Unobtrusive Javascript rich text editor?

Question

We've used the no-longer-supported RichTextBox control as part of our (ASP.NET-based) CMS for a long time, and we'd like to replace it with something lighter-weight and with better cross-browser support. We were originally looking at various ASP.NET components, but I'm wondering if we'd be better off just using an open-source, all-Javascript solution instead.

I'm a recent convert to jQuery, and I've been amazed at what can be done purely on the client side with very compact add-ons like Flexigrid and of course the excellent WMD. I've done a little poking around for all-Javascript editors, and this is what I've found so far:

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

After a superficial review, Tiny MCE looks like a good choice; but I'd be interested in hearing from people in the SO community who have actually used these. Let me know what you think.

Answer 1

I've used FCKeditor, it's a good editor. Pretty easy to use. The newer versions have very good cross browser support.

Answer 2

I've used TinyMCE. Great across browsers; easy to configure to be extremely light weight and allows you to control what your user can do. Some of the plug-ins (such as the image manager) are great and easy to implement. Nice that it also support the Google Spellchecker so you don't need any libraries installed on your server.

Answer 3

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 does work in WebKit based browsers (obviously) and Firefox)

Answer 4

I've used TinyMCE and I must say I'm not a fan. The main issue with it is that when new versions are released, the API can change drastically, making it very difficult to manage upgrades. There seems to be little regard for backwards compatibility.

The YUI editor is quite nice, and really easy to use. It's still beta as far as I know, so I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend it in a production environment.

FCK is a nice editor, and it has ASP.NET support.

Answer 5

I can't tell if you're specifically looking for a free/open-source solution or not. Others have mentioned many great open-source editors.

If you're willing to look at commercial solutions, Telerik offers the RadEditor. It is highly integrated with ASP.NET and supports all the major browsers.

Answer 6

I was looking for a good editor too last week, tried WMD but is just not easily customized enough compared to markItUp. It's so easy to extend and customize markItUp, function-wise and theme-wise.

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

Answer 7

Event if you will have a lot of connection bandwidth and patience :) Actually, Telerik is an ASP.NET product and it require asp.net ajax frameworks for runtime and it need to ajax scriptmananer on the running page. In my opinion, Telerik not good example for this subject.

Answer 8

i'm currently looking for the same kind of editor - lightweight, jQuery and with ASP.Net support. i've came accross Batiste Bieler's jQuery Lightweight Rich Text Editor which seems very simple, nice, pure jQuery lightweight editor.

and there is interpid studios variation that states to be ASP.Net compatible and based on the original above mentioned library (although, doesn't explain what is the thing with being ASP.Net compatible and what doesn't make the original compatible with it too...)

i haven't tried any of those yet, but it seems that i will in the next several days, because i'm looking to replace FCK Editor because it has some quirks and strange behavior to my app users. so i might update this post with my own experience with this/these editor(s).

If someone tried those already, please comment to let others know what do you feel about this.

Answer 9

It's been mentioned, but the memories of that year lost to RadEditor still haunts me.

On the bright side, they have an incredibly vigilant, and apparently numerous support-staff;
so whenever you need to find that little whatnot that's causing that particular day's RadBugs;
you know you can always have them brew up some custom and obscure mini-fix.

After one year of tangoing with that beast, I had to retreat to pastoral C64 GOTO adventures to preserve my sanity...

Alas, we all need our WYSIWYG editors from time to time, and after trying out both (F)CKeditor and TinyMCE in .NET settings, I am humbled by both.

Would choose TinyMCE at gunpoint though...