Features

Version 26.1 by Marius Dumitru Florea on 2017/08/24 17:25

The CKEditor integration with XWiki provides most of the standard editing features available in CKEditor and some additional features that are specific to XWiki.

Standard CKEditor Features

The standard features include: text formatting, lists, links, images, tables and many more. Check the CKEditor web site to see all the supported features. Note that by default XWiki doesn't enable all the features available in CKEditor because we want the users to focus on the content and leave the styling in the hands of the XWiki skin. This way all wiki pages will have a consistent style. For this we disable by default the features that are related to styles, such as text aligning, changing fonts or text color. If you really need these features you can enable them from the dedicated administration section.

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XWiki Features

In order to integrate CKEditor with XWiki we had to modify some of the standard features, like links and images, and to add new features that only make sense in XWiki, like support for wiki macros.

Advanced Content Filter for XWiki Syntax

From the start you need to know that the content you edit with the CKEditor is saved in XWiki as wiki syntax. This means that the HTML produced by the CKEditor is converted at save time to wiki syntax. In order for this conversion to be possible we have to disable the CKEditor features that produce content that cannot be written in wiki syntax and to remove (filter) such content from the CKEditor output. We achieve this by configuring the Advanced Content Filter with rules for the XWiki Syntax.

Wiki Syntax Source

The Source button from the tool bar allows you to view and edit the underlying wiki syntax that is generated by the CKEditor.

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We modified the link dialog to add support for creating links to wiki pages and attachments. You can still create links to arbitrary web pages (URLs) and links to mail addresses though.

You can select the target page or attachment from the list of suggestions that you get as you type or from the tree picker. You can attach files to the edited page from the Upload tab that is visible when the link target type is set to Attachment, or you can drop them over the editing area and the editor will automatically create a link to the new attachment.

Image Attachments

We modified the image dialog to add support for inserting images that are attached to wiki pages. You can still insert external image though.

You can select the image attachment from the list of suggestions that you get as you type or from the tree picker. You can attach new images to the edited page from the Upload tab or you can simply drop them over the editing area and the editor will automatically upload and insert them.

Wiki Macros

We added a button on the tool bar to insert wiki syntax macros. This button opens the Macro Wizard which allows you to select a macro and set its parameters. The macro output injected into the editing area is read-only because it is generated by the macro based on the parameters you set. The only way to modify the macro output is through the macro parameters. Double click on the macro output opens the Macro Wizard. If the macro output is empty a place-holder is displayed instead so that you are able to edit the macro parameters. When you click on the macro output the macro name appears on the path displayed on the editor status bar.

On the Edit Macro step of the Macro Wizard the mandatory parameters and those that have an explicit value set are shown first. The rest of the macro parameters are collapsed under a "More" section.

Custom Styles

We customized the Styles drop down from the tool bar to include only the styles that make sense in XWiki. We added new styles for tables, images and paragraphs that are specific to the XWiki skin.

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Full Screen Mode

We modified the standard full screen mode from CKEditor to integrate with XWiki's form action buttons.

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Unsaved Changes Protection

A confirmation popup is shown when leaving the page with unsaved changes. This should prevent you from loosing unsaved changes by mistake. Additionally, on Firefox, unsaved changes are cached and restored if you leave the page and then go back. The same happens if you (soft) reload the page.

Administration Section

A dedicated section in the Wiki Administration is available for the CKEditor where you can enable or disable editing features. Check the customization guide for more advanced configuration options.

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