Natural Edit Contrib

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Description

The NatEdit is an wiki editor that helps in learning the TWikiMarkup Language by providing a GUI. By design, this is not a wysiwyg editor that tries to generate the correct TML in the background. Instead, the user is still in charge of writing correct wiki markup but with a bit more of assistance as a plain browser textarea. Therefor this editor helps to lower the learning curve but will not get in your way once you are aware of wiki markup.

NatEdit heavily depends on javascript. Hence browsers without javascript are not supported.

Screenshot

Configuration

To enable the NatEditContrib add the identifier natedit to the SKIN variable in TWikiPreferences or WebPreferences. So in case you are using PatternSkin this is

   * Set SKIN = natedit,pattern

Customization

Theming

The editor can be themed using CSS. The actual theme is set using the NATEDIT_THEME variable which defaults to

   * Set NATEDIT_THEME = default

This value determines the subdirectory under /twiki/pub/TWiki/NatEditContrib which contains a styles.css file and a bunch of button images. You can create a new theme "foo" by creating a CSS file /twiki/pub/TWiki/NatEditContrib/foo/styles.css and setting

   * Set NATEDIT_THEME = foo

See the default theme for the CSS classes used for the individual buttons.

Word theme

The Word theme for NatEditContrib uses not only a custom CSS style, but also a customisation of the icon order, and customised Help.

This is acheived through the use of the TWiki Template path - over-riding the original natedit edittoolbar, a natedit theme, and a custom help text topic.

Create new table can either be a static 3x3 table, or, If you install and enable JQueryPlugin, will use a popup dialog that lets the user choose the number of rows and columns.

   * Set SKIN = word.natedit,natedit,pattern
   * Set NATEDIT_THEME = word
   * Set NATEDIT_HELPTEXT = TWiki.NatEditWordHelpText

Markup

All buttons produce a certain amout of TWiki markup or HTML inserting it at the current position in the textarea. This can be configured to your needs using a set of preference variables. Please add them to your TWikiPreferences or WebPreferences to override the build-in defaults.

The NATEDIT_... variables have the format

'<open-tag>', '<sample-text>', '<close-tag>'

When the respective button is pressed, <open-tag><sample-text><close-tag> will be inserted. If there's a current selection, then it will be used instead of the <sample-text>.

If you want to customize the help text in the bottom part of the editor then set the variable NATEDIT_HELPTEXT to the name of a topic that contains the help text. The default is

* Set NATEDIT_HELPTEXT = %TWIKIWEB%.NatEditHelpText

Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server where TWiki is running.

Like many other TWiki extensions, this module is shipped with a fully automatic installer script written using the BuildContrib.

• If you have TWiki 4.2 or later, you can install from the configure interface (Go to Plugins->Find More Extensions)
  • See the installation supplement on TWiki.org for more information.
• If you have any problems, then you can still install manually from the command-line:
  1. Download one of the .zip or .tgz archives
  2. Unpack the archive in the root directory of your TWiki installation.
  3. Run the installer script ( perl <module>_installer )
  4. Run configure and enable the module, if it is a plugin.
  5. Repeat for any missing dependencies.
• If you are still having problems, then instead of running the installer script:
  1. Make sure that the file permissions allow the webserver user to access all files.
  2. Check in any installed files that have existing ,v files in your existing install (take care not to lock the files when you check in)
  3. Manually edit LocalSite.cfg to set any configuration variables.

JSUnitContrib? based Unit tests

There is a small set of browser based unit tests defined in NatEditContribJSUnitTests that can be run as a problem diagnosing tool. These require the installation of TWiki:Plugins.JSUnitContrib, and then can be run from Run all tests

Testing has been carried out using Safari, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer.

Contrib Info

Sponsored by Trivadis AG & TWIKI.NET

Author:	TWiki:Main/MichaelDaum
Copyright ©:	2007-2008 Michael Daum http://michaeldaumconsulting.com
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Version:	v1.60
Change History:
03 Jan 2008	added beforeSubmitHandler to give TWiki:Plugins/EditChapterPlugin a chance to hook in
13 Nov 2007	fixed calculation of textarea offset while autoresizing it to window height, fixed initialization not to use Behaviour anymore, fixed autohide/showing of word toolbar together with tinymce
08 Oct 2007	fixed word toolbar together with TinyMCEPlugin; fixed launching a popup by not relying on twiki's javascript; using css sprites instead of individual buttons
02 Oct 2007	be compatible with TinyMCEPlugin
23 Aug 2007	bug fixes for IE6&7 - Item4430
04 Aug 2007	added Word theme added bullet and numbered lists buttons & Javascript added create Table button and Javascript work done by TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit DistributedINFORMATION for TWIKI.NET
21 May 2007	fixed display of toolbar buttons
01 May 2007	made natedit themable
27 Apr 2007	made all button output configurable; standardized their defaults; fixed javascript in preview mode; added support for TWiki:Plugins/RevCommentPlugin; added monospace button; reworked some of the icons
23 Apr 2007	fixed IE freezing on resizing the edit window
05 Apr 2007	added support for EditContrib and editform
04 Apr 2007	added css file; added monospace <-> propotional font toggles; made signature text customizable; minor refactoring of the javascript; removed non-standard tags FORMATLIST and IFDEFINED
03 Apr 2007	added NATEDIT_HELPTEXT variable; be backwards compatible to PatternSkin (TWiki-4.1.2)
31 Mar 2007	Initial version
Dependencies:	Name Version Description TWiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin >=0.3 Required. Download from the TWiki:Plugins/JQueryPlugin add-on.
Perl Version:	-
Plugin Home:	TWiki:Plugins/NatEditContrib
Feedback:	TWiki:Plugins/NatEditContribDev
Appraisal:	TWiki:Plugins/NatEditContribAppraisal

-- TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum - 03 Jan 2008