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Home/CKEditor 5/Getting started

guideEditor lifecycle

Quick recap

In the previous tutorial you have explored available features and learned how to add them to your editor. This article shows the lifecycle methods used to interact with the editor.

Each CKEditor 5 build provides a different editor class that handles the creation of editor instances:

Most of the examples in the documentation use the ClassicEditor class, but things should work in a similar way with other builds.

A CKEditor 5 build compiles a specific editor class and a set of plugins. Using builds is the simplest way to include the editor in your application, but you can also use the editor classes and plugins directly for greater flexibility.

# Creating an editor with create()

Regardless of the chosen build, creating an editor is done using the static create() method.

# Example – classic editor

Add an element that CKEditor should replace to your HTML page:

<div id="editor">
    <p>Here goes the initial content of the editor.</p>
</div>

Then call ClassicEditor.create() to replace the <textarea> element with a classic editor:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ) )
    .then( editor => {
        console.log( editor );
    } )
    .catch( error => {
        console.error( error );
    } );

In this case the <textarea> element is hidden and replaced with an editor. The <textarea> data is used to initialize the editor content. A <div> element can be used in the same way.

# Example – inline editor

Similarly to the previous example, add an element where CKEditor 5 should initialize to your page:

<div id="editor">
    <p>Here goes the initial content of the editor.</p>
</div>

Then call InlineEditor.create() to attach inline editor to the <div> element:

InlineEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ) )
    .then( editor => {
        console.log( editor );
    } )
    .catch( error => {
        console.error( error );
    } );

# Example – balloon editor

The procedure is the same as for inline editor. The only difference is that you need to use the BalloonEditor.create() method.

Add an element where CKEditor should initialize to your page:

<div id="editor">
    <p>Here goes the initial content of the editor.</p>
</div>

Then call BalloonEditor.create() to attach balloon editor to the <div> element:

BalloonEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ) )
    .then( editor => {
        console.log( editor );
    } )
    .catch( error => {
        console.error( error );
    } );

# Example – decoupled editor

Add the elements where CKEditor should initialize the toolbar and the editable to your page:

<!-- The toolbar will be rendered in this container. -->
<div id="toolbar-container"></div>

<!-- This container will become the editable. -->
<div id="editor">
    <p>This is the initial editor content.</p>
</div>

Then call the DecoupledEditor.create() method to create a decoupled editor instance with the toolbar and the editable in two separate containers:

DecoupledEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ) )
    .then( editor => {
        const toolbarContainer = document.querySelector( '#toolbar-container' );

        toolbarContainer.appendChild( editor.ui.view.toolbar.element );
    } )
    .catch( error => {
        console.error( error );
    } );

Every editor class may accept different parameters in the create() method and may handle the initialization differently. For instance, classic editor will replace the given element with an editor, while inline editor will use the given element to initialize an editor on it. See each editor’s documentation to learn the details.

The interface of the editor class is not enforced either. Since different implementations of editors may vary heavily in terms of functionality, the editor class implementers have full freedom regarding the API. Therefore, the examples in this guide may not work with some editor classes.

# Destroying the editor with destroy()

In modern applications, it is common to create and remove elements from the page interactively through JavaScript. In such cases CKEditor 5 instances should be destroyed by using the destroy() method:

editor.destroy()
    .catch( error => {
        console.log( error );
    } );

Once destroyed, resources used by the editor instance are released and the original element used to create the editor is automatically displayed and updated to reflect the final editor data.

# Listening to changes

The Document#change:data event is fired when the document changes in such a way that is “visible” in the editor data.

editor.model.document.on( 'change:data', () => {
    console.log( 'The data has changed!' );
} );

There is also a group of changes like selection position changes or marker changes which do not affect the result of editor.getData(). To listen to all these changes, you can use a wider Document#change event.

What’s next?

Now you know how to manipulate the editor instance. But an editor without the ability to modify content is not particularly useful. It’s time to learn how to interact with the editor’s data in the following tutorial.