Working with Rich Text Editor - Custom Configuration, Toolbars and Plugins - Part 2

Modifying the Enter key (line breaking) behavior:

There was a question in the OTN forum asking if we could alter the default behavior of the ENTER key in the context of the CKEditor (RTE field) content area. Say, we want to change it to insert a line break <br/> element instead of the default paragraph <p> element?

We can refer to the following resource for the configuration change that is required:
Enter Key | CKEditor.com

In my previous post on CKEditor and RTE fields in PeopleSoft, I detailed how we can reference a custom configuration for RTE fields.

Assuming that we already have a custom configuration associated with our RTE field, we just need to add this line to our configuration (HTML) to change the ENTER key behavior to <br/> instead of <p>.

CKEDITOR.config.enterMode = CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR;

Setting a Default Style (Font) for the CKEditor:

There was also a follow up question asked which was removed by the author later. I am assuming that the author found a solution/workaround. But I have a copy of the question which describes the requirement.

If we enter any text in the Rich Text Editor as follows:

It gets stored in the database without any default styling:

This behavior might be desired in most cases but the requirement is to set a default font for the paragraph element so that it gets stored as follows (without users having to manually select the default font every time):

I tried to search for a custom configuration that allows us to set a default font to the editor and found the following useful resources:

http://ckeditor.com/forums/CKEditor-3.x/Setting-Default-Font-and-FontSize-Setting-Default-Labels
http://ckeditor.com/forums/CKEditor-3.x/CSS-style-sheet-for-content-area
http://ckeditor.com/forums/CKEditor-3.x/How-do-you-set-default-font-and-default-font-size
https://www.cotonti.com/forums?m=posts&q=6421

Based on a popular suggestion, I tried adding the following line to the custom RTE configuration:
CKEDITOR.config.font_defaultLabel = 'Arial';

But font_defaultLabel property only sets the default label for the Font in the RTE Toolbar but it does not affect the contents of the editor in any way unless we explicitly select the Font (manually).

The only workaround that I found was to write a 'script' to initialize a placeholder text and wrap it around a <span> attribute with the desired styling. This would make sure that the content area gets initialized with a default font.

Refer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16339258/ckeditor-4-how-to-set-default-font

I adjusted the 'script' to only trigger the default font initialization when there is no existing content in the editor (on add mode). This would ensure that we are not overwriting any of the existing contents with the placeholder text.

Script for reference:

CKEDITOR.on( 'instanceReady', function( ev ) {

     if (ev.editor.getData() == '') {
             ev.editor.setData('<span style="font-family:georgia,serif">PlaceHolder&nbsp;Text</span>');     
     };
});

Custom RTE Configuration:

Results - On Add Mode:

Results - After replacing the place holder text:

Results - Contents in the database:

Results - On Update Mode:

Oracle SQL: REGEX_REPLACE Function

Recently, I participated in a forum discussion (Higher Education User Group) where someone asked if there is a way (and if so how) to strip out HTML elements from a long character field. This is mainly for scenarios where a long character field is used to store rich text enabled data (which contains HTML elements). And while querying the data from this field either using PS Query or SQL the requirement is to only retrieve the "plain text".

I found that we could use a delivered Oracle SQL function called REGEX_REPLACE to pattern match and replace contents of a string.

Here are some examples of how to use this function:

If we want to mainly get rid of HTML elements then we can use the following pattern:

select REGEXP_REPLACE(DESCRLONG, '<[^>]+>|\&(nbsp;)|\&(nbsp)|(amp;)', '',1,0, 'i'), DESCRLONG from PSMSGCATDEFN where descrlong like '%<%>%';

If we additionally want to get rid of contents inside script/style elements then we can use the following pattern:

select REGEXP_REPLACE(REGEXP_REPLACE(REGEXP_REPLACE(DESCRLONG, '<script[^>]*>.*</script>', '',1,0,'in'), '<style[^>]*>.*</style>', '',1,0,'in'),'<[^>]+>|\&(nbsp;)|\&(nbsp)|(amp;)', '',1,0,'i'), DESCRLONG from spsoft.PSMSGCATDEFN where descrlong like '%<%>%';

Note:
- You will need to improvise the regex pattern for those cases which are not trapped in the above sample SQLs.
- This function REGEX_REPLACE only works on Oracle databases.
- I have to admit that I am not a RegEx expert and received help from some very talented colleagues who helped me with the second (more complex) SQL.

Fluid - WYSIHTML5 Editor Prototype!

I recently answered a question on the OTN forums related to rich text editor in PeopleSoft. Since PeopleTools 8.50, PeopleSoft has leveraged using CKEditor for rich text editor (aka RTE) configurations options in App Designer. As a follow up to the OTN, I wrote a small post on how to create and use custom RTE configurations, toolbars and plugins.

CKEditor in PeopleTools provides a way to create and work with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) rich text editor.

This has found its way to several use cases ranging from but not limited to:
-    Rich text configuration fields which are then used for rich text display in HTMLAREAs
-    Content source for rich text enabled emails
-    Content source for rich text enabled BI Publisher reports
-    Content source for Enterprise Components Forms Builder – Instructions
-    Content source for rich text enabled Student Activity Guide (Configurable) Pages such as Agreement Pages, Start and Complete Pages

While this is a great utility, it is a WYSIWYG editor which means that it might only be appropriate for Classic pages and might not be suitable for Fluid. I was curious to see how a rich text enabled field appears on a Fluid page and based on my tests it appears that Fluid does not support rich text enabled fields.

RTE Field on a Fluid Page:

Results: RTE toolbar does not appear in Fluid.

We can also confirm that rich text is not supported for Fluid in PeopleBooks.

Home > PeopleSoft > PeopleTools 8.54 > Fluid User Interface Developer’s Guide > Considerations for PeopleSoft Fluid Application Implementation

We can imagine how RTE powered by CKEditor (WYSIWYG) would introduce several challenges when it comes to incorporating the editor in Fluid. But why not WYSIHTML5 - What You See Is HTML5? :)

So that is how I got started on this little pet project!

I wanted to take the same concept and create a rich text editor that is also responsive (WYSIHTML5). I used an open source project (http://wysihtml.com/) to develop a prototype for a WYSIHTML5 Editor in PeopleSoft (Fluid) that enables Responsive Rich Text.

It is still a prototype so it has a few quirks to be worked around and it is also not a fully functional RTE yet. But I think it is a great start!

Step 1: Load Open Source Project to the Web Server

Based on instructions in the http://wysihtml.com/ I downloaded the open source project (zip file), extracted/unzipped the contents and placed it on the web server.

Path:

<PIA_HOME>/webserv/<DOMAIN>/applications/peoplesoft/PORTAL.war/<site_name>

Contents:

This completes the first step to make the necessary javascripts and stylesheets (amongst other things) available on the web server.

Now moving on to incorporating this in PeopleTools.

Step 2: Create Fluid Page with WYSIHTML5 Editor (Configuration)

Legend:

1. Static HTMLAREA (1) is used to store a javascript function and a button which when invoked transfers the WYSIHTML5 contents in HTMLAREA (4) to an invisible - modifiable by javascript - long edit field (2).

The "csk_div" ID used in var x = document.getElementByID("csk_div"); is referencing an input field (WYSIHTML5 editor) in HTMLAREA (4).

2. Invisible (Modifiable by Javascript) field to temporarily store/move (PreSave) the WYSIHTML5 contents from HTMLAREA (4) to the component buffer. This helps with sending the HTML5 contents to the server during the save (3). This is kind of a hack/temporary workaround and there should be a cleaner way to get this to work. It is a "to-do" item to make this more efficient.

 
3. Save button to push data (component buffer) in the page to the server.

4. HTMLAREA that holds the WYSIHTML5 contents with an input/editable field (and other associated wysihtml toolbar items, styling and scripts). HTMLAREA is populated using PageActivate PeopleCode using a HTML object (CSK_WYSIHTML5).

CSK_WYSIHTML5 HTML object was built primarily based on the HTML in this example page:
http://voog.github.io/wysihtml/examples/advanced.html

Few things to note about CSK_WYSIHTML5 HTML:

- An ID attribute ("csk_div") was added to a DIV that represents the input/editable element for the HTML5 editor. This is needed because it is used in the javascript function that is part of the Static HTMLAREA (1).
- The contents in the HTML5 editor field (csk_div) are passed in using a bind variable (via Page PeopleCode).
- The script sources were appropriately adjusted to refer to the directory on the web server (where the wysihtml project is located).

Step 3: Create Fluid Page for WYSIHTML5 Display (Viewer)

This is a very simple Fluid page with a single HTMLAREA that is loaded on PageActivate as shown above. During the load,  the HTML5 contents that was created and stored using the previous page (CSK_WYSIHTML5_CFG) is retrieved and used as a parameter to HTML object (CSK_WYSIHTML5_DISP). The HTML retrieved from CSK_WYSIHTML5_DISP is them assigned to the HTMLAREA field.

CSK_WYSIHTML5_DISP was also primarily built using the following page:
http://voog.github.io/wysihtml/examples/advanced.html

Only differences are:
- Toolbar was removed (as it is a display only page).
- Made the editor display only (non-editable).
- Added a bind value to place the HTML5 contents using PageActivate code.

Let us see this in action!! 

I created a custom Fluid Hompage (Sasank's WYSIHTML5) and added the two Fluid Pages as tiles.

Fluid Page with WYSIHTML5 Editor Prototype:

- Enter "Rich Text"/Responsive contents in the editor.
- Click on "PreSave (Load to Buffer)" button.
- Click on "Final Save" button.

Legend:
1. Push buttons to save responsive rich text data.
2. Responsive rich text toolbar.
3. Responsive rich text editor.

Quirks:
- Right now, the page just refreshes if we press ENTER/carriage return on the editor. ENTER/carriage return only works when the cursor is on text that does not contain any styling. This is also a "to-do" task.
- We must click the "PreSave (Load to Buffer)" button first before clicking the "Final Save" button, otherwise the changes made in the editor will not get transferred to the server as part of the component buffer.

Fluid Page with WYSIHTML5 Display Prototype:

We can see how the rich text displayed on this page in a HTMLAREA is responsive!

Demo Videos!!

WYSIHTML5 Responsive Rich Text Editor (click here to view video in a new tab):

WYSIHTML5 Responsive Rich Text Display (click here to view video in a new tab):

I just wanted to share this project with the PeopleSoft community! A lot of javascript hacking and app designer cheats (workarounds if you will) were required to get this prototype to function. I would love to work with anyone who would like to collaborate on improving this project and see where the results take us! Perhaps a truly integrated Responsive Rich Text Editor… Perhaps a futuristic Web Based Responsive Page Development Utility… Perhaps a case for productization and potential incorporation into the PeopleSoft solution!?!?!?

Project Details:

Disclaimer: I am sharing the project primarily to seek collaborators and others who might be interested in playing with or extending this prototype. If you choose to perform any of below steps then it is at your own risk! :)

Project Environment: HCM 9.2 PUM Image 9 - PeopleTools 8.54.08

1. Download the project by clicking here.
2. Unzip/extract the project and copy it to a testing/play environment (using 'Copy From File' option in App Designer).
3. Build project.
4. Explore! Test! Explore! Test!

Notes:

1. This project which contains the WYSIHTML5 editor prototype for PeopleSoft should be considered a proof of concept only. Please do not load this into your production environment. This was purely intended for experimentation and evaluation purposes.
2. I, the author, will not assume any liability for any problems resulting from the implementation of this project.
3. All objects in the project are custom and start with the prefix "CSK_".
4. A role (CSK_WYSIHTML5_TEST) in the project should give access to both the pages above.

Please feel free to comment on this post if you have any questions/concerns/suggestions.

Working with Rich Text Editor - Custom Configuration, Toolbars and Plugins

Rich Text Editors (RTE) are being used more commonly with the latest PeopleTools versions. There are several pages that contain Rich Text Editor fields (generally for configuration) which are then used for display on other transactional pages using HTMLAREAs, used as the content for Rich Text enabled emails or used as the content for Rich Text enabled BI Publisher reports (to name a few use cases).

Note: The Rich Text Editor provided by PeopleTools is powered by CKEditor.

Page With Rich Text Editor Enabled Field:

Here is an example of a simple page that contains a Rich Text Editor field. 

The page contains a Long EditBox (CSK_RTE_DATA.DESCRLONG) with the following properties.

We are currently using the default Rich Text Options (Note: Configuration Settings Id is blank). The page appears as follows with the Rich Text Editor for the DESCRLONG Long EditBox. The Rich Text Toolbar is generated based on the default configuration.

Page Displaying Rich Text Data:

Here is an example of a simple page that displays data stored in a Rich Text enabled field using a HTMLAREA.

Page Activate PeopleCode to display the Rich Text data field in the HTMLAREA:

The page display the Rich Text data in the HTMLAREA as follows:

Adding Custom Rich Text Options - Templates, Plugins:

I recently came across an interesting question on the OTN forums. The question was "how to use Rich Text to display an iframe with a link to a youtube video?". If you look at the above Rich Text Editor field that uses the default Toolbar, it does not have the ability to add any HTML tags or specifically IFRAME content.

To enable additional/custom Toolbar items on the Rich Text Editor, we must first create our own custom Rich Text Editor Configuration.

Creating a Custom RTE Configuration:

We need to create a new HTML definition with a name that starts with 'PT_RTE_CFG'. Let us create a custom HTML definition called PT_RTE_CFG_CSK cloned from PT_RTE_CFG_PTPPB (delivered RTE Configuration).

Now to enable a custom Toolbar item for embedding an IFRAME, we must make use of additional plugins. To find the list of all available plugins as delivered, we can look in the following directory on the web server:

<PIA_HOME>/webserv/<domainname>/applications/peoplesoft/PORTAL.war/<sitename>/ckeditor/plugins

Fortunately, in this case the IFRAME plugin for CKEditor is already available as delivered (if not we must download and place the required plugins in the above folder path).

Let us now add the custom IFRAME Toolbar to our Custom RTE Configuration (PT_RTE_CFG_CSK). Let us include the following additional line in the configuration (note the comma in the screenshot).

  { name: 'insert', items : [ 'Image','Flash','Table','HorizontalRule','Smiley','SpecialChar','PageBreak','Iframe' ] }

Moving ahead, let us reference this Custom RTE Configuration in the Page Field Properties of the Rich Text enabled field.

Now let us take a look at the page with the Rich Text enabled field.

We can see the additional/custom Toolbar that we added to our Custom RTE Configuration. This would help us with embedding an IFRAME element that links to a youtube video.

This results in an embedded IFRAME as follows:

Testing IFRAME on the Display Page:

Similarly, we can add additional custom Toolbars to our Custom RTE Configuration. Hope you find this useful!

Environment details at the time of writing this post:
HCM 9.2 PUM Image 12 (PeopleTools 8.54.08)

Reference:
PeopleBooks - Modifying the Rich Text User Interface