I'm writing a asp.net web application in which I want the users to be able to apply simple formatting to the text they enter in text areas.
One of the possibilities is to use a javascript wisywig editor (like tinymce). However, to keep the text html-clean and readible, I'd prefer that the users have to do the formatting themselves in exactly the same way as it is done in wiki's.
I can't find a free or not too expensive control on the web. Has anyone used a third party control before? any advise on this?
You can use a markdown editor like this:
http://wmd-editor.com/
Then you want to be able display the result in HTML with this:
http://aspnetresources.com/blog/markdown_announced.aspx
Essentially this is what StackOverflow does (with their customization). They discuss how they do it in their podcast.
Related
Hi I have a requirement in which user will be able to write a Document like a contract.
User should be able to write in Block letters, use underline options and do some indentation while writing his/her document.
I am using ReactJS for the development.
I am not sure how we can achieve it using a text area or form.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Looks like you need to use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors.
react-dragt-wysiwyg is a good example.
You might need to do some research to figure out
which editor fits your requirements
relatively easy to integrate into your system
doesn't slow down your site
looks reliable, i.e. the original authors are likely to keep supporting it
I need to present Word and PDF documents in a read-only preview, via an ASPX/HTML page to my internal users. In a related requirement, I need to present editable Word documents, via ab ASPX/HTML page, to parties outside of our network - effectively the public.
We cannot rely upon Word or Adobe-type PDF plugins being available on the destination PC.
Can anyone suggest a way to do this?
Edit - For clarity, the document/data would ideally stay on our own servers.
What about using Google Docs API? You could use either their word-like doc or a form to get the data you need, and then present that internally.
Not sure if this meets all of your requirements, or is an available option.
For our company, we have a few tools that utilize Google Docs. We upload data dynamically to them for specific needs.
Based on your requirements, maybe it's best to just write your own. I haven't created a Rich Text Editor. But it looks like there are quite a few tutorials online. Here is a basic tutorial for a rich text editor. It's using javascript, HTML, & CSS. If you prefer to not use js, then you may need to look for other tutorials.
This isn't the most glamorous solution, as it looks like the users view would be HTML. I'd think you could have it updating dynamically off to the side with an actual rich text view (similar to how Stack Overflow has theirs below an answer or question being written).
Update
Over the weekend I was exploring HTML5's contenteditable attribute, I came across an editor that builds off of that called Aloha Editor. It's a WYSIWYG type editor. But if that's something that you desire for your clients, than this would probably be a pretty simple integration. I have yet to use it, but it seems like it would be a great fit - if you decide to go the route of building your own editor.
You could use the Zoho API or, if you need to keep all data on your own servers and validated clients at all times, you could try the Aspose components.
If you're interested to provide documents in a view-only way then you can try GroupDocs as well: http://groupdocs.com/. They offer viewers for different file types which you can add to your website very easily: http://groupdocs.com/apps/viewer.
Since you need to keep data on your own server, aceoffix can be one of your alternative. It is a plugin installed on your own server and save all data on your server too.
I am working on a multilingual web application. I'm wondering how do i design the best user interface that the user can localize data for various languages? for instance, in making a page which its title is different in every lang, do i put a textbox for every one? it's not a suitable way to do(in case of 10 lang, the user has 10 textbox!!! too silly)
what is your idea about this?
Edit: i have no problem with globalization in my system. in fact, i'm looking for a good way for my interface design which user can enter his data to my forms in various langs.
thanks in advance
What about only one textfield and a dropdown containing the languages. After selecting the language and filling out the textfield the field gets submitted and the chosen language disappears from the dropdown list.
the entered value and language then appears beneath the dropdown and textbox with a way to edit/delete it. this way it's always clear to the user which languages are already covered and which values are assigned to them. furthermore it's a nicer way if not all 10 languages have to be mandatorily filled in, if the user e.g. just knows english and french.
Hope you know what I mean, otherwise I'll have to create an example screenshot :-)
You could have 3 text boxes, and that's fine...get to 10, and it starts getting a bit crazy. Beyond that it starts looking pretty bad.
Maybe you could put up to say 5 text boxes up...but if it goes beyond 5 (because the user desires localization for more than 5 places) it places a single textbox with a dropdown next to it, and the dropdown would contain the current language.
Textbox would auto-populate with the current value for the language selected in the dropdown. Should work well in asp.net, and it can be done both client side, or server side on a post back pretty easily, so you don't need to do anything crazy for people not running javascript.
You have one text box.
On load you populate the text box depending on language.
The content will be populated from some kind of resource file. If there isn't much text it could even go in your config file.
Be aware of the following:
Different content length depending on language.
Right to Left alphabets screwing up your alignment
This is a classic project for using NUNIT or similar to promve that things work after new translations are added!
What language do you use in development? If this is something like PHP, then you definitely should use templates and load text strings into them from configuration files for every language. In Smarty, for example, I use configuration files for that.
Text strings for error messages or something like that could be put to files like .ini and loaded from there.
The Google Web Toolkit (GWT) demo shows the same page with versions available in English, French, Arabic and Chinese.
The GWT docs have a thorough discussion of internationalization. You could emulate their implementation.
Constants: Useful for localizing typed constant values
Messages: Useful for localizing messages requiring arguments
ConstantsWithLookup: Like Constants but with extra lookup flexibility for highly data-driven applications
Dictionary: Useful when adding a GWT module to existing localized web pages
Remember that dates and times are represented differently in different locales, if your forms use them.
The W3C also discusses Internationalization Best Practices in HTML content.
Normally, a user navigating a website will have a preference specifying the language of the whole site. I think it would be confusing to break this pattern.
So, in an intro page, or a user preferences page, allow the user to select a language; then, on the other pages, display a consistent set of controls to be able to edit the content on each page.
Are you making an administration page that allows users to change the text used in other pages in the application?
If so, you could use grid like in Zeta Resource Editor:
thumbnail http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7813/zetaresourceeditor02.th.png
Or you could make a per-language list like in nopCommerce:
thumbnail http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9079/nopcommerce.th.png
You can use javascipts as a resource file for your language like. language_arabic.js, language_english.js,etc.So when a use wants to see his preference language he/she has select the available languages from drop down list. Regarding this the user has to change the language settings from his/her computer. This is what I did while I was working a GIS project to customize a Geocortex IMF( http://demos.geocortex.net/imf-5.2.2/sites/demo_geocortex/jsp/launch.jsp ) site for an Arabic client.
I have a requirement to implement a "simple" web-based form designer that allows "simple" users to create their own web-based forms. I've come across these things in rich clients, such as Outlook and Acrobat, but my requirements are much simpler and must be web-based.
Pretty layout, custom validation, complex fields and types are simply not a factor. Ideally I would like to find something that is neat like this very SO question composer, in which I'm typing right now, plus the ability to drag a text input box or a checkbox right into the text. Output could be as crude as this:
What is your name? [Fred Bloggs]
Do you have an internet? [x]
I'm using asp.net but the backend technology doesn't really matter as I fear this is all javascript! No need to consider old browsers. Any examples links would be helpful, as well as suggestions for existing open or commercial components. Thank you!
Tried Frevvo ?
Here is a pretty neat one based on jquery Ajax Form Builder
Try FormThis. It allows you to create an Online Web Form at no cost. Drag & Drop designer, Unlimited Fields, Submit/Responses, Calculations, Validation, etc. Can output to PDF if required.
I'm building a webpart for a Sharepoint site that allows the user to enter information into a textbox that will eventually be showed to other users. The problem is that I need to allow simple formatting (bold, italic etc) and also allow the user to enter an url (a <a href=".....). I don't want to expose a XSS exploit since I do not trust the users using my webpart not doing that.
What are my best alternatives when not wanting to write a fully fledged html parser?
There is a SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncodeAllowSimpleTextFormatting(string) that does almost what I need. It allows simple formatting such as <B>, <I>, etc. The problem is that I want to allow hyperlinks as well. Does anyone know if there is some builtin functions in Sharepoint/ASP.NET that does what I want?
If I enable "Enhanced rich text" on a "Multiple Lines of Text" column in a Sharepoint list, it seems to do exactly what I want (it allows formatting and hyperlinks, but not evil stuff) but I cannot figure out how and where it does that?
Microsoft have a project over at CodePlex called AntiXSS that seems to do what I want.
It does however allow more html than I need (I couldn't find a way to control what to allow, maybe I didn't look everywhere), but I think this might be a good solution anyway.