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Home/CKEditor 5/Getting started

Compatibility with .NET using ZIP

As a pure JavaScript/TypeScript application, CKEditor 5 will work inside any environment that supports such components. While we do not offer official integrations for any non-JavaScript frameworks, you can include a custom configuration of CKEditor 5 in a non-JS framework of your choice, for example, Microsoft’s .NET.

CKEditor 5 Builder

In our interactive Builder you can quickly get a taste of CKEditor 5. It offers an easy-to-use user interface to help you configure, preview, and download the editor suited to your needs. You can easily select:

  • The editor type.
  • The features you need.
  • Preferred framework (React, Angular, Vue or Vanilla JS).
  • Preferred distribution method.

At the end you get ready-to-use code tailored to your needs!

Check out our interactive Builder

# Setting up the project

For the purpose of this guide, we will use a basic ASP.NET Core project created with dotnet new webapp. You can refer to the ASP.NET Core documentation to learn how to set up a project in the framework.

# Integrating using ZIP

Our new CKEditor 5 Builder does not provide ZIP output yet – but it will in the future. In the meantime, you can use one of the generic ZIP packages provided on the download page.

After downloading and unpacking the ZIP archive, copy the ckeditor5.js and ckeditor5.css files in the wwwroot/assets/vendor/ directory. The folder structure of your app should resemble this one.

├── bin
├── obj
├── Pages
│   ├── Index.cshtml
│   └── ...
├── Properties
├── wwwroot
│   ├── assets
|      ├── vendor
|          ├── ckeditor5.js
|          └── ckeditor5.css
│   ├── css
│   ├── js
│   ├── lib
│   └── favicon.ico
├── appsettings.Development.json
├── appsettings.json
└── ...

Having all the dependencies of CKEditor 5, modify the Index.cshtml file in the Pages directory to import them. All the necessary markup is in the index.html file from the ZIP archive. You can copy and paste it into your page. Pay attention to the paths of the import map and CSS link - they should reflect your folder structure. The template should look similar to the one below:

Starting from version 44.0.0, the licenseKey property is required to use the editor. If you use a self-hosted editor from ZIP:

You can set up a free trial to test the editor and evaluate the self-hosting.

@page
@model IndexModel
@{
    ViewData["Title"] = "Home page";
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
        <title>CKEditor 5 - Quick start ZIP</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../assets/vendor/ckeditor5.css">
        <style>
            .main-container {
                width: 795px;
                margin-left: auto;
                margin-right: auto;
            }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="main-container">
            <div id="editor">
                <p>Hello from CKEditor 5!</p>
            </div>
        </div>
        <script type="importmap">
            {
                "imports": {
                    "ckeditor5": "../../assets/vendor/ckeditor5.js",
                    "ckeditor5/": "../../assets/vendor/"
                }
            }
        </script>
        <script type="module">
            import {
                ClassicEditor,
                Essentials,
                Paragraph,
                Bold,
                Italic,
                Font
            } from 'ckeditor5';

            ClassicEditor
                .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
                    licenseKey: '<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>', // Or 'GPL'.
                    plugins: [ Essentials, Paragraph, Bold, Italic, Font ],
                    toolbar: [
                        'undo', 'redo', '|', 'bold', 'italic', '|',
                        'fontSize', 'fontFamily', 'fontColor', 'fontBackgroundColor'
                    ]
                } )
                .then( editor => {
                    window.editor = editor;
                } )
                .catch( error => {
                    console.error( error );
                } );
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

Finally, in the root directory of your .NET project, run dotnet watch run to see the app in action.