This is still pretty beta, but it should work. It's not tested in anything other than firefox at the moment, but should be pretty standard.

This is a custom user JS that adds a quote button to every post (next to the user profile button). You can toggle quote for a particular post on or off, and when you click in a post box, it will generate quote tags for all the posts. It also filters out useless stuff in quotes, such as other quotes, media, etc. I've added all I've come across as far as HTML->mockup conversion, but there's always a chance I've missed something. If you find anything I've missed or that it doesn't handle right let me know.

Auto quoting does not work with posts from before the new mockup code was set up. - It isn't as straightforward to get the post content from older posts because the HTML is slightly different, and it's not worth the time to code support for it when it will never be used after the current threads have expired.

Installation is easy, go here and paste

document.write("<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"http://misc.baf.cc/accjs/quote.js\"></script>");

into the Custom JS box.

Obligatory screenshot:

{"name":"quotess.png","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/2\/0\/20a1e9437a53b4bad3c3c9bc88eaabb4.png","w":1167,"h":732,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/2\/0\/20a1e9437a53b4bad3c3c9bc88eaabb4"}

So it warns and then it clears the message to bring in the quotes from posts you have selected... It doesn't clip (<p>) tags, though... Opera 9.64

It's a bit silly at the minute. If you forget to untick the box, when you go to other threads you end up with massive bits of text in the box, and no easy way to get rid of them.

I actually wish it didn't do this. It's useful to quote these things because it allows people to know what you're responding to. If the user doesn't want these things in the post, he/she can remove them him/herself (odds are he doesn't want to quote the entire post anyway).

This was spit out by your auto-quote code. Something tells me it wasn't supposed to be. Are we free to reuse your code/icon? I don't really like the idea of using the code directly from your site and there are some improvements I'd like to try to make. For example, the inclusion of all markup, the exclusion of random <span>s. Also, I don't like how the only option is to overwrite your existing post with a quote. It would be better if you appended to the existing post when editing, I think. I realize it's not finalized, but I'm still curious.

** EDIT **

It could also use a clear/erase button somewhere. When does it empty itself?

It should, that's really wacky. The <p> tags you quoted were uppercase for some reason. Anyway, I did a slight tweak that should fix that.

Yeah, I'm going to add a clear button someplace. I use the mini header bar instead of the full forum header, so that's the preferred place for me.

Why is it useful to quote stupid crap like other quotes, media, etc? If the context is that ambiguous, they can click to go see it. I could make it copy quotes up to 1 layer deep I suppose.

As far as the span tag, that's an issue with image tags it appears. I'll have to make it support images better. isn't excluded, spans are snipped out because you can't post them anyway. I can't really stop you from stealing the code, and the icon is probably copyrighted (I just stole it from a google image search), but I would ask that if you release the edited copy of it that you mention that and not take full credit.

I'm working on a new version that will only copy selected portions of the post (if you select a portion before hitting the button), appending wouldn't be hard to do though it would require figuring out what quotes are already included. How often do you type out a whole post then go back to add quotes anyway?

As far as when it empties itself, it clears the accumulated list any time you submit a new post/edit post form.

It seems that including your code disables the mouseover profile-preview view-profile.png feature. Maybe that is by design/personal preference, but it's something I'm gonna want back.

If the stupid crap like other quotes, media, etc., is relevant to your post then I think it can be relevant to quote. Not every time, but particularly when it's far away or one among many.

I didn't even know that was doable with JavaScript.

It might work to remove them from storage after adding them to the post. Or, I was thinking it would be extra snappy if you just added like a toolbox of quotes beside or below the textarea somewhere that users could select from. Just simple <div>s or something that could be clicked or dragged onto the post. Give them a delete button [X] on their right side and let users manage them. This would come in extra handy with the subquote feature because often people want to quote many sections. You could add similar, though minimized, controls beside the quoted posts to manage them (i.e., delete them) from the thread as well. These are just some ideas... One would have to see how they actually semantically work in practice...

ML did something that broke the JS, at least for my browser, so nothing works for me at the moment (something crashes in the onLoad affecting userSettings or something). - Fixed

I did nothing that would affect the profile previewing on hover.

Most of the time if there was media,etc relevant to the quote (not necessarily sub-quotes, though), anyone reading your reply would have already seen said media if it was useful.

Your toolbox idea actually sounds pretty neat, and it's one I hadn't thought of. That could go along with the selection of what part of the post to quote as well. Hmm, I'll have to play around with that, thanks!

[edit]
Hmm, it does appear on-hover preview is broken. That is strange, I don't touch the profile button at all. I'll have to take a deeper look.

[edit2]
It doesn't work for me whether or not I include my the custom JS.

It sounds like some people who use this will end up getting quoting privileges revoked. Overzealous quoting is the reason why this isn't supported.

Quoting is meant to set the context or to make a direct response. Nested quotes are bad enough, but including all the original content? That's ridiculous. If you find yourself quoting in every post or including lots of little quotes, then you are probably missing the big picture and focusing on too many anal details.

{"name":"598091","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/8\/a\/8a9893aff7b8810bbe585acc298613a8.png","w":1046,"h":343,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/8\/a\/8a9893aff7b8810bbe585acc298613a8"}

Result:

Heres the code I wrote. Dump it in firebug after everything is loaded to test it.

I'll only use it once it supports grabbing the current selection...

Here is the code I'm using. You can paste this into your custom js and it will support it.
Download Partial Auto-Quoter Code

I'd prefer it actually take the current selection, not let you click dom nodes.

edit:
also it seems a little broken, and it probably shouldn't add a quote button to my own post

I also find a few members' over-use of quoting to be annoying.

Here

doc.add_onLoad(function()
{
  var ds = document.getElementsByTagName('div');

  for(var i = 0; i < ds.length; i++)
    if(ds[i].className && ds[i].className == "quote") {
      ds[i].style.display = 'none';
      var a = ds[i].parentNode.insertBefore(document.createElement('a'), ds[i]);

      a.href = '#';
      a.onclick = new Function("this.nextSibling.style.display=((this.f=!this.f)?'':'none')");
      a.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Toggle Quote'));
    }
});

{"name":"598095","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/1\/e19179a16ad09dcf66b26944a34640c1.png","w":369,"h":310,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/1\/e19179a16ad09dcf66b26944a34640c1"}

Looks interesting, I was messing around with it but didn't get anything useful. As far as quoting your own post, sometimes it is useful, it's such a tiny detail it doesn't matter much.

Are you going to incorporate my changes?

Yeah, I probably won't get to it for a little while here though, i'm working on eating then I may or may not go to bed (feeling pretty crappy right now, all congested and sore throat and stuff, can't really focus on much atm).

I don't know if I'm repeating what Thomas has said, having just speed read this whole thread to try and avoid repeating myself, but what would make this the best quoting system ever in the existance of quoting systems on forums is if when you clicked on the icon it quoted what you had currently selected rather than the entire quote.

Yeah, selection is something I'm adding. DDustin wrote code for it which I am going to incorporate.

A quick question for DDustin (I've only glanced at your JS, didn't really read it in detail yet because I haven't been feeling human until just a few hours ago) - when you select just a portion, does it still use the quote button added to each post? The screenshot you posted didn't show a quote button on the post, so I wasn't sure. And if so, does it verify you selected text from that post when you hit the button, to prevent the source argument from being wrong?

Thanks

You're not using his code that just selects a single <p> node are you? I don't want anything like that, and I bet most people don't either. We'd rather select a range of text with the mouse. thats what I meant by a "selection".

Oh, his code only selects a node? I have code that will pull the selected text just fine, but I wanted to make sure it belonged to the post in question before assigning it that person/link. I suppose I could always add a quote button in the mini header toolbar for quoting selection, and it would let ML's code find the appropriate post to link to/etc.

If I'm going to be using JavaScript to auto-quote I expect it to be 100% correct, whereas Matthew has been straight in saying that his "squirrels" are best guess and not intended to be 100% correct. If I have to check that the quoting is correct I might as well just do it myself the first time.

So you want the more complex javascript, which explains why no code fully fitting those requirements has been posted yet.

Is your site usually up and running and quite fast? I've noticed my browser is always going to your site whenever I view a thread now. Or is there a way to get it to store the script locally?

It should be cached by your browser, but I think that will depend on the headers his server sends. You could just go directly to his URL, copy the source into your custom JS, and let Allegro.cc handle the caching instead; but then you'll have to manually update when BAF makes changes.

Yes, it is normally up and fast. Also, what bamccaig said. Proper caching or using CGamesPlay's installer script to copy it locally would eventually be used (once its in a more ready state and not being updated a lot) but right now I can update and fix stuff without users having to update their copy or clear their cache.

The code I wrote works like this:

1. Click the quote icon

2. Move mouse over the node you want quoted

3. Click

4. Repeat #2 for all desired nodes

5. (optional) click quote icon again to erase all quotes

You have an affinity for designing bad user interfaces. It's a super-power.

You have bad eyes. Get them adjusted and try again.

Its a much better system then "highlight the sentence you want."