wysiwyg editor - tips please 2

[Olavxxx]

Hi!

I dont actually need so much tips on functions, I rather need tips on the practical issues of wysiwyg editors. (What You See Is What You Get).

If anyone reading this post does not know what WYSIWYG is, it's simply an easy way for beginners to manipulate content.. If they want bold, they do not have to know that <b>blah</b> makes it bold. They simply press the button above the textarea for content-input.

What is my question?

Well, I know that most of the WYSIWYG editors out there use javascript to enter blah, ,,

, etc.


But I remember that some weeks ago, I stumbled across a way to convert from Word to html! Is this a good idea?

Is it possible to "extract" images from the word document?

Will this be too time consuming?
I dont want to use too much time on this, since it's not one of the main parts of the project I'm working on.

My project is a CMS, where all menu elements and contents are gathered from a database. The users know a little bit about "the internet", but they do not know html!

will it be smart of me to simply implement a javascript WYSIWYG editor?

Does anyone know of any *SIMPLE* WYSIWYG editors?

eg. I dont want something pre-made which is a BIG file, as I want to know what's going on backend!

is it maybe possible to use flash for WYSIWYG editing? or will it be hard to post from flash to a php script?

Any tips are welcome, no matter how "un important" they might seem to you!

 

[Olavxxx]

something like this would be nice:

http://www.labs4.com/htmleditbox/2.0/

I see I can disable functions in it.. did anyone try it?

 

[jimoblak]

I only know of 2 (free) useful ones:

http://www.interactivetools.com/products/htmlarea/

and

http://www.fckeditor.net/

FCKeditor claims load MSOffice pasted material well. I currently use the last stable version of HTMLarea but it is choking on pasted Microsoft tags. These editors will not automatically extract images.

Try their demos for more info.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[ericbrunson]

Those all seem to be IE dependent. I'd rather cut off my hand and give my root password to the virus writers than use IE.

 

[jimoblak]

seem is such a harsh word.

http://www.fckeditor.net/

works in Firefox well.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[Olavxxx]

First of all, thank you for your responses! They where all good

I dont really care about if they are IE dependent, AS it's not me who will use it!

If they wont bother to learn HTML, I think they can stick to IE, at least for updating the content!

I think the updates will be very rare, and I doubt they will ever do it, but I guess they just have to feel that they have the opportunity!

I guess I'll have to do all the updates, when push comes to show, but as I've said, I need to supply them with an opertunity.

This is also why I do not want to use too much resources on this.

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/ASP/Building-a-WYSIWYG-HTML-Editor-Part-1

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/ASP/Building-a-WYSIWYG-HTML-Editor-Part-2

I found theese now, and read quick thru them. They are made for ASP, but the php-side is no problem at all! I simply need some transelator with friendly GUI. I think they are quite simple coded, but that's excactly what I need! I'm afraid that if it's too advanced, things will go wrong! Why should I have functions that I dont want to offer?

As far as images, I guess I'll just skip the "paste from word", as it will just confuse them, if they can paste, but not with images.

I think the best way, is a simple "tag adder", which will do a javascript:OpenWindow for images/files (pdf, or whatever). That openwindow will then be like a file-list, only it will browse only /files/ and the user can then choose his file, or upload a new file in one of the directories.

Then he can choose which file he/she wants and it will be added via javascript and then translated with relative paths, etc.

Please come with more comments, if any!
I dont want to paint my self into a corner.

I will look into the url's pasted above tomorrow, as I have to sleep now..

Good night, and thank you once again

 

[Bastien]

Htmlarea is a great tool, I've used it successfully for a couple of websites. Most end users are still on IE ( maybe they don't now better ) so it may not be the issue you think it is.

Its also easy to implement.

Bastien

Cat, the other other white meat

 

[Olavxxx]

I'm currently uploading the htmlarea.
I think that tool will work good.

After I've implemented it, I will post back with comments.

 

[ingresman]

I like IE and intend to keep my hands !!,
Have a look at the MS DHTML control, it has loads of methods and properties and is also quite wysiwyg.
I wonder if firefox will stay virus/trojan etc free once people start using it. I belive Linux is now coming under attack

 

[jimoblak]

Firefox already has (or had if a patch recently fixed it) a nasty vulnerability where a deviant web site could replace the address bar with a fake one to lead the user to think they might be on a legitimate banking site. I believe the hack exploited the way that the UI is managed for themes.

I still prefer Firefox over IE because it is less vulnerable [ie: less capable] and the Gecko-compliant editors seem to work on multiple platforms. I cannot get IE-compliant editors to work on Mac and I have a lot of Mac clients.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[davejazz]

Another inexpensive PHP editor I just ran across (and purchased within 10 minutes!) is Rapid PHP at

http://www.blumentals.net

For less than $30 ... it blew my socks off with all its features.

 

[Olavxxx]

davejazz: rapidphp is a client-side editor for static files?
Or did the picture simply confuse me?

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster

 

[phpgramma]

oh man, I'm so glad you posted this! I've been looking for a good editor! thanks.

 

[Olavxxx]

np,
thanx for the stars

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster

 

[Olavxxx]

Ok, I promised to post back on this.

I have installed both FCKeditor, HTMLarea and others.
I must say that what impressed me the most, was the newest version of FCKeditor. (RC02).

When you have installed it, it looks so great!
It's the perfect tool for dumb users!

It was a bit hard setting up, as the post.php file was not there in my tar.gz file! I however found it by googling for a while.

I sent a message to fckeditor.net developers in theire supportforum, and posted the file there, so I guess they might have fixed it now.

Anyways, what is great, is that you can predefine your own toolbars in the fckconfig.js

like, if you want one editor for a gallery, but you only want image in that field in the mysql table, you can make a toolbar which you call "images", where you have only alignment and image-tools.

The image-function was superior! I think this is REALLY good. I think I'll even donate to fckeditor team, as they should keep up the good work.

After I found the file, it was very easy to set up. The documentation for RC02 is not done yet, but it's just to copy some files out of the _sample folder, edit the config, make a UserFiles folder, etc.

I however see that there is no admin for deleting folders/pictures, but I made a dirlist and I found a recursive script for deleting files.

I'll make some kind of GUI administration for deleting files, and I guess I'll release it as opensource, if it works satisfactory.

ps. remember to hide your admin interface with a login.
I programmed my own login script with crypt'ed password for the GUI admin interface.

ps. One issue:
it leaks memory in Internet Explorer, but what doesent?
I dont think it's an issue though, as I have 1024MB RAM and it at works leaked 498MB... lol..

I'm not sure it was the FCKeditor, but I had been playing around with it for a long time, and then suddenly IE had ~500mb leak, while FireFox had nothing to mention.

I'm not a FireFox converted guy..

ps. fckeditor will not work in Opera, but I dont like opera any more.. (crashes all the time)

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster