Composer Features
The composer is the box you type in when you create a new post or reply. It works like a modern community tool, not a plain comment form. Members can @mention each other, see at a glance which threads have new replies, and find out who runs a space and who on staff is replying. This guide covers each of those features and how they behave for the member.
What You Will Learn
- How @mention autocomplete works in posts and replies
- What the "New" pill on the topic card means and when it clears
- How the "Managed by" sidebar surfaces space admins and moderators
- Where role pills appear and what they tell members
- How link previews turn a pasted URL into a rich card
- How members add images, and which capability gates uploads
- How the composer's formatting toolbar and markdown shortcuts work
@mention Autocomplete
Type @ anywhere in the composer and Jetonomy opens a dropdown of matching people. Keep typing to narrow the list, then click a result or press Enter to insert the mention.
The inserted mention is a clickable link to the user's profile, and the moment your post or reply is published, Jetonomy fires a notification to the mentioned member. They see it in the bell menu and, if they have email notifications on, in their inbox.
Where It Works
| Surface | Mentions supported |
|---|---|
| New post composer | Yes |
| Reply composer | Yes |
| Edit post / edit reply | Yes |
| Private message composer (Pro) | Yes |
| Quick reply on a topic card | Yes |
Who Shows Up in the Dropdown
The dropdown is scoped to people the current user shares at least one space with. This keeps the list relevant on large communities and avoids leaking member names across private spaces. Within that scope, results are ordered by:
- Recent contributors in the current space (they are most likely to be relevant)
- Other members of the current space
- People you share other spaces with
If you start typing a name that does not match anyone in your shared spaces, the dropdown shows "No matches" rather than searching the whole site.
Walkthrough: Mentioning a Member in a Reply
- Open any topic and start a reply.
- Type
@followed by the first few letters of the person's name or username. - The dropdown appears under your cursor with up to 10 matching members.
- Use the arrow keys to highlight a name, or click directly.
- Press Enter (or click) to insert the mention.
- Publish the reply. The mentioned member receives a notification within seconds.
Notes on Privacy
- Mentions in a private space still notify the mentioned member, but the linked post is only visible to people who can read that space.
- Mentioning a member who has muted you still inserts the link, but no notification is sent.
- Site admins can disable mention notifications globally in Jetonomy → Settings → Notifications.
"New" Pill on Unread Threads
The space listing shows a card for each topic. When a topic has replies you have not read yet, a small "New" pill appears on the card.
The pill is intentionally subtle. It uses the --jt-accent design token, so it picks up your theme's brand color and matches dark mode automatically.
When the Pill Appears and Clears
| Event | Pill state |
|---|---|
| Someone replies to a thread you previously read | Pill appears |
| You open the thread | Pill clears immediately |
| You scroll past the thread without opening it | Pill stays |
| The original poster edits their post (no new replies) | Pill does not appear |
| You are not signed in | Pill never appears (read state is per-user) |
The pill is driven by the same read-status table that powers the unread indicator in the bell menu. There is no separate setting to toggle it. If you do not want unread tracking at all, disable read tracking in Jetonomy → Settings → Performance.
Mobile Behavior
On mobile the pill sits at the top-right of the card, sized for thumb readability without crowding the title. It uses the same touch target as the rest of the card, so tapping anywhere on the card opens the thread and clears the pill.
"Managed by" Sidebar Card
Every space page now shows a "Managed by" card in the sidebar. The card lists the space admin(s) and moderator(s) with their avatars and a small role badge next to each name.
What the Card Shows
- Up to 5 staff members per space, sorted with admins first, then moderators
- Each entry shows: avatar, display name, role badge
- Hovering an entry reveals a "View profile" link
- If the space has private messaging enabled (Pro), a "Message" link appears as well
If a space has more than 5 staff, the card shows the first 5 and a "See all staff" link that opens the full member list filtered to staff only.
Why This Helps Members
Members often want to ask a question, report a problem, or appeal a moderation action but don't know who to talk to. The "Managed by" card answers that question on every space page, without forcing members to dig through settings or member lists.
For owners, this surfaces your community staff and gives them visibility. Members are more likely to recognise and trust moderators they see consistently.
Customizing the Card
The card is rendered from templates/partials/managed-by-card.php. You can override it in your theme at theme/jetonomy/partials/managed-by-card.php to change the layout, hide certain roles, or add extra links.
Role Pills on Posts and Replies
In addition to the sidebar card, admins and moderators now have role pills next to their name on every post and reply they make. The pill is small, accessible, and uses theme tokens for color.
| Role | Pill label | Pill style |
|---|---|---|
| Community Admin | "Admin" | Filled, accent color |
| Space Moderator | "Mod" | Outline, accent color |
| Member | (no pill) | n/a |
The pills are visible to everyone, including signed-out visitors. They make it obvious when an answer comes from staff vs from another member, which matters for support spaces and Q&A spaces where members weigh staff replies more heavily.
Link Previews
Paste a URL on its own line in a post or reply and Jetonomy automatically fetches the page's metadata and renders a rich preview card beneath it, the same style of card you see when you share a link on LinkedIn or Twitter. Members get context (title, description, thumbnail, site name) without leaving the thread.
How It Works
When a link sits alone on its own line (not inline inside a sentence), Jetonomy calls GET /jetonomy/v1/link-preview?url=... and renders the result as a card. The card shows:
- Thumbnail image (when the page provides one)
- Page title
- Short description
- Site name and favicon
The preview endpoint pulls metadata from Open Graph and Twitter Card tags, so it covers almost any site with social tags (news outlets, blogs, GitHub, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and more). For the major sanctioned oEmbed hosts (YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Spotify, SoundCloud, Reddit, and the rest of the WordPress oEmbed registry) it returns a true rich embed instead of a static card.
Behavior and Limits
- Up to 3 preview cards render per post or reply, so a message full of links does not turn into a wall of cards.
- Results are cached on the server (roughly 12 hours for a successful fetch, a few minutes for a failed one), so a 200-reply thread does not refetch the same link 200 times.
- Mentions (
@name) and tag links never turn into preview cards, only standalone web URLs do.
Developers can customize how link previews are fetched and rendered - see Developer Notes at the end of this guide.
Media Uploads
The composer lets members add images to posts and replies in three ways:
- Toolbar button - click the image button in the composer toolbar to open a file picker.
- Drag and drop - drag an image straight from your desktop onto the editor.
- Paste - paste a screenshot or copied image directly from your clipboard.
Uploads go to POST /jetonomy/v1/media, which stores the file as a standard WordPress attachment and returns its URL so the image drops into the editor inline. Every uploaded image is given alt text automatically (derived from the file name) for accessibility and SEO, and members can supply their own alt text.
Who Can Upload
In practice, most members who can post or reply can also attach images. Members who can already upload to your WordPress media library can attach images, and members earn the ability to upload automatically once they reach Trust Level 1, even if their WordPress role would not otherwise allow it. So a brand-new member may not be able to attach an image on their very first day, but gains it as soon as they reach Trust Level 1.
Developers who need the exact capability list can find it under Developer Notes.
The Formatting Toolbar
The composer is a single rich-text editor with a small formatting toolbar - there is no separate "plain text" vs "WYSIWYG" mode to choose between. The toolbar buttons are: bold, italic, inline code (</>), link, blockquote, and image upload.
Members who prefer to type can also use common markdown shortcuts (**bold**, *italic*, `code`, > quote) directly in the editor. The toolbar and the markdown shortcuts produce the same formatted result.
Paste handling, image uploads, and @mention autocomplete all work the same way regardless of whether you click a toolbar button or type the markup yourself.
For more on the content editor and its fields, see Creating Topics.
Developer Notes
These details are for developers extending the composer. Site owners and members do not need them.
Link preview filters
The link preview pipeline is fully filterable:
| Filter | Purpose |
|---|---|
jetonomy_link_preview_providers |
Add or reorder host-specific providers (e.g. a custom intranet URL rewriter) ahead of the defaults |
jetonomy_link_preview_data |
Final mutation of the preview data right before it is cached and returned |
jetonomy_link_preview_cache_ttl |
Override the cache lifetime, in seconds |
jetonomy_link_preview_user_agent |
Override the user agent used when fetching the page (some corporate firewalls only allow specific agents) |
Media upload capabilities
Uploading is gated by capability. A member can upload media if they have any one of:
upload_files- the standard WordPress capability (Author and above)jetonomy_upload_media- the Jetonomy role-map capability, granted to the Contributor role and automatically granted at Trust Level 1jetonomy_create_postsorjetonomy_create_replies- anyone who can post or reply
Uploads go to POST /jetonomy/v1/media, which stores the file as a standard WordPress attachment and returns its URL.
What's Next?
Learn how Jetonomy's in-product modal toolkit replaces native browser dialogs with accessible, themeable confirmations.