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Eric
03-19-2004, 08:27 PM
I just finish a project where the client needed to export job postings to Flipdog.com in HTML format.

I asked Chris to look into the Google crystal ball and he came up with the Spaw Editor http://www.solmetra.com/ .

What a great find. It only works in IE 5.5 or above but who cares. Its not an applet or an activex control, its built around the mshtml control provided within the browser. It can be manipulated with PHP and Javascript and is VERY configurable. The documentation is a little sparse and accessing the text via Javascript can be quirky but there is nothing that you can't work around.

The interface has 2 modes, design and html. If your users are familiar with Word or Frontpage then they will feel very comfortable with the interface. There is also an ASP version for those of you who haven't totally disconnected from "The Beast".

If you have a project in mind for the Spaw editor just reply to this post and I'll be happy to explain what pitfalls I ran into and how I compensated for them. I should also note that a lot can be learned by viewing html and reviewing the javascript and html code that is spit out by adding the control to your page.

datasavant
04-28-2004, 09:34 PM
Eric, I am very interested in spaw. I have been searching for a CMS solution for some time now and think spaw may actually be all I need. Any insights/learnings you would care to share would be greatly appreciated.

Chris
04-29-2004, 01:10 PM
I have been searching for a CMS solution

Spaws is not really a CMS per se. It is very similar to MS Word for a text box in a form. It gives you the WYSIWYG editor so you can bold, underline, italics, etc.

Speaking of CMSs, ExpressionEngine (http://www.pmachine.com/expressionengine/) looks very nice.

Upsidedown Designer
04-30-2004, 12:12 AM
DevEdit (http://www.devedit.com/) works pretty well. The new version has some really nice image insert functionality. It has both ASP and PHP versions but is limited to IE.

HTMLArea (http://www.interactivetools.com/products/htmlarea/) supports both IE 5.5+ and Mozilla 1.3 (FireFox). It's more barebones but is the best I've found for cross OS stuff.

Chris
04-30-2004, 12:59 AM
Another one that looks decent is EditWorksPro.

http://www.editworkspro.com

Again, this is limited to I.E. 5.5+

Chris
05-04-2004, 12:16 AM
Another find...

http://www.fredck.com/fckeditor/

This HTML text editor brings to the web many of the powerful functionalities of known desktop editors like Word. It's really lightweight and doesn't require any kind of installation in the client computer. As it is Open Source, you are allowed to use it for free wherever you want.

Chris
05-06-2004, 12:25 AM
Here is a nice tutorial on htmlArea:

Using htmlArea and a Database to Maintain Content on a Website

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/HTML/Using-htmlArea-and-a-Database-to-Maintain-Content-on-a-Website/

datasavant
05-06-2004, 09:39 AM
Thanks Chris. I have already played with fckeditor and plan to implement it soon. This article will help.