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Loki is a minimalistic open-source WYSIWYG textarea editor
Loki is a Rich Text editor for the Web. The current leader in this arena is clearly FCKEditor (which is now called CKEditor), so why does the world need another WYSIWIG editor for HTML textareas?
The first thing that caught my eye was... the very first feature on the feature list. That wasn't because it was first either, honestly! It says:
- Hitting Return produces a new paragraph. Mozilla browsers like to interpret the Enter key as a line break. This is rarely semantically correct, but most editors use this method.
That is so true! The current FCKEditor installation that I use insists on using BR tags whenever I hit Enter to start a new paragraph, and I find that simply offensive. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but if a Web developer who was working with me consistently used BR's instead of para breaks, it would be positive proof that they don't understand basic HTML code. So, why should my text editor do that?
It's got a whole bunch of other cool features, including integrating with an RSS feed to provide point-and-click linking to previous posts (for blogs). However, it also prides itself on providing "no frivolous features," such as smileys, arbitrary font selection and text color selection. It may sound a bit sparse, but it's to the point.
To be honest, I don't know what the new CKEditor is like; I'm still stuck with the older FCKEditor. Loki seems like a very viable replacement, though. It's one that I would be happy to take for a spin, at least.
Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsCrazy SerbApr 28th 2010 2:01PM
Now there's something Wordpress should consider adding into their code to replace that TinyMCE piece of crap.
LaurynasApr 28th 2010 3:37PM
Check TinyMCE (http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/) and then rethink which one is leader. P.S.: double check their generated HTML output and features ;).
Mike BranskiApr 28th 2010 3:31PM
Not to stray too far off topic, but you should really check out CKEditor because the default functionality is that hitting Enter creates a new paragraph, and Shift + Enter is a line break. Tons of other improvements, too, that they're really no comparison (FCKEditor and CKEditor, that is).
Although I'm not really a fan of how Loki looks (the UI feels a little dated), and it has some quirks, like not being able to put anything before a blockquote if it's the first item in the content, it does have some neat features. The find and replace is pretty cool, and the RSS linking definitely sounds interesting. It's always good to have choices when choosing software!
DAJApr 28th 2010 3:34PM
No chance of it being adopted by Wordpress or others as it only works with IE or Firefox (Gecko) currently
LaurynasApr 28th 2010 3:37PM
Btw, did you saw Loki's JS source, take a look at comment near top - it's copy pasted from TinyMCE without shame. P.S. Its sooo big in side, that this editor is total crap...
RahabibApr 28th 2010 5:50PM
odd, but tinymce also defaults to hitting return = and shift enter is
That note aside, I like the attitude they are taking, I just know if I impliemented it id get calls from people saying, "how do I make my text all red." lol.
MikeApr 29th 2010 2:10AM
I've been shopping around for an editor for users to enter in basic content blocks for a CMS system I'm working on... best one around with the most "user friendly" is the CK.
still searching around cause I don't want to pay, but looks like Tiny doesn't cut the mustard to well. Right now I'm alpha testing one with both ck and tiny since the code was easy enough to switch between.
@davey_ladApr 29th 2010 9:25AM
I believe CKE is configurable in it's behaviour on the Enter key.
Another one to consider (if you're into ASP.NET) is the HTMLEditor control which is part of the latest version of the Ajax Control Toolkit.
http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/Samples/HTMLEditor/HTMLEditor.aspx
tggagneMay 25th 2010 4:18PM
I heard today that Google had open-sourced its editor, but I don't know its name. It was during the Google I/O event. Any impressions yet?