SimpleMDE - Markdown Editor
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. SimpleMDE is one of the first editors to feature both built-in autosaving and spell checking.
Why not a WYSIWYG editor or pure Markdown?
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. SimpleMDE has been designed to bridge this gap for non-technical users who are less familiar with or just learning Markdown syntax.
Install
Via npm.
npm install simplemde --save
Via bower.
bower install simplemde --save
Via jsDelivr. Please note, jsDelivr may take a few days to update to the latest release.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/simplemde/latest/simplemde.min.css">
<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/simplemde/latest/simplemde.min.js"></script>
Quick start
After installing, load SimpleMDE on the first textarea on a page
<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
</script>
Using a specific textarea
Pure JavaScript method
<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({ element: document.getElementById("MyID") });
</script>
jQuery method
<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({ element: $("#MyID")[0] });
</script>
Get/set the content
simplemde.value();
simplemde.value("This text will appear in the editor");
Configuration
- autoDownloadFontAwesome: If set to
true
, force downloads Font Awesome (used for icons). If set to false, prevents downloading. Defaults toundefined
, which will intelligently check whether Font Awesome has already been included, then download accordingly. - autofocus: If set to
true
, autofocuses the editor. Defaults tofalse
. - autosave: Saves the text that's being written. It will forget the text when the form is submitted.
- enabled: If set to
true
, autosave the text. Defaults tofalse
. - delay: Delay between saves, in milliseconds. Defaults to
10000
(10s). - unique_id: You must set a unique identifier so that SimpleMDE can autosave. Something that separates this from other textareas.
- enabled: If set to
- element: The DOM element for the textarea to use. Defaults to the first textarea on the page.
- hideIcons: An array of icon names to hide. Can be used to hide specific icons without completely customizing the toolbar.
- indentWithTabs: If set to
false
, indent using spaces instead of tabs. Defaults totrue
. - initialValue: If set, will customize the initial value of the editor.
- lineWrapping: If set to
false
, disable line wrapping. Defaults totrue
. - parsingConfig: Adjust settings for parsing the Markdown during editing (not previewing).
- allowAtxHeaderWithoutSpace: If set to
true
, will render headers without a space after the#
. Defaults tofalse
. - strikethrough: If set to
false
, will not process GFM strikethrough syntax. Defaults totrue
. - underscoresBreakWords: If set to
true
, let underscores be a delimiter for separating words. Defaults tofalse
.
- allowAtxHeaderWithoutSpace: If set to
- previewRender: Custom function for parsing the plaintext Markdown and returning HTML. Used when user previews.
- renderingConfig: Adjust settings for parsing the Markdown during previewing (not editing).
- singleLineBreaks: If set to
false
, disable parsing GFM single line breaks. Defaults totrue
. - codeSyntaxHighlighting: If set to
true
, will highlight using highlight.js. Defaults tofalse
. To use this feature you must include highlight.js on your page. 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">
- singleLineBreaks: If set to
- spellChecker: If set to
false
, disable the spell checker. Defaults totrue
. - status: If set to
false
, hide the status bar. Defaults totrue
.- Optionally, you can set an array of status bar elements to include, and in what order.
- tabSize: If set, customize the tab size. Defaults to
2
. - toolbar: If set to
false
, hide the toolbar. Defaults to the array of icons. - toolbarTips: If set to
false
, disable toolbar button tips. Defaults totrue
.
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
autofocus: true,
autosave: {
enabled: true,
unique_id: "MyUniqueID",
delay: 1000,
},
element: document.getElementById("MyID"),
hideIcons: ["guide", "heading"],
indentWithTabs: false,
initialValue: "Hello world!",
lineWrapping: false,
parsingConfig: {
allowAtxHeaderWithoutSpace: true,
strikethrough: false,
underscoresBreakWords: true,
},
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...";
},
renderingConfig: {
singleLineBreaks: false,
codeSyntaxHighlighting: true,
},
spellChecker: false,
status: false,
status: ['autosave', 'lines', 'words', 'cursor'], // Optional usage
tabSize: 4,
toolbar: false,
toolbarTips: false,
});
Toolbar icons
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. The Ctrl
and Alt
in the title tags will be changed automatically to their Mac equivalents when needed. Additionally, you can add a separator between any icons by adding "|"
to the toolbar array.
Name | Action | Tooltip Class |
---|---|---|
bold | toggleBold | Bold (Ctrl+B) fa fa-bold |
italic | toggleItalic | Italic (Ctrl+I) fa fa-italic |
strikethrough | toggleStrikethrough | Strikethrough fa fa-strikethrough |
heading | toggleHeadingSmaller | Heading (Ctrl+H) fa fa-header |
heading-smaller | toggleHeadingSmaller | Smaller Heading (Ctrl+H) fa fa-header |
heading-bigger | toggleHeadingBigger | Bigger Heading (Shift+Ctrl+H) 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 (Ctrl+Alt+C) fa fa-code |
quote | toggleBlockquote | Quote (Ctrl+') fa fa-quote-left |
unordered-list | toggleUnorderedList | Generic List (Ctrl+L) fa fa-list-ul |
ordered-list | toggleOrderedList | Numbered List (Ctrl+Alt+L) fa fa-list-ol |
link | drawLink | Create Link (Ctrl+K) fa fa-link |
image | drawImage | Insert Image (Ctrl+Alt+I) fa fa-picture-o |
horizontal-rule | drawHorizontalRule | Insert Horizontal Line fa fa-minus |
preview | togglePreview | Toggle Preview (Ctrl+P) fa fa-eye no-disable |
side-by-side | toggleSideBySide | Toggle Side by Side (F9) fa fa-columns no-disable no-mobile |
fullscreen | toggleFullScreen | Toggle Fullscreen (F11) 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 simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
toolbar: ["bold", "italic", "heading", "|", "quote"],
});
// Customize all information and/or add your own icons
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
toolbar: [{
name: "bold",
action: toggleBold,
className: "fa fa-bold",
title: "Bold (Ctrl+B)",
},
"|", // Separator
...
],
});
Height
To change the minimum height (before it starts auto-growing):
.CodeMirror, .CodeMirror-scroll {
min-height: 200px;
}
Or, you can keep the height static:
.CodeMirror {
height: 300px;
}
Event handling
You can catch the following list of events: https://codemirror.net/doc/manual.html#events
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
simplemde.codemirror.on("change", function(){
console.log(simplemde.value());
});
State methods
The following methods will let you check on the state of the editor.
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
simplemde.isPreviewActive();
simplemde.isSideBySideActive();
simplemde.isFullscreenActive();
How it works
SimpleMDE is an improvement of lepture's Editor project and includes a great many number of changes. 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.
What's changed?
As mentioned earlier, SimpleMDE is an improvement of lepture's Editor project. So you might be wondering, what's changed? Quite a bit actually. Here's some notable changes:
- Upgraded from CodeMirror 3 to CodeMirror 5
- Many changes to the style, appearance, and user friendliness
- Interface more closely resembles Bootstrap
- Now mobile friendly
- Option to autosave the text as you type
- Now spell checks what you write
- The text editor now automatically grows as you type more
- Fixed a large amount of bugs
- Switched to Font Awesome icons
- Improved preview rendering in many ways
- Improved as-you-type appearance of headers and code blocks
- Simplified the toolbar
- Many new options during instantiation
- New icons and tooltips
- Additional keyboard shortcuts