Raphael Mudge sent us an email on his latest project, After the Deadline.
I'm a computer scientist working to fill a gap in current CMS feature sets. It isn't a new social or wireless feature. I'm working to bring spelling, style, and grammar checking to web applications. The technology is available for WordPress and the Open Source TinyMCE editor.
After the Deadline is an exciting plugin that adds a much needed feature often missing in most CMS rich text editors. After the Deadline currently supports plugins for TinyMCE and Wordpress. Some additional bullet points behind the plugin include:
- Corrects spelling with 90% accuracy
- Checks 1,500 words for misuse
- Finds grammar errors
- Improves writing style
- All plugins are licensed under the LGPL
I haven't tried After the Deadline myself, but will likely try it out on a Wordpress site I maintain. However, if you take a look at the feature page and the demo page you will get a good idea of what After the Deadline can do for your CMS.
After the Deadline is free to "casual users", but busier writers will need to pay for a subscribed service plan. I don't think CMS Report will qualify as a casual user.
Comments
Very nice, but...
This looks very nice indeed, hats off to Raphael
However, I've always been of the opinion that this kind of thing should be implemented by the web browser. Firefox at least supports Spell checking, albeit probably more basically than Raphael's work.
Surely, such a 'basic' cross-site-applicable feature, should be available cross-site as a function of the browser, implemented in an efficient way. The solution here probably uses AJAX, which will put load on the 'pipes', the server, and have at least some latency.
I don't personally enjoy to see important features having to be implemented like this because it works against the incentive for browser developers to pick up responsibility, and you get different inconsistent implementations, and wasted effort between different vendors all making their own unnecessary different solutions. I want to see things like spellcheck being a point of competition between browsers, not web apps.
My biggest bug-bear for a situation like this is upload-progress-indicators. Firefox does a terrible job of showing upload progress, and as a result many flash-based work-arounds are common on sites. From an engineering perspective implementing that kind of solution ends up dictating your forms-infrastructure and that's very bad. Firefox's bug wasn't fixed (and I think still isn't), but when a new Flash version broke the technique a few months back, suddenly the Firefox bug for the issue lit up like crazy. I think that demonstrates my point about incentives quite well. I want to see an optimal situation that makes a consistent end-user experience and an efficient implementation experience for web developers.
I must reiterate though I have full respect for Raphaels work - he's done an impressive piece of work. And, he's taken the initiative, and somebody has to - so that is very praiseworthy.
The Justification for SaaS
Thanks Chris for your words. I've heard this before (in fact, I'm often asked why I don't make a browser plugin). Here are my thoughts on this subject:
1. By adding spell, grammar, and style checking into the application all users benefit from it. No need to worry about what browser they use. SaaS makes it possible to take this ability to the mobile space with no loss of functionality.
2. Simple non-contextual spell check is easy for browsers to support. There are a number of libraries out there. I don't expect to see contextual spell check, grammar/style, or misused word detection any time soon. Some of this work is happening in the OS community but nothing comprehensive exists yet.
3. I see another benefit to the CMS space: Since the checking is performed on the server-side it's possible to make rules that enforce an organization's style guide and support a single dictionary that reflects words the organization uses (industry jargon, the CEO's name, etc.) I don't expect to replace a good editor but I do hope to make their job much easier.
Interesting, I think you make
Interesting, I think you make a good case.
Consistency
I think Raphael's first point is the most valid for why you may want to put this on the server side. From a support perspective, you really want a user's experience to be as consistent as possible with another user. It's difficult to get consistent functionality among the various browsers. I'm pretty sure even Microsoft's latest browser, IE8, doesn't even have a spell checker without 3rd party add-ons.
However, when you provide more functionality on the server side then the support requirements begin shifting away from the client applications and toward the server applications. Eventually, so the theory goes, time and money can be realized by providing the application/functionality at the server. It's a lot easier to upgrade functions located on a single server than a client application located at several hundreds/thousands of desktops.
Feeding off our errors!
I agree, putting it server side would probably be the best idea to make sure all users get the same experience. We know how hard it is to even code a webpage for all browsers at the same page, we want user to always be able to completely use what we implanted. It's great food for though to think about the implementation of such and application. I do agree that it could be very useful for a website owner but also it gives back to the user who after time will learn where his errors are, just imagine all posters learning from their errors every day (English being a 2nd language for me and many, i would love such a corrector). Can't wait to see what is next for dinner with the spell checkers, it keeps getting better and better!
Spell Check the whole site
I agree that the spell check feature should be a part of the browsers, but even then it won't be a fool proof system.
I work for a company called Siteimprove, and one of the services we offer can scan entire websites for misspellings. Even though the majority of our customers have a spell checker built into their CMS, we still find tons of embarrassing misspellings.
To keep your site clean, you need a regular, and automatic check of the entire site – not just the pages the editors remember to spell check.
If anybody wants to see what we can find on their website, you can try it for free at: http://siteimprove.com/Solutions/SiteCheck.aspx