Legacy HTML content is imported to Page Builder as HTML code, not a Text element

[adamlavery]

Summary

Prior to Page Builder, all rich content was managed with the TinyMCE editor. Essentially it is stored as constrained raw HTML and presented for visual editing. If we enable Page Builder then all legacy content is imported as HTML code. Given legacy content is just HTML that could be edited in TinyMCE, what has it not been imported as a Text element? What was the rationale behind this?

That way legacy content could continue to be managed as the single text block it was previously. Only if enhanced layout is required would it need to be extended in Page Builder. As it stands, we cannot enable Page Builder for existing sites because then all rich content would have to be reimplemented in Page Builder for non-developer end-users to work on it.

Examples

Enable Page Builder on an existing site that hasn't used it before. All rich content is now HTML code and effectively non-editable by end users.

Proposed solution

Import legacy content as a single Text element, allowing it be managed as previously.

Release note

Better support for switching from legacy TinyMCE to Page Builder.

Triage and priority

• [ ] Severity: S0 - Affects critical data or functionality and leaves users without workaround.
• [ ] Severity: S1 - Affects critical data or functionality and forces users to employ a workaround.
• [X] Severity: S2 - Affects non-critical data or functionality and forces users to employ a workaround.
• [ ] Severity: S3 - Affects non-critical data or functionality and does not force users to employ a workaround.
• [ ] Severity: S4 - Affects aesthetics, professional look and feel, “quality” or “usability”.

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[engcom-Hotel]

@magento give me 2.4-develop instance

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Hi @engcom-Hotel. Thank you for your request. I'm working on Magento instance for you.

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[engcom-Hotel]

Hello @adamlavery,

Thanks for the report and collaboration!

We have tried to reproduce the issue in the latest development branch i.e. 2.4-develop but it seems the issue is not reproducible for us. We have followed the below steps to reproduce the issue:

1. Create a rich content page in the TinyMCE editor, the page looks like the below:

2. Check the page at the front end.

3. Enable PageBuilder from admin panel.

4. Again try to edit the same page from the admin panel. This time we can see the pagebuilder instead of TinyMCE. Please refer to the below screenshot:

5. When clicking on the Edit with PageBuilder button, we can see the HTML to edit the page. Please refer to the below screencast for the same:

https://github.com/magento/magento2/assets/51681618/e92bff1b-2c68-4155-bb43-e0e8d1d1dc89

Let us know if we have missed anything.

Thanks

[adamlavery]

Exactly - you have demonstrated the issue. Legacy content is imported as an HTML Code element not as a Text element. End users are typically not HTML literate - they want a visual editor for their content, as they had before. Sure they can change it, add a Text element, copy the HTML Code into it to be able to edit it as they did before, then remove the code element. That's a lot of effort for every bit of rich content.

It makes a great deal more sense to import legacy content as a Text element, which comes with a WYSIWYG editor, so end users can manage their rich content immediately as they did before Page Builder. If they want to enhance the content using the features of Page Builder they can. But mostly they will be happy with the single text element they had before, at least to start with.

If there are tags that were allowed in TinyMCE but are not allowed in a PB Text element then use HTML code, otherwise if it's just simple HTML use the Text element.

Note there is another bug report still outstanding on tag validation - it still doesn't allow media inserts. https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/36457

[engcom-Hotel]

Thanks @adamlavery, that makes sense to me now. Confirming the issue.

Thanks.

[github-jira-sync-bot]

:white_check_mark: Jira issue https://jira.corp.adobe.com/browse/AC-12282 is successfully created for this GitHub issue.

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:white_check_mark: Confirmed by @engcom-Hotel. Thank you for verifying the issue.
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