RE: [ba-ohs-talk] More powerful web editing [was Wiki experiences?]
Chris: (01)
Pasted below are the contents of a simple HTML file that demonstrates
the WYSIWYG editor in IE 5.5 for Windows. (02)
Saving the user's modifications back to the server is a different story.
You're going to need client-side JavaScript to read the .innerHTML value
from the span, and put it somewhere. Perhaps you could write it to a
hidden variable in an HTML form, post it to the server, and then have
the server save it somewhere. In my application, I put it into a
client-side dataset that gets posted back to the server, where I save
changes to a database. (03)
Where might this WYSIWYG editing be used? For example, Sparrow Web
implements editable web pages. Some browser detection would first be
necessary to determine whether the user has IE 5.5 or 6.0. They already
have a whole bunch of editor components, so I expect they've implemented
some that use CONTENTEDITABLE on IE. Or, check out Radio Userland for
another example of a commercial product using this feature. They use a
slightly different implementation than SPAN and DIV. I think Radio's
implementation also works with IE 5.0. (04)
In general, some users much prefer it, but others might hate it. By
default, I've got WYSIWYG editing turned off in my application. I expect
to implement a new feature where it will be turned on by default. (05)
Hope this helps, (06)
Michael (07)
============================== (08)
<html>
<head>
<title>MSHTML Test - for IE 5.5 and 6.0 on Windows</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>MSHTML Test - for IE 5.5 and 6.0 on Windows</h3>
<p>The following content can be modified within the web browser.</p>
<span id=myspan contenteditable style="background-color: yellow;">Feel
free to <strong>modify</strong> this text. Saving changes back to the
server is a <i>different story</i>.</span><br><br>
<button onclick="alert(myspan.innerHTML);">Show Edited Contents</button>
</body>
</html> (09)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-ohs-talk@bootstrap.org
[mailto:owner-ba-ohs-talk@bootstrap.org] On Behalf Of
cdent@burningchrome.com
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 12:17 AM
To: ba-ohs-talk@bootstrap.org
Subject: RE: [ba-ohs-talk] More powerful web editing [was Wiki
experiences?] (010)
On Sat, 9 Mar 2002, Michael Poremba wrote: (011)
> Since IE 5.5, this MSHTML editor is now implemented in SPAN and DIV
> tags on IE for Windows. If you set the CONTENTENTEDITABLE attribute in (012)
> these tags, then the editor turns on, and the contents of the SPAN or
> DIV may be modified. You'll need JavaScript to make use of the edited
> content in forms.
>
> I've been using with reasonable satisfaction in a web content
> publication application. Some minor problems need to be coded around,
> such as extraneous <P> tags. (013)
This sounds very interesting. Would you be willing to share a sample of
your code that demonstrates an editable page and the mechanisms for
updating that page? (014)
--
Chris Dent <cdent@burningchrome.com>
http://www.burningchrome.com/~cdent/ (015)
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(016)