Simple WYSIWYG Editor

Creating a WYSIWYG textbox for your website is actually quite simple.

Thanks to the html iframe component that contains the execCommand function, which enables us to access html tags in real time.

The following snippets shows how to implement this function:

editor.js

 
var Editor;
 
function Format(action)
{
	Editor.execCommand(action, false, null);
}
 
function Colour(colour)
{		
	Editor.execCommand("forecolor",false, colour);
}
 
window.onload = function()
{
	Editor = document.getElementById('textbox').contentWindow.document;
	Editor.designMode = "on";
	document.forms[0].onsubmit = function()
	{
		var text = document.getElementById('text');
		text.value = Editor.body.innerHTML;
	}
}
 

In the top script we attach anonymous methods to the page load event and one on the form submit event (assigns the contents of the iframe to a form control - since we need to submit it via the page)

editor.html
 
<html>
	<head>
	<title>Simple Javascript WYSIWYG Editor</title>
		<script language="Javascript" src="editor.js"></script>
	</head>
	<body>
		<form method="POST">
			<div>
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Green')" style="background-color:Green;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Red')" style="background-color:Red;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Blue')" style="background-color:Blue;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Black')" style="background-color:Black;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('bold')" value="B" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('italic')" value="I" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('Underline')" value="U" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('justifycenter')" value="C" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('justifyleft')" value="L" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('justifyright')" value="R" /><br/>
				<iframe id="textbox" style="width:300px; height:150px"></iframe><br/>
				<input type="submit" value="Go" />
				<input type="hidden" id="text" name="text" />
			</div>
		</form>
	</body>
</html>
 
This is just a basic implementation of the execCommand function, here is a small list of properties one can use as well, things like cut/paste inserting tables/links/images etc:

BackColor: Get or set the background color of the selected region.
(this property shows some weird behavior in Firefox 2.0)
Copy: Copies the selected region to the clipboard.
Cut: Removes the selected region from the document.
Paste: Adds data from clipboard to region (if applicable).
InsertHorizontalRule: Adds a horizontal rule to the region.
InsertImage: Displays an IE defined modal dialog that contains full image selection features, alt tag modification, border setting, etc.
InsertMarquee: Converts the selected text into a marque.
InsertSelectDropDown: Adds a drop down list to the region.
Print: Displays the windows print dialog so that the region can be printed.
Refresh: Refreshes the region.
CreateLink: Displays an IE defined modal dialog that lets you add a hyperlink using either selected text or new text.
InsertUnorderedList: Toggles between the selected text being an unordered list and normal text.




2009-08-17: I went through all the comments I received regarding this post and wrote some additional code that can be downloaded from here, which will be featured in a future article.



Comments

multiply forms

How to make it able to deal with multiple forms on one screen? If somebody have the answer, send me an mail holsteinkaa /-\ gmail.com


Text from database in iframe

Hej,. How do I load data inside the iframe from a variable in php. thanks Troels


Maxlength

Hi - is there anyway to add 'maxlength' to the iframe to restrict the number of characters entered?


Sweet

Thanks. So many of the web ones are so complicated you can't make changes without spending hours figuring out what's going on. This is great.


inserting image url

hello, does anyone know how to write a function for the image? I mean, insert image func. Thanks!


hidden id

I passed the edited content to a database, but when I want display it and edit it with the editor again it is impossible as the text type is "hidden". Any suggestions?


Change Link Text Part 2

Hehe, ahhh, it was too simple for me! You just have to type the text, then highlight it and insert the URL. Thanks again for the script!


Change Link Text

Hello, Thank you for this great script! It's really amazing. Is it possible to change the link text, so that it can say something like "Click Here" rather than printing out the entire URL?


Simple but brilliant

Nice thanks for the script. I incorporated this on my newsletter apps.


I'm stunned

This is incredibly creative, i'd never heard of using an iframe and pulling the text out to a hidden var, simply brilliant! Props to you! --FF


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