simplemde-markdown-editor README

The project's README from github.com/sparksuite/simplemde-markdown-editor. As one markdown file: README.md.

SimpleMDE - Markdown Editor

A drop-in JavaScript textarea replacement for writing beautiful and understandable Markdown. The WYSIWYG-esque editor allows users who may be less experienced with Markdown to use familiar toolbar buttons and shortcuts. In addition, the syntax is rendered while editing to clearly show the expected result. Headings are larger, emphasized words are italicized, links are underlined, etc. SimpleMDE is one of the first editors to feature both built-in autosaving and spell checking.

Demo

Preview

Why not a WYSIWYG editor or pure Markdown?

WYSIWYG editors that produce HTML are often complex and buggy. Markdown solves this problem in many ways, plus Markdown can be rendered natively on more platforms than HTML. However, Markdown is not a syntax that an average user will be familiar with, nor is it visually clear while editing. In otherwords, for an unfamiliar user, the syntax they write will make little sense until they click the preview button. SimpleMDE has been designed to bridge this gap for non-technical users who are less familiar with or just learning Markdown syntax.

Install

Via npm.

npm install simplemde --save

Via bower.

bower install simplemde --save

Via jsDelivr. Please note, jsDelivr may take a few days to update to the latest release.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/simplemde/latest/simplemde.min.css">
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/simplemde/latest/simplemde.min.js"></script>

Quick start

After installing, load SimpleMDE on the first textarea on a page

<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
</script>

Using a specific textarea

Pure JavaScript method

<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({ element: document.getElementById("MyID") });
</script>

jQuery method

<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({ element: $("#MyID")[0] });
</script>

Get/set the content

simplemde.value();

simplemde.value("This text will appear in the editor");

Configuration

// Most options demonstrate the non-default behavior
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	autofocus: true,
	autosave: {
		enabled: true,
		uniqueId: "MyUniqueID",
		delay: 1000,
	},
	blockStyles: {
		bold: "__",
		italic: "_"
	},
	element: document.getElementById("MyID"),
	forceSync: true,
	hideIcons: ["guide", "heading"],
	indentWithTabs: false,
	initialValue: "Hello world!",
	insertTexts: {
		horizontalRule: ["", "\n\n-----\n\n"],
		image: ["![](http://", ")"],
		link: ["[", "](http://)"],
		table: ["", "\n\n| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |\n| -------- | -------- | -------- |\n| Text     | Text      | Text     |\n\n"],
	},
	lineWrapping: false,
	parsingConfig: {
		allowAtxHeaderWithoutSpace: true,
		strikethrough: false,
		underscoresBreakWords: true,
	},
	placeholder: "Type here...",
	previewRender: function(plainText) {
		return customMarkdownParser(plainText); // Returns HTML from a custom parser
	},
	previewRender: function(plainText, preview) { // Async method
		setTimeout(function(){
			preview.innerHTML = customMarkdownParser(plainText);
		}, 250);

		return "Loading...";
	},
	promptURLs: true,
	renderingConfig: {
		singleLineBreaks: false,
		codeSyntaxHighlighting: true,
	},
	shortcuts: {
		drawTable: "Cmd-Alt-T"
	},
	showIcons: ["code", "table"],
	spellChecker: false,
	status: false,
	status: ["autosave", "lines", "words", "cursor"], // Optional usage
	status: ["autosave", "lines", "words", "cursor", {
		className: "keystrokes",
		defaultValue: function(el) {
			this.keystrokes = 0;
			el.innerHTML = "0 Keystrokes";
		},
		onUpdate: function(el) {
			el.innerHTML = ++this.keystrokes + " Keystrokes";
		}
	}], // Another optional usage, with a custom status bar item that counts keystrokes
	styleSelectedText: false,
	tabSize: 4,
	toolbar: false,
	toolbarTips: false,
});

Toolbar icons

Below are the built-in toolbar icons (only some of which are enabled by default), which can be reorganized however you like. "Name" is the name of the icon, referenced in the JS. "Action" is either a function or a URL to open. "Class" is the class given to the icon. "Tooltip" is the small tooltip that appears via the title="" attribute. Note that shortcut hints are added automatically and reflect the specified action if it has a keybind assigned to it (i.e. with the value of action set to bold and that of tooltip set to Bold, the final text the user will see would be "Bold (Ctrl-B)").

Additionally, you can add a separator between any icons by adding "|" to the toolbar array.

Name Action Tooltip
Class
bold toggleBold Bold
fa fa-bold
italic toggleItalic Italic
fa fa-italic
strikethrough toggleStrikethrough Strikethrough
fa fa-strikethrough
heading toggleHeadingSmaller Heading
fa fa-header
heading-smaller toggleHeadingSmaller Smaller Heading
fa fa-header
heading-bigger toggleHeadingBigger Bigger Heading
fa fa-lg fa-header
heading-1 toggleHeading1 Big Heading
fa fa-header fa-header-x fa-header-1
heading-2 toggleHeading2 Medium Heading
fa fa-header fa-header-x fa-header-2
heading-3 toggleHeading3 Small Heading
fa fa-header fa-header-x fa-header-3
code toggleCodeBlock Code
fa fa-code
quote toggleBlockquote Quote
fa fa-quote-left
unordered-list toggleUnorderedList Generic List
fa fa-list-ul
ordered-list toggleOrderedList Numbered List
fa fa-list-ol
clean-block cleanBlock Clean block
fa fa-eraser fa-clean-block
link drawLink Create Link
fa fa-link
image drawImage Insert Image
fa fa-picture-o
table drawTable Insert Table
fa fa-table
horizontal-rule drawHorizontalRule Insert Horizontal Line
fa fa-minus
preview togglePreview Toggle Preview
fa fa-eye no-disable
side-by-side toggleSideBySide Toggle Side by Side
fa fa-columns no-disable no-mobile
fullscreen toggleFullScreen Toggle Fullscreen
fa fa-arrows-alt no-disable no-mobile
guide This link Markdown Guide
fa fa-question-circle

Customize the toolbar using the toolbar option like:

// Customize only the order of existing buttons
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	toolbar: ["bold", "italic", "heading", "|", "quote"],
});

// Customize all information and/or add your own icons
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	toolbar: [{
			name: "bold",
			action: SimpleMDE.toggleBold,
			className: "fa fa-bold",
			title: "Bold",
		},
		{
			name: "custom",
			action: function customFunction(editor){
				// Add your own code
			},
			className: "fa fa-star",
			title: "Custom Button",
		},
		"|", // Separator
		...
	],
});

Keyboard shortcuts

SimpleMDE comes with an array of predefined keyboard shortcuts, but they can be altered with a configuration option. The list of default ones is as follows:

Shortcut Action
Cmd-' "toggleBlockquote"
Cmd-B "toggleBold"
Cmd-E "cleanBlock"
Cmd-H "toggleHeadingSmaller"
Cmd-I "toggleItalic"
Cmd-K "drawLink"
Cmd-L "toggleUnorderedList"
Cmd-P "togglePreview"
Cmd-Alt-C "toggleCodeBlock"
Cmd-Alt-I "drawImage"
Cmd-Alt-L "toggleOrderedList"
Shift-Cmd-H "toggleHeadingBigger"
F9 "toggleSideBySide"
F11 "toggleFullScreen"

Here is how you can change a few, while leaving others untouched:

var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	shortcuts: {
		"toggleOrderedList": "Ctrl-Alt-K", // alter the shortcut for toggleOrderedList
		"toggleCodeBlock": null, // unbind Ctrl-Alt-C
		"drawTable": "Cmd-Alt-T" // bind Cmd-Alt-T to drawTable action, which doesn't come with a default shortcut
	}
});

Shortcuts are automatically converted between platforms. If you define a shortcut as "Cmd-B", on PC that shortcut will be changed to "Ctrl-B". Conversely, a shortcut defined as "Ctrl-B" will become "Cmd-B" for Mac users.

The list of actions that can be bound is the same as the list of built-in actions available for toolbar buttons.

Height

To change the minimum height (before it starts auto-growing):

.CodeMirror, .CodeMirror-scroll {
	min-height: 200px;
}

Or, you can keep the height static:

.CodeMirror {
	height: 300px;
}

Event handling

You can catch the following list of events: https://codemirror.net/doc/manual.html#events

var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
simplemde.codemirror.on("change", function(){
	console.log(simplemde.value());
});

Removing SimpleMDE from textarea

You can revert to the initial textarea by calling the toTextArea method. Note that this clears up the autosave (if enabled) associated with it. The textarea will retain any text from the destroyed SimpleMDE instance.

var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
...
simplemde.toTextArea();
simplemde = null;

Useful methods

The following self-explanatory methods may be of use while developing with SimpleMDE.

var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
simplemde.isPreviewActive(); // returns boolean
simplemde.isSideBySideActive(); // returns boolean
simplemde.isFullscreenActive(); // returns boolean
simplemde.clearAutosavedValue(); // no returned value

How it works

SimpleMDE began as an improvement of lepture's Editor project, but has now taken on an identity of its own. It is bundled with CodeMirror and depends on Font Awesome.

CodeMirror is the backbone of the project and parses much of the Markdown syntax as it's being written. This allows us to add styles to the Markdown that's being written. Additionally, a toolbar and status bar have been added to the top and bottom, respectively. Previews are rendered by Marked using GFM.

simplemde-markdown-editor (sparksuite/simplemde-markdown-editor)

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10.1K ·GitHub
Simplemde-markdown-editor
What is this?SimpleMDE is a simple, embeddable JavaScript Markdown editor — a drop-in replacement for a textarea with a WYSIWYG-style toolbar, live syntax styling, built-in autosaving, and spell checking.
Is it a library I embed in my own site, or a standalone app?It is a JavaScript library for web pages: you include it and point it at a textarea, and the textarea becomes the editor. There is no app or backend component to run.
How do I add it to a page?Install via npm, bower, or the jsDelivr CDN, then load SimpleMDE on the first textarea on the page — or target a specific element through plain JavaScript or jQuery.
Does the page need anything else for it to work?Nothing extra for the core: CodeMirror comes bundled with the project and does the live syntax parsing, while Font Awesome supplies the toolbar icons.
Are there features that don't work everywhere out of the box?A few: code highlighting in previews needs highlight.js added to your page yourself (off by default), the side-by-side and fullscreen modes are disabled on mobile, and jsDelivr can lag a few days behind the latest release.
Is it meant for Markdown experts or for people new to it?Both, but it leans beginner-friendly: toolbar buttons and shortcuts let people unfamiliar with Markdown syntax write it anyway, while experts keep keyboard shortcuts and direct control.
Is there a desktop or mobile version, or is it browser-only?It runs entirely in the browser — there is no desktop or mobile app; you embed it in any page that can load JavaScript.
Why did the author build this instead of a regular WYSIWYG editor or plain Markdown?The README argues that WYSIWYG editors producing HTML are often complex and buggy, while raw Markdown makes little visual sense to an unfamiliar user until they hit preview. SimpleMDE was designed to bridge that gap.
Does it save my work automatically?Yes — autosave is built in: set enabled to true, give the editor a uniqueId, and it saves your text every 10 seconds by default and loads it back later. The draft is forgotten once the form it sits in is submitted.
Can I customize the toolbar and keyboard shortcuts?Yes — pass the toolbar option to choose which buttons appear (or hide individual ones with hideIcons), and rebind shortcuts in the config. Shortcuts convert between platforms automatically: Cmd-B becomes Ctrl-B on PC.
How do I get the text out of the editor?Use the get/set content methods to read or replace the Markdown, set an initialValue for the starting text, and call toTextArea() to remove the editor and restore the original textarea with its text intact. Setting forceSync to true stores changes in the textarea immediately.
What are similar projects?quill, milkdown, pell, medium-editor, summernote, trix, tiptap, editor.md
Which topics is it in?rich-text-editor, markdown-editor, wysiwyg, text-editor, editor, javascript-library, developers, markdown, web-development, free, npm, frontend
Creator
sparksuite
Size
9.1 MB
Stars
10.1K
Updated
CommitJun 14Release1.11.2Jun 14
Age
11y
Commits · 90 Days