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    • 54358
    • 26 Posts
    Hi,
    Is there a guide somewhere with the best (aka. relevant to most projects) extras? I'm trying to figure out which text editor to install (among other things), but am completely lost (and a bit discouraged by a thread I read the other day that mentioned that the top suggestion (TinyMCE 4.3.4-pl) wasn't any good (or something along those lines - I can't find the thread again)).

    This question has been answered by multiple community members. See the first response.

    [ed. note: wyrdling last edited this post 5 years, 8 months ago.]
      • 17301
      • 932 Posts
      Redactor is worth the small £ investment if your project can afford it. Otherwise I'd suggest tinymcewrapper as a great alternative - and Don the author is a regular on the forums to lend a hand with support if needed.
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        • 42562
        • 1,145 Posts
        @Erica here is the post you are looking for .. smiley
        https://forums.modx.com/thread/104009/tinymce-4-3-4-pl-why-are-you-still-here-please-go-away-and-let-us-be#

        And yes ... I am about to write a heavily opinionated and factual detailed guide on the best editor you should be using.
        (whoaa... what a long and authoritative statement to make lol)

        Okay cheers
          TinymceWrapper: Complete back/frontend content solution.
          Harden your MODX site by passwording your three main folders: core, manager, connectors and renaming your assets (thank me later!)
          5 ways to sniff / hack your own sites; even with renamed/hidden folders, burst them all up, to see how secure you are not.
          • 3749
          • 24,544 Posts
          There is also the new MODX extra FRED, which is for MODX3 but appears to work in 2.6. It's *really* powerful, but looks like it has a pretty steep learning curve.

          LK/AlienBuild has a great quick-start video on the FRED extra.
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          • discuss.answer
            Fred is not a rich text editor though, it's a visual content builder (like ContentBlocks) that optionally supports RTEs for some content elements.

            There's ample choice for RTEs these days. The "TinyMCE" package is rather old, and while it still works, it's not going to get updated to newer versions of TinyMCE. "TinyMCE RTE" is a more recent version that is nicely integrated. TinyMCEWrapper is a bit more work to set up last I checked, but would be the most up-to-date version of tinymce.js and gives you more flexibility to configure it as if it's a standalone editor integration. CKEditor is also available, but has some issues playing ball with third party extras that load RTEs. There's also "TinyMCE for Fred", which is, as the name suggests, only meant to be used with Fred. And there's Redactor, the only premium RTE, which comes with support and a huge v3 release this summer. Check the reviews to see what users think.

            There is no single "best" option between all of those, so I'd suggest to try them and pick your favorite smiley
              Mark Hamstra • Developer spending his days working on Premium Extras and a MODX Site Dashboard with the ability to remotely upgrade MODX and extras to make the MODX world a little better.

              Tweet me @mark_hamstra, check my infrequent blog at markhamstra.com, my slightly more frequent ramblings at MODX.today or see code at Github.
            • discuss.answer
              • 3749
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              Thanks Mark, I didn't realize that FRED didn't have a built-in RTE.

              I should mention that NewsPublisher allows front-end rich-text editing for Resources and TVs, (but not chunks or templates). It loads TinyMCE 4 directly via CDN and uses the El Finder image/file browser. It's nice if you want to let users edit Resources and TVs without having to enter the Manager. You can also create new Resources with it. It also lets you put an "Edit" button on front-end resources for logged-in users that launches NewsPublisher to edit that page (with or without RTE).

              Redactor is a great choice for RTE work, and according to user reviews, is well worth the price. I would use it, but I do all my work in raw HTML.

              For a free RTE in the Manager, I would use TinyMceWrapper. It takes a little work to set up, but is highly configurable.
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              • discuss.answer
                • 42562
                • 1,145 Posts
                Fred has a built-in/extension RTE - uses TinyMCE (CDN too).
                Fred is like NewsPublisher in that it is a frontend creating and editing tool for resources.
                Fred does not handle TV fields at the moment as NewsPublisher does.

                Fred, when saving the resources does it via AJAX.
                When NewsPublisher is able to do this singular thing, it'd be the most complete tool in the planet!!!!!
                (maybe I can sit down and figure out how, if Bob Ray does not beat me to it???)

                Fred, Like Structures and modmore ContentBlocks, breaks the content field value into blocks for easy manipulation (drag and drop /predefinition etc etc)

                For a free RTE in the Manager, I would use TinyMceWrapper. It takes a little work to set up, but is highly configurable.
                TinymceWrapper v3 will completely eliminate all unnecessary hurdles in customizing this Extra.

                  TinymceWrapper: Complete back/frontend content solution.
                  Harden your MODX site by passwording your three main folders: core, manager, connectors and renaming your assets (thank me later!)
                  5 ways to sniff / hack your own sites; even with renamed/hidden folders, burst them all up, to see how secure you are not.
                  • 3749
                  • 24,544 Posts
                  @donshakespeare Why do you think having NP use Ajax to save resources would be a significant improvement over calling the resource/create and resource/update processors as it does now?
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                    • 42562
                    • 1,145 Posts
                    I have managed to edit any template, in place, with TinyMagicPublisher. I mean, the user edits the site as is, no forms visible.
                    To make it really sell (figuratively! since it is free!) and since these young modern people like modern thingies, an AJAX, refreshless, seamless Save would be really kool.

                    And another developer can build an Extra that depends on NewsPublisher.

                    NewsPublisher is a really solid and complete tool, being itself very MODXy, but has not been appreciated properly by the MODX community sad
                    Hint hint ... give even Fredy run for its money.
                      TinymceWrapper: Complete back/frontend content solution.
                      Harden your MODX site by passwording your three main folders: core, manager, connectors and renaming your assets (thank me later!)
                      5 ways to sniff / hack your own sites; even with renamed/hidden folders, burst them all up, to see how secure you are not.
                      • 3749
                      • 24,544 Posts
                      Topic for another thread (as is the discussion of MODX3, which shouldn't be hidden in this thread imo), but an interesting concept.

                      I'll try to find time to take a look at Ajaxifying NP.
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