UseTinyMCE

UseTinyMCE is yet another (as if we needed another) hack for including TinyMCE in a Rails 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, or 4.2 app.

NOTE: Rails 3.1.0 broke version 0.0.8. The current version has been tested on Rails 4.0.0. It should work on 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 because "nothing there has been changed". Let me know if this is not true.

This gem differs from the others that I looked at on rubygems in that:

1. It works with Rails 3.0, 3.1 & 3.2 and 4.0, 4.1, & 4.2 details below
2. It's minimal. It does not provide any juicy Rails style configuration for TinyMCE. You just use the config stuff which comes with TinyMCE - in javascript.
3. I've moved on to Ruby 2.0, so I'm now depending on others to find and patch bugs in 1.9.x and 1.8.x. For example, version 0.0.12 contains a patch by github://janne to correct the syntax of the rakefile so that it works with the Regexp engine in 1.8.x

Rails Integration

It's almost the same in all cases. See Step By Step below.

Rails 3.0 Note: Rails 3.0 defaults to prototype for javascript, so use_tinymce supports both raw TinyMCE (which works well with Prototype) and the jquery version, which works with 'jquery'. It also supports both simple and advanced editor installations for the raw type.

Rails 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 Note: TinyMCE doesn't play well with the asset pipeline, so it is installed in public. This has to do with the way TinyMCE is architected: it is plugin based and scatters javascript, css, and html all through it's plugin directory. It manages it's own loading.

Also, since 3.1 Rails defaults to jQuery for javascript, so use_tinymce does not support installing the raw version of TinyMCE.

Selectively adding TinyMCE to selected text areas

TinyMCE supports selectively using TinyMCE in or not in different textareas within the same page .

To do this, proceed as above and for textarea elements that you do not want to use TinyMCE in, add the class 'no-tinymce'.

Read the comments in 'use_tinymce-gem-location/lib/tasks/use_tinymce.rake' for details. Or read the TinyMCE code.

Step by Step

Note: you should not have to 'require use_tinymce` anyplace. If you do, please let me know.

1. You will need to install TinyMCE in your /public/javascript directory. Do that by running one of the rake tasks below. They are all in the use_tinymce namespace and depend on the version of Rails you are using. See below for details.

2. Add use_tinymce args to all the controllers for views containing textarea fields in which you want to run TinyMCE. args should be:

• :all - to enable TinyMCE for all actions
• :foo, :bar - to enable TinyMCE only for views rendered by foo and bar actions [usually this is something like use_tinymce :new, :edit].

3. Add <%= use_tinymce_link %> to the HEAD section of you application layout - for at least all pages which should use TinyMCE

4. (Optional) Edit /public/javascript/use_tinymce_init.js to customize your TinyMCE feature set.

That's it.

Rake Tasks

Rails 3.0:

• rake use_tinymce:install_jquery - if you are using jQuery (Rails 3.1 default)
• rake use_tinymce:install_simple - if you are using Prototype (Rails 3.0 default)
• rake use_tinymce:install_advanced - if you are using Prototype (Rails 3.0 default)
• rake use_tinymce:uninstall - removes all trace of TinyMCE & the initialization file from your /public/javascripts directory. WARNING: this wipes out any customizations you have done to the init_tinymce.js file. WARNING: uninstall is always run prior to any of the install tasks.

If you don't need much and aren't familiar with TinyMCE, then rake use_tinymce:install_simple should be fine. The advanced version configures TinyMCE with many more features. Go to the "TinyMCE website for details"

Rails 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2

• rake use_tinymce:install - installs the jQuery version of TinyMCE
• rake use_tinymce:uninstall - removes all trace of TinyMCE & the initialization file from your /public/javascripts directory. WARNING: this wipes out any customizations you have done to the init_tinymce.js file. WARNING: uninstall is always run prior to the install task.

This creates an advanced editor. See the TinyMCE website for configuration information: "TinyMCE website for details"

Supplied Methods

Detailed info on the methods in this Gem.

As usual, read the source for the definitive, up-to-date truth.

use_tinymce(*actions)

Which is added to ApplicationController as a Class Method.

*actions is 0 or more method names or the distinguished symbol :all. You put this someplace in your controller if you want any of your controller actions to render a page which uses TinyMCE

use_tinymce_link

Which renders either an empty string or the links required to pull in TinyMCE and use_tinymce_init.js. It makes it's decision by looking at the value of params[:action]

use_tinymce?(action)

Which you can use if you want or need finer control, use use_tinymce? and write your own conditional.

use_tinymce(action) is a helper method you add to the cruft which creates the head element of your page. It returns true if the symbol action was set by a previous call to use_tinymce [or if you included use_tinymce :all in your controller] action will usually come from params[:action], so it's easier to use use_tinymce_link which already does that.

Rake Tasks:

NOTE assets here refers to the assets directory in the use_tinymce gem - not the Rails 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 asset pipeline directory.

This initialization scripts were copied literally from the TinyMCE website "For Dummies" page

• that is: http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/wiki.php/%22For_Dummies%22

Rails 3.0

NOTE Rails 3.0 support is no longer maintained by me. I will accept patches, but will not test them.

Prototype Versions:

• rake use_tinymce:install_advanced copies use_tinymce/assets/use_tinymce_init_advanced.js and the contents of use_tinymce/tinymce_no_jquery - which provides all the full blown features.

• rake use_tinymce:install_simple copies use_tinymce/assets/use_tinymce_init_simple.js and the contents of use_tinymce/tinymce_no_jquery - copies the bare bones version.

The jQuery version was copied from an example script and then slightly modified [see the code comments].

• rake use_tinymce:install_jquery copies assets/use_tinymce_init_jquery.js and the contents of use_tinymce/tinymce_jquery - which attaches an 'advanced' TinyMCE configuration to textareas.

Maintenance: if you want to get rid of use_tinymce, then:

• rake use_tinymce:uninstall removes use_tinymce_init.js and the TinyMCE directory from your applications public/javascripts

Note: rake use_tinymce::uninstall is called automatically when running any rake use_tinymce::install_* to insure you get a clean installation. This will also clean out any customization you have done.

Rails 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2

NOTE I no longer support this gem for Rails 3.1 and 3.2. I will accept patches, but will not test them.

use_tinymce only supports installing the jQuery version of TinyMCE on Rails 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2.

There are two Rake tasks:

• rake use_tinymce:install - copies assets/use_tinymce_init_jquery.js and the contents of use_tinymce/tinymce_jquery - which attaches an 'advanced' TinyMCE configuration to textareas.
• rake use_tinymce:uninstall removes use_tinymce_init.js and the TinyMCE directory from your applications public/javascripts

Note: rake use_tinymce::uninstall is called automatically when running rake use_tinymce::install to insure you get a clean installation. This will also clean out any customization you have done.

Relocating TinyMCE or Something Else

This gem is pretty simple, so if you want to change the location and/or names of some files, go ahead and hack it.

There was a time when I would have added features to allow this, but not any more. It ususally turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.

So, if you want to do it, have a blast - but please don't send me the patches.

Upgrading TinyMCE

use_tinymce ships with two versions of TinyMCE which I downloaded from the Moxiecode website. You should be able to upgrade your TinyMCE if you want by doing the exact same thing and then unpacking the zip file in /public/javascript

version 3.4.2 of TinyMCE - used for Rails 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 (it was working, so why change?) version 4.0.2 for Rails 4.0.0 - I decided to add this when adding support for Rails 4.0

WARNING: Rails 3.1 uses sprockets which has a problem compiling non-Unicoded characters. the advanced TinyMCE contains some directly encoded characters in the spellchecker_word_separator_chars variable in the spellchecking plugin. I've modified the code to convert them to Unicode \U... representations. If you upgrade TinyMCE and run with Rails 3.1 + you will probably have to do the same.

Alternately, you can poke around your system and find the gem and unpack the zip file into the use_tinymce gem's /assets folder, re-run the rake tasks and . . . WARNING if you do this, you'll overwrite your use_tinymce_init.js file and lose all your special customizations.

Alternately (2), you can send me a note and I might upgrade the TinyMCE in the gem. Then you'd need to do a bundle update use_tinymce, run the rake task, re-create your special customizations, etc.

It's probably easier to grab the code from "Moxiecode"