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Upgrading from CKEditor 3

CKEditor 3 and 4 are mostly compatible, so an upgrade to the latest CKEditor 4 line is mostly hassle-free.

Please note that the CKEditor 3 line is no longer updated. New features, bug fixes, and support for latest browser versions are not backported from CKEditor 4 and are only available by upgrading to the current editor version.

# Changes Between CKEditor 3 and 4

Here is a list of the most notable changes between CKEditor 3 and 4.

  1. The new default Moono skin was introduced.
  2. The installation package no longer includes all possible CKEditor plugins. You can now either choose one of the pre-defined packages (Basic, Standard, Full) or create a custom build by using the online builder service.
  3. All CKEditor plugins, both created by the CKEditor team and by the community, are available in the new Add-ons Repository, where you can browse them and easily add to your custom build.
  4. The new Advanced Content Filter adjusts your content to your editor configuration and strips disallowed content.
  5. Some changes in the CKEditor 4 JavaScript API break backward compatibility. See the list of changes between CKEditor 3.x and CKEditor 4.0 here. Please note that with time the number of differences may grow as CKEditor 4 is in active development, so it is recommended to test whether your custom plugins work as expected after the upgrade.
  6. The server-side integrations (ASP, PHP) were removed. Use the JavaScript integration method instead.
  7. The location of some of the configuration files has changed. For example ckeditor/plugins/styles/styles/default.js is now just ckeditor/styles.js.

# Upgrade Procedure

If you were using CKEditor 3 in the past, you can either try to create a CKEditor 4 build that mimics the functionality used before or start anew, choose the desired CKEditor 4 installation package, and then just adjust your configuration. See the Compare Packages link to examine the differences between them.

To upgrade CKEditor 3 to CKEditor 4, proceed as follows:

  1. Rename your existing editor folder to a backup folder, for example ckeditor_old.
  2. Download the latest version from the official CKEditor Download site.
    • The easiest way is to choose one of the pre-defined presets like Standard or Full.
    • If you want to include any additional plugins, use the online builder service to create a custom build.
  3. Extract (decompress) the downloaded archive to the original editor directory, for example ckeditor.
  4. Review all configuration files that you have changed in CKEditor 3 (see the backup folder) and apply your changes to new CKEditor 4 files. These could include (but are not limited to) the following files:
    • config.js
    • contents.css
    • plugins/styles/styles/default.js
    • custom template files