Change your website first!!!

Developers_Guide

I've got it working well in a wysiwyg cms. Loading via ajax, custom file browser. Not been too difficult, just need the documentation finishing off.

Matti: a laughable response. I've browsed the links you mentioned, and it makes no sense to me. If you only want the product to be used by rocket scientists, just say so. And no, I'm not in a position to shell out $600 for support for a little piece of software like this, and I doubt that many potential users are.

Keefieboy wrote:Matti: a laughable response. I've browsed the links you mentioned, and it makes no sense to me. If you only want the product to be used by rocket scientists, just say so. And no, I'm not in a position to shell out $600 for support for a little piece of software like this, and I doubt that many potential users are.

Well it is clearly not a product for Rocket Scientist but a product for Web Developers. Not trying to flame you but I guess I'm not understanding your argument.

the documentation is a bit challenging but it is there... not bad for an early release

i too have it functioning in an ajax environment quite nicely.

I am using CKEditor in my product too, which is in 10 different live sites already. Its a serious CMS, forum, etc.

I think that if you need serious documentation just to use this editor, perhaps there is a bigger problem with your development group. Its not a hard javascript widget to use and if you're a reasonable programmer you can actually figure out how to build new plugins without a shread of documentation.

BTW, I doubt a rocket scientist could actually program an Ajax based web application. It takes a real software developer to build a web app that is worth bothering with. Using CKEditor in a real web app is one of the easier parts of the process.

MattFromGA wrote:I am using CKEditor in my product too, which is in 10 different live sites already. Its a serious CMS, forum, etc.

I think that if you need serious documentation just to use this editor, perhaps there is a bigger problem with your development group. Its not a hard javascript widget to use and if you're a reasonable programmer you can actually figure out how to build new plugins without a shread of documentation.

BTW, I doubt a rocket scientist could actually program an Ajax based web application. It takes a real software developer to build a web app that is worth bothering with. Using CKEditor in a real web app is one of the easier parts of the process.

Hah - my 'development group' is me! And thousands of small-time designer/developers will no doubt be having the same problems I'm having and running away in droves. I've implemented dozens of editors over the years, but never come across one that is as difficult to deal with as this one.

I'm frustrated too, and here are my thoughts and how I'm dealing with these frustrations:

First, this widget is free. Sometimes that means "you get what you pay for", but in this case, this is obviously a very cool WYSIWYG editor - far far better than just barely adequate, which is what might be expected of a free widget. I looked at a couple of competitors, and this seemed better (for my immediate projects.) If a simpler, less extensible editor is a better fit, then I'd recommend using it if this is driving you nuts. All-in-all, this is a pretty amazing chunk of code for a free widget. I for one am very appreciative of getting this widget for free, even if it is difficult for me to modify. (Many/most widgets available are not open source, and you have no possibility to modify anything unless the software developers do it or provide user-customization functionality.)

Where this gets frustrating is that the widget is really broad in scope, and it is obvious that it is possible to modify the look and feel, as well as the inner-workings of the code. It should come as no surprise that if I want to modify the widget to change its behavior, that it will require JavaScript programming knowledge. JavaScript is one of those languages that is deceptively simplistic looking, and I can look at the individual source code files and immediately see some of what is going on "behind the curtain" while other lines of code are not nearly as easy to read. I'm going to use the widget kinda sorta "as-is" with very minor tweaks, until I can figure out how to safely make modifications.

One thing I am going to try to do is to answer questions posed on the forum (as I gain more working knowledge.) Why? Well, a well-run community of users who help each other will leave only the toughest questions for Frederico and the other CKEditor developers. If we as a community can reduce their burden, it is much more likely that they will have the time to give answers to the tough questions, and still utilize most of their time for programming.

I'm also going to take a few deep breaths before firing off a nasty post on the forum here, expressing my frustrations. Why? Well, the negativity serves no useful purpose. Even looking at it selfishly, we as a community need to keep our developers excited about their cool product, and make them want to come to work tomorrow full of enthusiasm to make it even cooler. Who wants to work on development for a product that is given away for free and then some people bitch about it.

The other thing I'm going to do is to try to sell a copy of CKFinder along with every web development project that uses CKEditor. Why? Well, Frederico and his hired guns are not our slaves, they are business people, and they need to see this as a profitable venture to keep pouring their hearts and souls into development. Open source is misunderstood by some folks. It does not mean that someone can work without compensation - it usually means the compensation comes from adjunct ventures and support.

Dennis

dtleahy wrote:

One thing I am going to try to do is to answer questions posed on the forum (as I gain more working knowledge.) Why? Well, a well-run community of users who help each other will leave only the toughest questions for Frederico and the other CKEditor developers. If we as a community can reduce their burden, it is much more likely that they will have the time to give answers to the tough questions, and still utilize most of their time for programming.

Those are very wise words.
People usually just want their questions answered and they don't care to look at previous threads. It's just ridiculous the number of people asking how to remove the elements path at the bottom of the editor, how to use their own file manager or how to use the new version with .net
And don't get me started with the people that post a question and a few hours latter bumps the thread asking why nobody has answered it (or even creating a new thread just for that!) That people should be banned because they just load the forums with garbage buring the interesting threads where people provide answer and comments about what works and why the original problem happens.

Reading the forums can bring lots of knowledge, and trying to help other people is also a very interesting form of learning.