Unobtrusive Javascript Text Editor?

Question

We used the RichTextBox control for a long time, which was not supported for a long time, as part of our (based on ASP.NET) CMS, and we would like to replace it with something easier and better, browser support. We initially looked at the various components of ASP.NET, but I wonder if we would be better off using the open source solution and all Javascript instead.

I recently converted to jQuery, and I was amazed at what can be done exclusively on the client side with very compact add-ons like Flexigrid and, of course, excellent WMD . I have done a bit for all Javascript editors, and this is what I have found so far:

• Batiste jQueryEditor
• Xinha
• YUI Rich Text Editor
• Tiny mce
• FCKeditor

After a superficial review, the Tiny MCE looks like a good choice; but I would be interested to hear from people in the SO community who really used them. Let me know what you think.

Answer 1

I used TinyMCE . Great browser; Easily customizable to be very lightweight and allows you to control what your user can do. Some of the plugins (like the image manager) are great and easy to implement. It's nice that it also supports Google Spellchecker, so you do not need any libraries installed on your server.

Answer 2

I used FCKeditor , this is a good editor. Pretty easy to use. Newer versions have very good cross browser support.

Answer 3

I used TinyMCE and I have to say that I am not a fan. The main problem is that the release of new versions of the API can change dramatically, which makes it difficult to manage updates. Little seems to be about backward compatibility.

The YUI editor is pretty nice and very easy to use. As far as I know, it is still in beta, so I'm not sure that I will definitely recommend it in a production environment.

FCK is a good editor and it supports ASP.NET.

Answer 4

It was mentioned, but the memories of that year, lost for RadEditor, still haunt me.

On the bright side, they have an incredibly vigilant and, apparently, numerous support staff.
so whenever you need to find something small that causes that particular RadBugs day,
you know that you can always have these brew some custom and obscure mini fixes.

After one year of tango with this animal, I had to retreat to the pastoral adventures of C64 GOTO in order to maintain my sanity ...

Alas, we need WYSIWYG editors all the time from time to time, and having tried both (F) CKeditor and TinyMCE in the .NET settings, I put up with them.

Would choose TinyMCE at gunpoint, though ...

Answer 5

I was looking for a good editor last week, tried WMD, but it’s just not that easy to configure compared to markItUp . It is so easy to expand and customize markItUp, functionally wise and thematic.

OpenWYSIWYG was on my list, but after trying markItUp I got stuck with it. Plus OpenWYSIWYG is not jQuery, it is JavaScript, but it is open source and cross-browser.

Answer 6

WebKit.org has a demo of a very nice / subtle text editor, but I don’t know if it works in IE at all (it works in browsers based on WebKit (obviously) and Firefox)

Answer 7

I can’t say whether you want to look for a free open source solution or not. Others have mentioned many great open source editors.

If you want to see commercial solutions, Telerik offers RadEditor . It is very integrated with ASP.NET and supports all major browsers.

Answer 8

An event, if you have a lot of bandwidth and communication patience :) In fact, Telerik is an ASP.NET product and it requires asp.net ajax frameworks and it needs to execute ajax scriptmananer on the current page. In my opinion, Telerik is not a good example for this issue.

Answer 9

I'm currently looking for the same editor - lightweight, jQuery and with ASP.Net support. I came through the Batiste Bieler jQuery Easy Rich Text Editor , which seems like a very simple, nice, clean jQuery easy editor.

and there is an interpid studios variant that claims to be compatible with ASP.Net and is based on the original library mentioned above (although, t explain what is the matter with compatibility with ASP.Net and that does not make the original compatible with it either ...)

I have not tried any of them yet, but it seems that I will be in the next few days because I'm looking to replace the FCK editor, because it has some quirks and strange behavior for my application users. so I could update this post with my experience with this / this editor.

If someone has already tried them, comment so that others know how you feel about it.