What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Stephan Robotta -
Number of replies: 6
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Hi,

In a german forum of Moodle in higher education we recently a thread with the question about the experiences from moving to TinyMCE as the default editor. What keeps sites away from moving to Tiny at the moment?

One note beforehand, in recent Moodle versions fixes and improvments were done in the TinyMCE intregration. Not all of the issues mentioned below are from Moodle 4.3. Some of the things might be resolved already in the current 4.4 release.

I will here try to list various aspects and obstacles that were mentioned when the TinyMCE was in use. I just comment here without having this verified. Some of the reports are also a bit unspecific.

  • Missing broader formatting options (other font sizes etc...)
  • Missing plugins to format/insert object (e.g. Embeded question, Teams Link) that exist in Atto
  • Links were inserted but mysteriously had been moved to the begining of the text/paragraph.
  • Stripping certain tags or attributes that are otherwise usable (MDL-80953, MDL-76233 because I was involded there I mention these two explicitly).

There are a bunch of institutions including the one where I am working at, that did not report much problems. If so, these could be solved with an additional plugin or other fix. For the worst case we recommend switch back to Atto or even use plain text.

Also what is considerable from my experience: technical departments such as math, physics, chemistry, computer sciense tend to use more technical annotations (Tex, source code, chemistry formulas) that cause problems when edited with the TinyMCE.

This is a filter that lists issues in the TinyMCE component that are open or in development: https://tracker.moodle.org/issues/?filter=25025

For all that are afrait of loosing functionality: If something is not working as excpected please check, who is involved (teachers only or all users). When teachers only, how big is the group? Is there a chance to provide them with a feasible workaround? In our institution the computer sience department faces the most problems but these people are also the most skilled ones.

HTH in the development and in migration stategies.
Stephan

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In reply to Stephan Robotta

Odp: What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Piotr F -
Stripping certain tags
Because of that, I am considering going back to Atto.

For example, empty <p> and <br> are shown in WYSIWYG but not shown after saving the text. And <br> is turned automatically into <p> .
Like the above. I put three of them, I see empty lines when typing in WYSIWYG, but they are not anymore visible after saving. The same here, in the forum, the same in our instance.
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In reply to Piotr F

Re: Odp: What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Andreas Steiger -
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Very similar for me. An editor where I can't be sure if it interferes with my code is of no use to me. I write a lot of STACK questions, and it seems TinyMCE removes the JSXgraph possibilities, and I've also noticed it tends to strip my multilanguage stuff done with ``. Since we are conducting high stakes exams using STACK in Moodle, reliability is extremely important, and TinyMCE currently does not offer that.
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In reply to Stephan Robotta

Re: What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Bob Gilmore -
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The embed question filter not being ready is a big one for us, although I see its just waiting verification now (and we can use the filters page URL rather than a button).
 
Piotr's post about stripping the <br> elements from blank paragraphs when saved as opposed to in the editor is another frustration. 
 
However, with that said, Ive personally moved to Tiny even if my organisation hasn't yet, because I find it just works better overall.
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In reply to Bob Gilmore

Re: What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Stephan Robotta -
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Hi Bob,
 
"The embed question filter not being ready is a big one for us."
We use both, the filter and the button for tinyMCE and no complaints so far. Just make sure that you fetch the latest version of the filter from github. The Tiny button is not available in the Moodle plugin dir yet, so you need to take that one from github anyway.
 
HTH, Stephan
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Re: What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Bob Gilmore -
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I have very zealous admins. In order to get a plugin installed it needs a business case, testing and an asteroid named in it honour. I have been testing the new Tiny filter button on my dev environment and so far, no issues.
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In reply to Stephan Robotta

Re: What stopps sites switching to TinyMCE as default

by Bob Gilmore -
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Just to bring attention to this one for any potential reviewers or interested watchers, https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-80953?filter=13607 is waiting on peer review and would fix a lot of issues folks have with tiny. It would certainly stop me from having to bounce back to atto whenever I wanted to embed a script into my html.
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