27 Sep

fckeditor vs tinymce vs everything else

A few questions for the webdev community – especially javascript coders

Which is easier to use, FCKeditor or TinyMCE? Which is less buggy? Which has the better developers? Which is easier to extend? Are there better editors out there?

I’ve been working with FCKeditor for the last few years, and am getting a bit tired of it.

Almost two years ago, I extended their file manager by providing the ability to delete files or rename them. I submitted the code back to them, and …two years later, you still can’t delete files in the FCKeditor file manager.

Yesterday, I discovered that FCKeditor’s HTML-standards are a little restrictive – it assumes the code will be directly embedded in either the <body>, <noscript> or <blockquote> element. This means that the following code is illegal according to FCKeditor, even though it is legal according to the W3C specifications (if embedded in, say, a <div> element):

<p>some text</p>
<img alt="" src="http://www.fckeditor.net/images/logos.gif" />
<p>some text</p>

I have written some pretty complex code for FCKeditor in the past, including the ability to drag elements from an external list into it, and the ability to create and destroy instances pretty much on the fly, for AJAX apps.

The last paragraph is probably the only reason I am wary of swapping to another WYSIWYG like that *snaps fingers*. I don’t look forward to having to rewrite that functionality – it was hard enough in the first place…

However, today, I spent hours trying to track down a reason why plugins were not loading even though the rest of FCKeditor was. I’m preparing to jump ship now. It’s just too exhausting fixing this editor. I’d prefer to work on a simpler, more robust editor.

I’m tired of its bloat and slowness and am asking you all out there in the web world to tell me what you use, why you use it, and would you recommend it.

10 thoughts on “fckeditor vs tinymce vs everything else”

  1. Dylan Parry -

    I’ve been looking into Xinha recently, and from the surface it looks pretty good. I’m not a huge Javascript coder, so I’ve not really delved into the code yet – although I probably will at some point as I’ll most likely need to write my own plugins to get it exactly as I want it. http://xinha.webfactional.com/

  4. Jesse -

    Did you ever find a replacement to FCKeditor? I am curious as currently I am looking to replace FTB (free text box) and FCKeditor was one of the candidates.

  5. Kae Verens -

    no. I’m still using FCKeditor. It’s not ideal (to my eyes), but its stability is improving, and the developer community, while a bit acerbic in my opinion, do a very good job.

    FCKeditor is a very good rich-text-editor in my opinion. I know I had trouble with it in the past, and will probably have trouble with it in the future, but I think that its benefits vastly outweigh its detriments.

    I’d recommend FCKeditor. Make sure you use the latest version, as some recent versions don’t work well with Firefox 3, especially if you dynamically create FCKeditor textareas (for example, if using AJAX extensively).

  6. Jesse -

    Thanks for the reply Kae. FCK will stay on our short list of editors (tinyMCE, FCKEditor and CuteEditor by CuteSoft).

  7. Boris -

    For two years, i try to install that fckeditor from time to time, hoping they fixed compatibility issues in current version, and whenever i step into their forum to see what’s the problem, I see more people with the same problem like me, and we are all together wondering, helpless and clueless. Their support for non paying customers is horrible… or they don’t know because that app became a monster…

  8. Kadir Atesoglu -

    A year ago, in this discussion, i’ve said that you should give tinymce a try. But in the past months, lots of things have changed just like developments of both versions of editors. Now i should correct myself with looking that view and say fckeditor is the winner with a deep impression.

    fyi; if u’re looking for enhanced tools for developing in .net, devexpress controls will fit best for your needs and lift you for a fews step up. don’t hesitate to try.

  9. Kae Verens -

    @Kadir, I’d have to agree. I am /very/ impressed with the responsiveness of the new CKEditor 3. It’s totally redone with modern needs (specifically AJAX and dynamic creation/destruction of editors) in mind.

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