Add Block: Chat

[jasmussen]

This block exists to be the counterpart to the Chat post format. See also #857.

Attributes

Good question. Do we want any? Decorative/float alignments, perhaps?

States

Placeholder:

Neutral:

Selected:

[mtias]

It'd be nice to have a much more condensed view of this. From a few posts I've been looking at, when people do full conversations like this it will waste a lot of space.

[jasmussen]

Here's a more compact design:

We can also go full-on iMessage:

[swissspidy]

Here are some solutions I found for parsing chat transcripts:

• https://www.narga.net/styling-wordpress-chat-transcript/
• https://github.com/dougalcampbell/Formattd/blob/c05b6a3b290a31c8779fa1f58f9a500bcab54e96/functions.php#L647-L655
• http://justintadlock.com/archives/2012/08/21/post-formats-chat

Regarding the layout: perhaps there could be a toggle to switch compact mode on/off?

Also, the iMessage layout would need to work with multiple people. Who would be on the right side, who on the left?

[jasmussen]

Regarding the layout: perhaps there could be a toggle to switch compact mode on/off?

Good idea

Also, the iMessage layout would need to work with multiple people. Who would be on the right side, who on the left?

Solid point. Scratch that idea :)

[swissspidy]

As mentioned on Slack yesterday:

• There used to be a chat transcript parsing function in core during 3.6 development, see https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23625. We can perhaps borrow some stuff from there, mostly regarding to handling edge cases.
• Ideally we shouldn't do any of the rendering server-side (what themes usually do). It can all happen in React and we then store the serialized markup in the database.

[swissspidy]

One note regarding markup.

The HTML 5 spec says:

This specification does not define a specific element for marking up conversations, meeting minutes, chat transcripts, dialogues in screenplays, instant message logs, and other situations where different players take turns in discourse.

Authors are encouraged to mark up conversations using p elements and punctuation. Authors who need to mark the speaker for styling purposes are encouraged to use span or b. Paragraphs with their text wrapped in the i element can be used for marking up stage directions.

[justintadlock]

The chat transcript parser in my tutorial linked to above has been worked on since then. You can find the latest here: https://github.com/justintadlock/hybrid-core/blob/master/inc/class-chat.php

It's nowhere near perfect, but feel free to utilize any parts of it needed.

[karmatosed]

As the project moves towards merge proposal, we are moving issues that aren't needed for that to projects. This doesn't mean they won't get done, they totally can and that's why we're moving to projects. This allows us to focus on the issues that have to happen to Gutenberg.

[remouk]

Hello, I am sorry if I bother anyone about this, but I can't find any information anywhere else. Is this block available? The issue seems closed/resolved, but I can't find the block in Gutenberg.

I am searching for a way to display chat logs in an elegant way.

[mtias]

Hi there. No, this block doesn't exist in core.

[remouk]

Thank you for your answer! 🙏 I don't really know how this github works... Since the issue is closed I guess it won't ever be done?
Is there a way to push forward (should I create a new issue with some ideas/specs?)?