Obout ASP.NET HTML Editor

Question

We are using Obout's ASP.NET HTML Editor on these forums. I am trying to get feedback from you guys. What do you guys think about it? Any new features you would like to get or any features do not like?

Thanks!
Mahesh

Felipe Ramos · Answer

Mahesh I think for the most part the do the job, but if we can get something that better supports tag it would be nice.

Ilya Butorine · Answer

Thanks everyone for your comments and recommendations. Sam, you have all the valid points and we'll see what we can accomplish in the next few days about it. We think that if C# Corner implemented the newer editor version, then everyone would have a better experience. Mahesh, if you need our help, you know how to contact me :) I would love to hear more ideas or comments. Don't be afraid to bash us. That's what makes the product better at the end.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Monday, we will have new version of Editor implemented (same on Obout website). Let's see how it is and get some feedback on this editor. We will go from there.

Suthish Nair · Answer

Sam, the big problem is Browser support. If you want to insert a pre tag then that insert command is different in all other browsers. I was experienced a lot of it, almost got it there and implementing now. HTML Editor is a big big bad thing...

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Okay now for supporting code. That can be done in stages. The first stage should be to not mess with the pre tags. The pre tags must be allowed to work the way the standard says. We should not have to put the tags at the end of each line; the lines should be formatted as they exist. The data between tags should not be messed with. That is how the tags are supposed to work! Many editors have a problem with tab characters. Most editors convert them to spaces. I think that is acceptable as a first stage; just fix the other things above and get the tags working the way they work in HTML that has not been edited by the editor. A huge improvement would be to support tab characters in the sense that code is formatted the way we expect it to be and it has tabs in it when we copy the code to the clipboard. If that can be accomplished then that can be quite impressive. It is difficult to do due to the way HTML is designed but it is a challenge with significant benefits when it is solved. Tab characters could be converted to/from &#09; or something like that. I hope the editor does not mess up &#09; but it is ampersand sharp zero nine semicolon, which is HTML code for a tab character.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Okay I wrote a list. Let me check it again to see who is naughty and who is nice; ooops, different list. One thing that needs to be at the top of the list of requirements for a nice, considerate and professional editor is that it must retain the contents when the page is navigated away from and then back. In other words, if I accidentally click a link right now while editing, then instantaneously realize I made a big mistake, ten click the back button or whatever, then all my time eidting has been wasted. My work gets eaten and is gone forever. Many editors (edit software) has this problem but many have solved the problem. A good editor will have that problem solved. An excellent editor will even keep a backup of the contents being edited. I suggested that years ago; I think for at least the MSDN forums and perhaps the CodeGuru forums before that. I got no respect for that idea but I think that the stackoverflow.com forum software has that feature now. So I will post this much now so people can vote on it.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Good feedback guys! We have Obout's attention now so let the issues ( RELATED TO EDITOR ONLY ) keep coming and see if we can get the fixed. All non-editor issues must be posted separately. We have a different thread for that :)

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Thanks Victor. Good feedback. Is it possible for you to provide us the Editor you are using on your website? You can bundeled it as a Obout Editor Pro with those additional features? Best, Mahesh

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Victor, you seem to be trying to say that it is not the fault of the obout editor. Perhaps this discussion is getting off-topic for this thread and if so then we need to create a new thread for the obout editor. Wherever the problem is, it needs to be fixed. I am assuming that the problem is that the developers for this web site are having problems fixing it, but in my opinion it should be easy to fix and since it is not easy it is the editor software that is the problem. If you are not in a position to fix either the vendor's software or the way it is used for this web sitge, then it is not productive to continue here. If you are in a position to fix the obout software, then it needs to be fixed. It will make a bad impression on anyone that uses the software with IE if it has this problem.

Abhimanyu K Vatsa · Answer

yes Mahesh, this is better than current one. http://www.obout.com/Obout.Ajax.UI/HTMLEditor/examples/Customize_OboutForum.aspx

Victor · Answer

The obout Inc. uses its new editor (AJAX Editor for ASP.NET 3.5) on its own forum . The live example is present on their site, it has custom buttons to work with code highlighting. Also the version of Editor used for this forum has limitations on some browsers use. The new Editor has no such limitations (works fine with Google Chrome, Safari and Opera). Maybe to use it?

Abhimanyu K Vatsa · Answer

Please note following: (i) Using Google Chrome when i try to upload image, upload dialog box appears very bottom. (sometimes it works good, strange) Look at image. (ii) i think no use of div, maybe you guys uses (iii) tag or Syntax Highlighter must require (we are coders not we are writing history or civics here and we always love to look code something different like real) (iv) quoting the thread reply is also important for us (normally we uses, even me @name-of-guy: comment), i think this is not good practice. this is not mandatory even like my (iii) point. (v) Spell checker is good, but i can't see the pop-up like ms word when we right click using mouse. i think that's very quick way to correct the word. (i'm using g chrome) (vi) When I try to cut/copy/paste some text from this editor here, shows dialog on top and i can't copy or cut text from editor here. try yourself using chrome. look at image. One more thing guys, we should have multiple 'Mark As Answer' feature, maybe this is outside editor issue. Sometimes even i ask question then many of guys replies correct answer but problem 'how i mark all of them?' We can't ignore them. I'll be using Google Chrome and we should not ignore this browser too. Reply some quote for me here....most welcome. Cheers!! Have a Happy Coding Guys.

Suthish Nair · Answer

I even forwarded a syntax highlighter with html editor, to the development team. But no reply from them. If we want to work together on that, we can easily solve the problem. The project i developed was not that so good, need more alterations, optimization etc. I thinking of uploading the project as article here, so anyone can download and change and make a good one. Sam and I done some testing, at least its working on some browsers :)

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I assume that enabling "Allow Programmatic clipboard access" is something I am supposed to do in my system. However I have never seen a need to do that in any other editor. It obviously needs to be fixed in the editor software.

Victor · Answer

About pasting into Editor (IE): look at this page .

Sam Hobbs · Answer

A code tag would help significantly although I assume it would be relatively easy to add that ourselves. It is my understanding that the same editor is used for articles and a code tag would really help for the articles, for many reasons. One of many ways that code tags would help for articles is that it would help for ignoring code when counting words in articles. There is one thing I thought would have been fixed a long time ago. Please, please get rid of the message box we get every time we paste into the editor window! Something else that would help me is a find-and-replace but I assume that won't benefit most others. To the extent it could be used by authors writing articles, it could be useful for others.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

I agree. Code tag would be nice.

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