# Interest in a WYSIWYG plugin **URL:** \ **Category:** Radiant CMS\ **Created:** [October 6, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302 "2006-10-06T19:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/1 "2006-10-06T19:26:54Z")
All, My team is researching the plugin architecture of Radiant and the plan is to develop a WYSIWYG editor for Radiant that is similar to what is used in Wordpress. I am willing to contribute the code we develop if there is an interest in the community for it. ~_~_~~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~\*~ Todd B. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid 858-752-1459 11814 Westview Parkway Unit #176 San Diego, CA 92126 ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/2 "2006-10-06T19:41:12Z")
On 10/6/06, Todd B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > My team is researching the plugin architecture of Radiant and the plan is to > develop a WYSIWYG editor for Radiant that is similar to what is used in > Wordpress. I am willing to contribute the code we develop if there is an > interest in the community for it. Even a preview function with the plain-text editor would be a nice step… -Chris ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/3 "2006-10-06T19:49:14Z")
WYSIWYG is a call for trouble. Less (Markdown, Textile) is more. Encourage people to think about content visually and you get instant mess. By using HTML or plaintext markup, content editors are forced (in a good way) to think about content semantically and to leave the styling, font sizes, image position and floating to the designer. However, that’s just me. There still might be interest in the community. I just saw what WYSIWYG did to people (in MS Word, Dreamweaver, other CMS-s…) and decided giving control to content editor is not exaclty smart. ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/4 "2006-10-06T19:51:16Z")
WOW! There is an extreme interest by me. I still feel like a newbie to Rails and Radiant, but I’m really hoping that a few sites that I have done in Wordpress & Drupal can be converted to using Radiant. I love the flexbility with radius tagging and behaviors. Unfortunately, without WYSIWYG editing I know it’s a tough sell for my clients. I think textile is awesome but for the non-technical person they really need a WYSIWYG editor. I was planning to start hacking something together myself using TinyMCE. [http://johnwulff.com/articles/2006/05/31/tinymce-with-ruby-on-rails](http://johnwulff.com/articles/2006/05/31/tinymce-with-ruby-on-rails) Would this editor plug-in you are talking about also support image uploads? at the least it would be nice to integrate with another plug-in allowing user’s to upload resources. — Todd B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ~_~_~~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~\*~ > Radiant mailing list > Post: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > Search: [http://radiantcms.org/mailing-list/search/](http://radiantcms.org/mailing-list/search/) > Site: > [http://lists.radiantcms.org/mailman/listinfo/radiant](http://lists.radiantcms.org/mailman/listinfo/radiant) * * * Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > **[\[object](https://mail.yahoo.com/)** > > \[object ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/5 "2006-10-06T20:23:21Z")
I agree that while adding WYSIWYG editing is just about the worst thing that you can do to a website (at least in terms of proper markup), every client that I have ever worked with has wanted something like Microsoft Word in which they could write their pages. While I wish that everyone would write in Markdown/Textile, most clients have absolutely no desire, inclination, or time to learn how to write markup … even simplified markup. Not only that, but as fantastic as Markdown and Textile are, they still leave much to be desired when working with anything _other_ than text (images, flash, etc.) The question then isn’t how do we convince clients that using a WYSIWYG is wrong, rather the question is how do you lock down the WYSIWYG editor just enough that they can do most of the things that they want without compromising the design of the site. Hopefully I’ll have my WYSIWYG patch finished soon. I used TinyMCE for the editor (along with a few tweaks of my own) and once you limit some of TinyMCE’s functionality and explain _why_ it needs to be limited to the client, everyone seems to be happy (of course YMMV). Note: for those interested in my WYSIWYG patch mentioned in an earlier thread, I’ve worked in image uploading. It’s still rough around the edges (especially in the looks department), but it works well enough for my clients that I haven’t gotten a single “how do I …?” call from them. ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/6 "2006-10-07T01:03:34Z")
Hi, check out the page\_parts patch on the trac, it is a very simple patch that allows a developer to extend the admin interface, it allows for different page parts, one of the extensions I uploaded alowes uploaded before to the, another has a wysiwyg editor (based on fckeditor) instead of the text editor, one allows for multiple uploads of file for galleries. I know there are a few people that use this patch and are pretty happy with. Sean, I do not think this requires a fork, neither do any of the things you mentioned as long as they are done in a form of an extension, so you can add or change different parts of the radiant functionality. similar to the way Drupal allows extensions by having a big list of places you can plugin and changes/extend the framework functionality. Dror ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/7 "2006-10-06T21:01:38Z")
In my full-time job, we are considering a large-scale CMS that includes a WYSIWYG editor. Many of them nowadays limit or have options to limit what kind of formatting can be applied to the output. I agree with the overall sentiment that Radiant itself does not need a WYSIWYG, but I can understand why some people might want it, and thus it should be a plugin. In my mind, there are a few other things that need to happen if you’re going to add WYSIWYG, most of them having to do with users/groups/permissions etc. Sounds like a branch/fork/huge plugin to me! Sean C. [seancribbs.com](http://seancribbs.com) ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/8 "2006-10-07T02:15:39Z")
On 10/6/06, Justin G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I think textile is awesome > but for the non-technical person they really need a > WYSIWYG editor. No, for the non-technical person they really need to become more technical. This isn’t 1999 when websites were toys - today we care something about semantics and accessibility. I think we should stop saying “here is your text box, enter content in it the way it looks good to you”. I’ve introduced Textile markup to many (Markdown, because of indenting semantics, is not my choice for textboxes) young people and they never had any trouble getting it. As for the ignorant older people who just want to put stuff online without caring about anything you tell them, I wouldn’t even let them near textboxes. ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/9 "2006-10-07T04:15:47Z")
Dror et al, Yes that’s what I was saying, if you reread ;). Plugins! Mislav, this could become similar to the Dave T./DHH thing about composite primary keys. Essentially, some people need WYSIWYG in their scenario and they should develop it and use it. That doesn’t mean it has to be in the core, and it doesn’t mean that Radiant needs to change its focus. While I think your passion for Textile and Markdown is great, some users would hate being forced to use something that doesn’t look like a word processor… just keep that in mind. One size doesn’t fit all which is why there are so bloody many CMS products out there. Radiant isn’t for everyone and we love it that way :-D. Sean C. [seancribbs.com](http://seancribbs.com) ---
**Author:** ![toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@toadkicker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/toadkicker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interest-in-a-wysiwyg-plugin/71302/10 "2006-10-07T01:37:36Z")
> […] I agree with the overall > sentiment that Radiant itself does not need a WYSIWYG, but I can understand > why some people might want it, and thus it should be a plugin. In my mind, > there are a few other things that need to happen if you’re going to add > WYSIWYG, most of them having to do with users/groups/permissions etc. > Sounds like a branch/fork/huge plugin to me! > From a core developer perspective note that a single gigantic patch > (or even worse a fork) doesn’t help us any. Rather the developer of > this functionality should focus on identifying the facilities that > Radiant currently lacks of modifying the admin pages. If someone comes > up with a clear-cut mechanism to modify the admin pages > _in\_the\_process_ of developing this WYSIWYG extension we would benefit > from the results significantly. The long term goal is to be able to modify the admin pages. Functionality such as a WYSIWYG editor comes naturally with a good underlying software architecture. But functionality for its own sake will not survive. – Alexander H. [http://www2.truman.edu/~ah428](http://www2.truman.edu/~ah428)