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. InscrybMDE is one of the first editors to feature both built-in autosaving and spell checking.
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. InscrybMDE has been designed to bridge this gap for non-technical users who are less familiar with or just learning Markdown syntax.
Via npm.
npm install inscrybmde --save
Via jsDelivr.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/inscrybmde@1.11.6/dist/inscrybmde.min.css">
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/inscrybmde@1.11.6/dist/inscrybmde.min.js"></script>
After installing, load InscrybMDE on the first textarea on a page
<script>
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE();
</script>
Pure JavaScript method
<script>
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE({ element: document.getElementById("MyID") });
</script>
jQuery method
<script>
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE({ element: $("#MyID")[0] });
</script>
inscrybmde.value();
inscrybmde.value("This text will appear in the editor");
true
, force downloads Font Awesome (used for icons). If set to false
, prevents downloading. Defaults to undefined
, which will intelligently check whether Font Awesome has already been included, then download accordingly.true
, autofocuses the editor. Defaults to false
.true
, the editor will be active right away. Otherwise it starts as a normal textarea and has to be activated with "toEditor". Defaults to true
.true
, autosave the text. Defaults to false
.10000
(10s).**
or __
. Defaults to **
.```
or ~~~
. Defaults to ```
.*
or _
. Defaults to *
.true
, force text changes made in InscrybMDE to be immediately stored in original textarea. Defaults to false
.false
, indent using spaces instead of tabs. Defaults to true
.["[", "](http://)"]
.
false
, disable line wrapping. Defaults to true
."500px"
. Dafaults to "300px"
.true
.true
, will render headers without a space after the #
. Defaults to false
.false
, will not process GFM strikethrough syntax. Defaults to true
.true
, let underscores be a delimiter for separating words. Defaults to false
.true
, a JS alert window appears asking for the link or image URL. Defaults to false
.URL of the image:
.URL for the link:
.true
, will highlight using highlight.js. Defaults to false
. To use this feature you must include highlight.js on your page or pass in using the hljs
option. For example, include the script and the CSS files like:<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/highlight.js/latest/highlight.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/highlight.js/latest/styles/github.min.css">
window.hljs
), you can provide an instance here. Defaults to undefined
.renderingConfig
options will take precedence.false
, disable parsing GFM single line breaks. Defaults to true
.false
, disable the spell checker. Defaults to true
.false
, hide the status bar. Defaults to the array of built-in status bar items.
false
, remove the CodeMirror-selectedtext
class from selected lines. Defaults to true
.false
, disable syncing scroll in side by side mode. Defaults to true
.2
.false
, hide the toolbar. Defaults to the array of icons.false
, disable toolbar button tips. Defaults to true
.// Most options demonstrate the non-default behavior
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE({
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,
minHeight: "500px",
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,
promptTexts: {
image: "Custom prompt for URL:",
link: "Custom prompt for URL:",
},
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,
syncSideBySidePreviewScroll: false,
tabSize: 4,
toolbar: false,
toolbarTips: false,
});
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 inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE({
toolbar: ["bold", "italic", "heading", "|", "quote"],
});
// Customize all information and/or add your own icons
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE({
toolbar: [{
name: "bold",
action: InscrybMDE.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
...
],
});
InscrybMDE 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 inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE({
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.
You can catch the following list of events: https://codemirror.net/doc/manual.html#events
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE();
inscrybmde.codemirror.on("change", function(){
console.log(inscrybmde.value());
});
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 InscrybMDE instance.
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE();
...
inscrybmde.toTextArea();
inscrybmde = null;
Once you reverted to the initial textarea you can reactivate InscrybMDE with the toEditor
method.
This is also useful if the autoRender
option is set to false to not activate the editor when instantiating InscrybMDE.
InscrybMDE will retain the contents of the textarea.
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE();
...
inscrybmde.toTextArea();
...
inscrybmde.toEditor();
toTextArea
and toEditor
can be used to create a checkbox toggle for the user to toggle between the InscrybMDE editor and a stzandard textarea. Example:
JQuery example:
<input type="checkbox" id="extendedEditor" name="extendedEditor"/>
var showExtendedEditor = localStorage.getItem("showExtendedEditor");
if(showExtendedEditor === undefined)
showExtendedEditor = "1";
$('#extendedEditor').prop("checked", showExtendedEditor === "1");
$('#extendedEditor').change(function(e){
var sel = $(e.target).is(":checked");
if(sel) {
inscrybmde.toEditor();
showExtendedEditor = "1";
}
else {
inscrybmde.toTextArea();
showExtendedEditor = "0";
}
localStorage.setItem("showExtendedEditor",showExtendedEditor);
})
The following self-explanatory methods may be of use while developing with InscrybMDE.
var inscrybmde = new InscrybMDE();
inscrybmde.isPreviewActive(); // returns boolean
inscrybmde.isSideBySideActive(); // returns boolean
inscrybmde.isFullscreenActive(); // returns boolean
inscrybmde.clearAutosavedValue(); // no returned value
InscrybMDE is a fork of SimpleMDE. 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.