to have a preview when creating a post would then click on this "preview before posting" button right away to compose their message.
- As for the problem of creating a topic which doesn't yet exist, I don't know exactly how flarum works for this, but I suppose the topic could be indeed created when clicking on the "preview" button, but simply hidden in discussion list (and in users profile) as long as it has not be finally posted. When posted, a code would order to change the hour of the topic to the one of the actual post, and to clear the "edited" mention on the top of the message.
Not sure how all that is easy to do, but i feel here there is really like a bug in the smooth/simple design of flarum.
3 months later
- Edited
I would love to see a preview implemented too!
I think this is especially important for admins or moderators that need to post longer discussions or announcements. It doesn't look good when it goes live with formatting issues and users are reading it before you can fix the problems.
If you are only talking about the preview itself, an extension has already been released for it.
https://extiverse.com/extension/zerosonesfun/composer-preview
When you write a post you can not preview it, but after you post it, when you edit the post, you can preview your post.
do you think this setting is correct?
meihuak if you have a problem with the linked extension, please post in the extension discussion https://discuss.flarum.org/d/29761-composer-preview
If you have a problem with the built-in previews for replies and post edit in Flarum, please start a new discussion under Support with all the details.
This discussion is about the feature suggestion.