Giving Your Clients a Standards Compliant WYSIWYG Content Editor
Posted by Fizix Richard in Articles: XHTML, CSS, JS on the 5th October, 2008
When a client asks us for a website they usually ask us if there is a way for them to update the content themselves without having to directly edit the code of their website (or they ask us for a CMS if they are savvy), either way they want to be able to quickly and easily update the content of their website. The solution is to develop a dynamic database or XML driven website with a Content Management System which allows them to edit the content of their website online through an Admin System.
For the more savvy clients they are happy using some kind of "markup" to format their content, such as basic HTML tags or simplified code tags like found on forums, maybe with code buttons to generate the code for them. Some clients go as far as to ask for a WYSIWYG editor as they don't want to have to code anything; which if we are honest is the best approach.
In doing this we have a couple of options and from what I have seen on various CMS solutions that have been developed for companies the trend is to use some kind of Javascript/IE plugin method - similar to what's found in the vBulletin forums WYGIWYG post editor. This method works, but doesn't exactly follow W3C standards and its difficult and cumbersome to ensure everything gets marked up and using the stylesheets correctly when you start to do anything complicated, because lets face it, simple functionality as found in a forum post editor isn't quite going to cut it for most customers content management requirements. They want styled lists, to lay things out in different ways, to add images with precision positioning and such.
If you want to get adventurous you need to code HTML and CSS right?
Well in the early days this was almost our approach, if they were capable they could code XHTML/CSS and if not we would provide a simplified editor which would break W3C validation and would restrict what they could do with their content. This is a very poor approach and we knew we needed to find some kind of solution to the problem; and then we discovered the hidden gem that is Editize.
Editize is a Java Applet which provides a visual WYSIWYG XHTML/CSS editor which abides by your stylesheets, rules and maintains standards compliancy. It has lots of built in features which allow the companies content editors to create content in an environment they are familiar with.
What's so great about Editize is that its not a CMS solution but simply a module, which assumes nothing about your content or CMS itself, that you can integrate with your CMS. All it does is replace your textarea with a visual content editor, so simple and yet a diamond of a tool. What's more it only costs $150 per license (which is allocated per domain) which isn't going to hit the project budget too hard when you consider that the client is getting a powerful editor which would be very expensive for us to develop inhouse.
The only restriction it really has is that you need the Java plugin to use it, which isn't a major issue as it only affects the clients content editors and the results are very fruitful.
It is exactly what they say it is on their website. "Editize is a portable, professional and customizable browser-based content editing component that will drop straight into your Content Management System."
Tags
cms, wysiwyg, content editor, html, css, w3c, standards compliant, java, php, content management system, editize, visual editor, platform independant
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