Editor.txt
Browser Editors in phpWebSite
by Matthew McNaney <matt at tux dot appstate dot edu>
------------------------------
Although phpWebSite does not supply a javascript wysiwyg editor, it does
contain the editors you need to use them.
Currently Supported Editor
-----------------------------
PhpWebSite ships with the following wysiwyg editors ready for use:
Htmlarea (project discontinued)
FCKeditor
TinyMCE
Plugging in a Supported Editor
-----------------------------
Look for the directory that matches the name of the editor under the
javascript/editors directory. There should be a readme.txt file in
that directory. Make sure to read it for further instruction. It
should include the editor's web address.
In most cases, all you need to do is untar/unzip the editor into that
directory. Many times you can remove any example files, documentation,
or scripts that allow the program to function under asp, perl, python,
etc. Do not delete any *.js files nor any licensing files.
Configuring your Editor
------------------------------
You will first need to alter your config/core/config.php file. Search
for EDITOR.
Set the USE_WYSIWYG_EDITOR define to 'TRUE'.
Set the DEFAULT_EDITOR_TOOL to the editor you are using. The editor
name will be the same as the editor's directory.
You should customize your editor via a file specified by readme.txt
file. In most cases you do not want to make customizations in the
editor's original files.
Using the Editor in your Module
------------------------------
The Editor class allows developers to place these wysiwyg editors into
their forms. Please keep one guideline in mind: be careful who has access
to your editor. Depending on the capabilities of the editor, you may
not want general users to have access to things such as image upload,
table creation, font colorization, etc.
First, include the Editor class in your function, like so:
PHPWS_Core::initCoreClass('Editor.php');
or
require_once PHPWS_SOURCE_DIR . 'core/class/Editor.php';
Next, make sure the Editor will work:
if (!Editor::willWork()) {
echo plainOleTextArea();
}
The willWork function confirms the user's browser compatibility and
whether the admin is allowing the editor on their site.
If willWork is TRUE then you can construct the Editor object:
$editor = & new Editor ('name_of_textarea', 'Default textarea text.');
The 'name_of_textarea' will be the name of text area input. The second
parameter is the value of that textarea (i.e. what appears defaultly
in the text area box).
Now you just need to capture the editor data:
$textarea_content = $editor->get();
Now you can echo this into your form. If you want to put the editor
into your phpWebSite form object, do so:
$form->addTplTag('TEXT_AREA', $content);
You may want to make a label for it as well like so:
$form->addTplTag('TEXT_AREA_LABEL',
PHPWS_Form::makeLabel('name_of_textarea',
'My text area example');
Creating your own Editor
----------------------------
If you come across an editor that is not currently supported, it is
fairly simple (or complex depending on the editor) to fit it within
phpWebSite.
First, try and get it working on its own. This will give you an idea
of what is required. You should look for two main instructions:
1) What does the editor require in the header of the page? Usually,
the editor require the inclusion of a file or definition of a
function. Put this information in a head.js file. Use {NAME} if you
want to plug-in the text area's name into the script. Use {VALUE}
for the text area's value. Look at current head.js files for an
example.
2) What does the editor return to the body when called? This
information will go into the body.js file. So if an editor returned
the actual textfield or iframe content, this call would go into
body.js. Again, see current files for an example.
3) Should their be a default name or value? Is there a process that
needs to be performed before execution of the script? If yes, then
you should use the default.php file. This php file will allow you
set default values, parse input into the form, basically any task
you need to accomplish in code. Take a look at a default.php file
for examples.
Once your head.js, body.js and default.php files are set up, your
editor should function. Change the default editor in the config.php
file to test it.
Troubleshooting
---------------------------
Bad directory pathing is the problem most experienced when creating a
new editor. Most editors expect to be plopped down in the web
root. Since you are moving it over to the javascript/editors directory
instead you will need to make sure it knows where it is located.
Check the script for a base dir value. Try replacing it with directory
to the editor from the root (e.g. ./javascript/editors/my_wysiwyg).
eZine
