81 lines
3 KiB
Markdown
81 lines
3 KiB
Markdown
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# Why Schlechtenburg?
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Installing a WYSIWYG editor in your application or on your website is often the easy part. The hard
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part comes afterwards: extending and customizing the editor to fit your specific needs. There are
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currently a couple of very good editors, but after reading this text I think you'll agree there's
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still room for improvement. We'll be looking at the following alternative WYSIWYG editors:
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* [Quill](https://quilljs.com/)
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* [CKEditor](https://ckeditor.com/ckeditor-5/)
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* [Gutenberg](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/)
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## Block based
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Though all three are meant for text editing, Quill and CKEditor are a bit more explicit about this
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in their architecture:
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* They input and output a string
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* They have one global toolbar
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Gutenberg is a bit more involved, literally using building "blocks" to create it's editor. Instead
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of seeing the content as a long string it takes a more component-esque approach. For example, the
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following things are all their own blocks in the gutenberg editor, which a specific react component
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that handles the editing mode, and one that handles the display mode.
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* Paragraph
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* Heading
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* List
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* Image
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* Column-based layout
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* External media embeds like YouTube videos
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When editing, you are editing, adding or removing one specific block at a time. Blocks can contain
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other blocks in a tree structure, and they all have their own (but uniform) editing UI.
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Schlechtenburg takes a block based approach, just like its namesake Gutenberg. This has a couple of advantages:
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* You can take strong control over the final rendered HTML of a block that you create
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* Blocks are easily published as reusable JS modules
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* You very rarely need blocks inside text, but the reverse has abundant usecases
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* The mental model is closer to how actual HTML works
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* Very complex pages can be handled by the editor
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* If you know React or Vue, you understand a lot about how to write blocks for the editor
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## Design system with standardized components
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Making sure the final rendered data looks correct is always easier than making sure the editing
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experience is great. Schlechtenburg aims to offer a vast library of reusable components, patterns,
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variables, and rules for the editing UI. We call this **SBUI**. Complex blocks require complex editing forms and UIs so
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most of the work goes into creating this UI. A good Design System should help ease the pain.
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## SSR Compatible
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Does as it says; drop Schlechtenburg into Nuxt.js, and not just the display mode but also the editor
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itself will render on the server.
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## Accessible
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Toolbars and editing elements are in the correct tab order, **SBUI** elements are all fully
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accessible.
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## JSON only
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Input and Output is one standardized, typed, JSON-stringifyable object. For example, a paragraph
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looks like this:
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```
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{
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id: '1590592116800',
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name: 'sb-paragraph',
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data: {
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value: 'This is the second paragraph<br>',
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align: 'left'
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}
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},
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```
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## So why not Gutenberg?
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Gutenberg is tied heavily into the Wordpress ecosystem, making its inclusion in other sites harder
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than necessary.
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