From fda2ece848d4763f0f4687a50dc3a651b97c4124 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John McLear <john@mclear.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:59:21 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Add showAuthorColors pad option to default authorship colors
 off
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Adds a new padOptions.showAuthorColors setting (default: true) that
lets admins default authorship colors to off for new users. Users can
still toggle colors on via the checkbox — their cookie preference
always overrides the server default.

- Settings.ts: add showAuthorColors to padOptions type and defaults
- pad.ts: process showAuthorColors from padOptions, apply as default,
  ensure cookie preference (true or false) overrides server setting
- settings.json.template + settings.json.docker: document the option
- SocketIOMessage.ts: add to PadOption type

Fixes #5563

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 settings.json.docker                   |  1 +
 settings.json.template                 |  1 +
 src/node/utils/Settings.ts             |  2 ++
 src/static/js/pad.ts                   | 20 +++++++++++++++++++-
 src/static/js/types/SocketIOMessage.ts |  1 +
 5 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/settings.json.docker b/settings.json.docker
index a265a9235..3fa749503 100644
--- a/settings.json.docker
+++ b/settings.json.docker
@@ -273,6 +273,7 @@
    */
   "padOptions": {
     "noColors":         "${PAD_OPTIONS_NO_COLORS:false}",
+    "showAuthorColors": "${PAD_OPTIONS_SHOW_AUTHOR_COLORS:true}",
     "showControls":     "${PAD_OPTIONS_SHOW_CONTROLS:true}",
     "showChat":         "${PAD_OPTIONS_SHOW_CHAT:true}",
     "showLineNumbers":  "${PAD_OPTIONS_SHOW_LINE_NUMBERS:true}",
diff --git a/settings.json.template b/settings.json.template
index 9f0bc55a0..0a655cd5a 100644
--- a/settings.json.template
+++ b/settings.json.template
@@ -252,6 +252,7 @@
    */
   "padOptions": {
     "noColors":         false,
+    "showAuthorColors": true,
     "showControls":     true,
     "showChat":         true,
     "showLineNumbers":  true,
diff --git a/src/node/utils/Settings.ts b/src/node/utils/Settings.ts
index d25c3d4e1..f6f758d84 100644
--- a/src/node/utils/Settings.ts
+++ b/src/node/utils/Settings.ts
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@ export type SettingsType = {
   defaultPadText: string,
   padOptions: {
     noColors: boolean,
+    showAuthorColors: boolean,
     showControls: boolean,
     showChat: boolean,
     showLineNumbers: boolean,
@@ -398,6 +399,7 @@ const settings: SettingsType = {
    */
   padOptions: {
     noColors: false,
+    showAuthorColors: true,
     showControls: true,
     showChat: true,
     showLineNumbers: true,
diff --git a/src/static/js/pad.ts b/src/static/js/pad.ts
index d9cc4e902..812fbc417 100644
--- a/src/static/js/pad.ts
+++ b/src/static/js/pad.ts
@@ -69,6 +69,13 @@ const getParameters = [
       $('#clearAuthorship').hide();
     },
   },
+  {
+    name: 'showAuthorColors',
+    checkVal: 'false',
+    callback: (val) => {
+      settings.showAuthorColorsDisabled = true;
+    },
+  },
   {
     name: 'showControls',
     checkVal: 'true',
@@ -461,7 +468,10 @@ const pad = {
         chat.chatAndUsers(true); // stick it to the screen
         $('#options-chatandusers').prop('checked', true); // set the checkbox to on
       }
-      if (padcookie.getPref('showAuthorshipColors') === false) {
+      const authorColorsPref = padcookie.getPref('showAuthorshipColors');
+      if (authorColorsPref === true) {
+        pad.changeViewOption('showAuthorColors', true);
+      } else if (authorColorsPref === false) {
         pad.changeViewOption('showAuthorColors', false);
       }
       if (padcookie.getPref('showLineNumbers') === false) {
@@ -555,6 +565,13 @@ const pad = {
       this.changeViewOption('noColors', true);
     }
 
+    // If showAuthorColors is set to false in padOptions, default colors off.
+    // The user can still toggle them on via the checkbox; the cookie will
+    // override this default on subsequent visits.
+    if (settings.showAuthorColorsDisabled === true) {
+      this.changeViewOption('showAuthorColors', false);
+    }
+
     // RTL override is applied in postAceInit (after padeditor.init resolves)
     // to avoid a race where setViewOptions(initialViewOptions) overwrites it.
 
@@ -783,6 +800,7 @@ const init = () => pad.init();
 const settings = {
   LineNumbersDisabled: false,
   noColors: false,
+  showAuthorColorsDisabled: false,
   useMonospaceFontGlobal: false,
   globalUserName: false,
   globalUserColor: false,
diff --git a/src/static/js/types/SocketIOMessage.ts b/src/static/js/types/SocketIOMessage.ts
index f2b8cfc14..99622b01e 100644
--- a/src/static/js/types/SocketIOMessage.ts
+++ b/src/static/js/types/SocketIOMessage.ts
@@ -239,6 +239,7 @@ export type PadOptionsMessage = {
 
 export type PadOption = {
   "noColors"?:         boolean,
+  "showAuthorColors"?: boolean,
   "showControls"?:     boolean,
   "showChat"?:         boolean,
   "showLineNumbers"?:  boolean,