make legal_webbie() pluggable - * this should not be merged with federated projects unless the federation drivers make use of the hooks.

doc/hook/legal_webbie.bb

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[h2]legal_webbie[/h2]
+
+Called when validating a channel address. By default the valid characters are 
+a-z,0-9,-,_, and . Uppercase ASCII characters are folded to lower and any invalid characters are stripped.  
+
+Some federated networks require more restrictive rules.
+
+The hook is called with an array [ 'input' => (supplied text), 'output' => (validated text) ]
+
+A plugin will generally perform a regex filter or text operation on 'input' and provide the results in 'output'. 

doc/hook/legal_webbie_text.bb

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+[h2]legal_webbie_text[/h2]
+
+Returns a string describing the text rules applied to legal_webbie().
+
+Called with an array [ 'text' => (descriptive text describing text character limitations) ]
+
+A plugin should return the description of the allowed characters and operation performed in the 'legal_webbie' hook to assist people when creating a new channel. 

doc/hooklist.bb

@@ -317,6 +317,12 @@ Hooks allow plugins/addons to "hook into" the code at many points and alter the
 [zrl=[baseurl]/help/hook/jot_tool]jot_tool[/zrl]
 	Deprecated and possibly obsolete. Allows one to add action buttons to the post editor.
 
+[zrl=[baseurl]/help/hook/legal_webbie]legal_webbie[/zrl]
+	Called to validate a channel address
+
+[zrl=[baseurl]/help/hook/legal_webbie_text]legal_webbie_text[/zrl]
+	Provides an explanation of text/character restrictions for legal_webbie()
+
 [zrl=[baseurl]/help/hook/load_pdl]load_pdl[/zrl]
 	Called when we load a PDL file or description
 

include/text.php

@@ -2000,30 +2000,34 @@ function legal_webbie($s) {
 	if(! strlen($s))
 		return '';
 
+	// WARNING: This regex will not work in a federated environment.
+	// You will probably want something like 
+	// preg_replace('/([^a-z0-9\_])/','',strtolower($s));
 
-	// Has to start with a lowercase alphabetic character - not a number.
-	// This is so we can differentiate between something like channel=123
-	// and channel=foo and lookup the first by numeric id and the second
-	// by nickname.
+	$r = preg_replace('/([^a-z0-9\-\_\.])/','',strtolower($s));
 
-	$x = $s;
-	do {
-		$s = $x;
-		$x = preg_replace('/^([^a-z])(.*?)/',"$2",$s);
-	} while($x != $s);
+	$x = [ 'input' => $s, 'output' => $r ];
+	call_hooks('legal_webbie',$x);
+	return $x['output'];
 
-	// Use the lowest common denominator rules (letters, numbers, and underscore)
-	// if the site configuration allows federation with other networks
-
-	if(Zlib\System::get_server_role() === 'pro') {
-		return preg_replace('/([^a-z0-9\-\_\.])/','',$x);
-	}
-	else {
-		return preg_replace('/([^a-z0-9\_])/','',$x);
 }
+
+function legal_webbie_text() {
+
+	// WARNING: This will not work in a federated environment.
+
+	$s = t('a-z, 0-9, -, _, and . only');
+
+	$x = [ 'text' => $s ];
+	call_hooks('legal_webbie_text',$x);
+	return $x['text'];
+
 }
 
 
+
+
+
 function check_webbie($arr) {