this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Alexandrite

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Alexandrite is a desktop-first alternative Lemmy client.

Find a bug or have a feature request? Create an issue on Github, or post here.

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Just some quick features!

When creating a post there's now a button to suggest a title based on the URL you entered. Just enter a URL then click "Suggest Title"

suggest title button

Then if you want to use that title hit the button!

title suggestion

You can create a post without first visiting the community by clicking the new "+" button in the header. The menu looks a little bit empty right now, but I'll add more stuff here later.

create menu

Also:

  • Added the ability to edit/delete/report private messages
  • Links to external sites in markdown now open in a new tab
  • If you have the "Keep navigation sidebar open" setting enabled, it will now open by default
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great updates! Would it make sense to automatically generate the title since it's not interrupting the user?

[–] sheodox 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I went back and forth on this and I'm not sure what's best. I think I'd prefer doing it automatically, but I also didn't want stuff on the page to move unexpectedly, because it's really annoying when you're trying to click somewhere but miss because stuff moved around. That's why it only does things when you click.

Also, on the post creation form on Alexandrite I put the "Title" input first, but the official UI has the URL first, which maybe makes it simpler to create a UI to offer these extra options (and the archive links), so maybe I'd need to reorder them and think about stuff a bit more?

If you have any ideas for some other place to put the link's title and the "use this title" button I'm all ears!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thanks for giving it so much thought!

I agree that it's super annoying when stuff moves on the page. I like the idea of putting the URL first, since it matches the flow. Pasting the URL first also lets you compose your thoughts and the fetched title would probably help with that.

Perhaps there could be two textboxes, one for the user to edit from scratch, and one fetched automatically (but also editable). Clicking on one disables the other. This doesn't move or change the UI for the user unexpectedly, and still let's us fetch the title automatically.

Something like this:

alternative input UI with additional textbox

This might add complexity though.

Edit: the "Suggest title" button would go away too, of course

[–] sheodox 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been considering something similar to that too, I'll give it some more thought. Might end up switching those textboxes around. Also when I someday am able to add image uploading I might need to move things around anyway so anything here could change lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago