Integrate a web based WYSIWYM editor : a good idea ?

I very much agree with you that this is an essential part of what has to be improved, this and the filemanager. I know Jeff (Bravado) is working hard to find out a suitable solution. Like you, I don’t really have a preference, whoever does the job better should be picked up. The ability to add sub-documents as well as chunks of markup would be a great plus indeed !

I have said this time and again, but it’s really a wonder to me that there is no semantically sound - well thought out RTE out there... I like TinyMCE better than FCK, but it’s not nirvana either...

I am fairly sure those issues will be adressed at some point, right now we have our hands full with the upcoming release but it ranks high on the priority list.

A little bump for this topic, looks like WYM-editor will receive an update to 0.3 this month, I’m wondering if there still is someone actively developing this editor, or have all the arrows gone towards XStandard?

I’d personally prefer WYM, simply because it’s semantic and xHTML compatible, above that it doesn’t require any installation on the users system, which is pretty positive for those who also maintain their website on public PC’s.

Just to add other free editors not mentioned here:

SPAW Editor v. 2

SPAW Editor is a web based WYSIWYG editor control enabling web site developers to replace a standard textarea html control with full-featured, fully customizable, multilanguage, skinable web based WYSIWYG editor.

Loki

What Makes Loki Different?

It is an XHTML editor designed from a different point of view from most editors. Rather than offering every feature under the sun -- some of which are of questionable value on an organization’s website -- Loki focuses on doing the core things right, and encouraging you and your content contributors to produce semantic markup.

widgEditor

I’ve kept it to a minimal functionality set – the sort of styling that you’d require for a weblog or CMS. However, the object oriented code is easily extensible should you be adventurous enough to want to add on extra doodads.

I really like the WYMEditor concept and I think it would be very nice to have it listed as one of the ModX featured editors. But since we are now using TinyMCE for editting and the (FCK?) ressource browser the usability has increased a lot for content editting in the ModX environment. Especially regarding the internal hyperlinking and code cleanness . This, at least for me, makes it not so urgent to have it but sure: on long term it’d be a most welcome addition.
Quote from: grad at Jan 05, 2007, 05:18 PM

Just to add other free editors not mentioned here:

SPAW Editor v. 2

Note that this one is not a WYSIWYM editor.

Loki

Never used Loki but anything that forces a content provider to jump through hoops is going to reduce the quality of your articles, thereby reducing the sites appeal to the average user.(could be wrong)... prolly not

widgEditor

I have used widg, however it needs a lot of work, it’s a great editor for something like a blog comment field or perhaps even an expierenced user, and it strips MSW crap tags, I incorperated it into a small ASP CMS I build for a client before discovering the wonder that is modx.

on another note, the implimented RTE does a really good job as is the code is relativly clean and stylable, no... there is still the occasional
or <div> wrapped with a <p> but hnoestly, these things aren’t ment to be used for that kind of thing anyway. That’s why God brought forth the template by the hands of Ray and Ryan. Make you pages with a template and use the RTE for... well editing text.

I’m pretty familiare with widgEditors Code, I might get around to a plugin, I’ve got a lot to learn about modx’s methods, well see... It is a pretty good RTE, cross browser and simply functional. Let me know if there is enought demand I don’t thenk most people will appriciate it, particularly writers.

Quote from: MrDutchy at Jan 05, 2007, 06:12 PM

Note that this one is not a WYSIWYM editor.

I didn’t say it is. However, Spaw is interesting and seems to be quite capable. It’s also really cross-platform, which is not common among RTEs. And it provides source editing, which was highlighted in this thread to be a useful feature. Loki is interesting because of its stress put on semantics and . widg is extensible.

Personally, I am advocate of semantics and for my purposes and where possible use Markdown. I always wondered how could one make a semantically correct definition list in RTE, while you can’t do in in full-blown MS Word? However, if my users would want RTE, I’d like to provide them with What-You-Get-Is-What-You-Mean rather then WYSWIG, as it is the semantic approach. Apparently, the ideal solution needs to be created.

Spaw could be a good start point, and Loki provides a few features worth to mention:

Hitting return produces a new paragraph. Mozilla browsers like to interpret the enter key as a linebreak. This is rarely semantically correct, but most editors use this method.

Uses RSS for integration. Want to integrate Loki into a blog? Just point it at the RSS feed the blog is already providing and Loki will provide a point-and-click interface for linking to posts. Create an RSS feed for an image management tool and Loki will provide a similarly powerful interface for placing images in your content.

But as pointed before, it would require a separate project.

Well, the first ’key feature’ of Spaw is also (semi)correctly handled in TinyMCE, so not really a convincing reason if you ask me, the RSS-integration could be nice, but also then, only the latest x posts would be able to get linked to, as most people, including me, don’t offer RSS feeds that go back until the first post

I think Loki looks pretty promising as well, it’s kinda low on features, the HTML editor works perfect though. My personal favorite, together with WYM, the last one is better for people with a lot know-how I guess as it’s also showing what elements are used where, while Loki just works easy and looks simple.

widgEditor looks way too basic, it doesn’t even seem to support a blockquote, which is too bad.

Spaw looks pretty nice - it’s not as semantically correct as Loki and WYMedtiro claim to be, but it seems correct, as in validating. But it’s not free for commercial usage which is a major drawback I think, especially since MODx is often used for commercial applications.

Quote from: Leftblank at Jan 06, 2007, 08:12 AM

Well, the first ’key feature’ of SPAW is also (semi)correctly handled in TinyMCE, so not really a convincing reason if you ask me, the RSS-integration could be nice, but also then, only the latest x posts would be able to get linked to, as most people, including me, don’t offer RSS feeds that go back until the first post

This was a quote from Loki description, not SPAW. As to RSS, I don’t see why providing a dedicated RSS feed with all documents being a problem.

SPAW (...) it’s not free for commercial usage which is a major drawback I think, especially since MODx is often used for commercial applications.

Is it? A quote from the SPAW site:

It is FREE as long as you comply with the terms of GNU General Public License (GPL).

I’m not trying to persuade you, or anyone else, to SPAW. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer WYGIWYM semantic approach, which I can achieve with Markdown. However, I think SPAW might be interesting option to start with if for any reason we would want to make our own RTE semantic editor for MODx.

Quote from: grad at Jan 06, 2007, 01:43 PM

This was a quote from Loki description, not SPAW. As to RSS, I don’t see why providing a dedicated RSS feed with all documents being a problem.

Doesn’t have to mean a problem, but it’s not really a neat solution either.

Is it? A quote from the SPAW site:

To quote the ’Purchase’ page; "While SPAW Editor is available for free under GNU General Public License (GPL), we don’t want to limit it’s use to GPL compatible applications only. However we believe that we deserve a small share of the money you make using SPAW Editor for commercial purposes." Perhaps it’s not license bound, but they do expect it.

I’m not trying to persuade you, or anyone else, to SPAW. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer WYGIWYM semantic approach, which I can achieve with Markdown. However, I think SPAW might be interesting option to start with if for any reason we would want to make our own RTE semantic editor for MODx.

I haven’t seen anything of Markdown so far nor didI see it mentioned, but it looks quite nice from the first look as well, but as far as I’ve seen it’s more of a converter than an actual editor.

Quote from: Leftblank at Jan 06, 2007, 03:40 PM

I haven’t seen anything of Markdown so far nor did I  see it mentioned, but it looks quite nice from the first look as well, but as far as I’ve seen it’s more of a converter than an actual editor.

Actually, I use PHP Markdown Extra along with SmartyPants for typography and it is my tool of choice. Instead of being RTE it promotes semantic and structured content creation with plain text. The quote from introduction says it all:

“Markdown” is two things: a plain text markup syntax, and a software tool that converts the plain text markup to HTML for publishing on the web.

The Markdown syntax allows you to write text naturally and format it without using HTML tags. More importantly: in Markdown format, your text stays enjoyable to read for a human being, and this is true enough that it makes a Markdown document publishable as-is, as plain text. If you are using text-formatted email, you already know some part of the syntax.

There are even HTML2Markdown tools out there, which will try to convert any site into Markdown.

Once, it would be possible to get the same level of quality with RTE as Markdown provides, then I’ll think about making a switch.