WYSIWYG for Email - Does it exist?
Development and Programming
Hi
Does any extension or plugin exist that places a WYSIWYG editor on the Email compose form in the communicate tab?
I’m currently using TinyMCE for editing weblog entries which my client gets along well with, but the communicate tab (which is essential) they are struggling with.
If you can put aside the question of whether or not allowing clients to edit HTML emails is a good idea or not (I appreciate it might not be), does such an extension exist?
If not, what other options do you use for empowering clients to send email newsletters? Is a third-party application the best choice?
Thanks
I don’t know of an extension that would do it out of the box. But it is entirely doable with a bit of JS and / or PHP, but it all depends on your experience / confidence. You could use TinyMCE / YUI RTE whatever. YUI RTE would be the easiest to implement. All you’d have to do is knock up a quick extension to add the correct script’s to the <head> of the control panel and target the textarea (textarea#message). It’s pretty simple to do if you know how. On the flip side I appreciate if you don’t know how, none of that would make any sense at all! 😉
In that case I’d highly recommend Campaign Monitor as a solution.
M
Thanks for the response. I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty with PHP or JS, but I am pretty inexperienced with ExpressionEngine - this is only my 2nd EE project. I haven’t looked into how to develop custom extensions yet, and whilst I’m sure it’s not too difficult I don’t really want to spend the time wrapping my head round it for this particular project (already way over budget).
Thanks for the CM hat-tip 😊
No probs. Seems you’re in luck today my friend! I’ve got heaps of very important work to do, so naturally, like any self respecting procrastinator, I’ve gone ahead and knocked up an extension for you 😉
It uses the YUI RTE, pulls the JS direct from Yahoo, so nothing extra to download, just drop the extension in the extensions folder and enable it via the CP. Voila.
You could achieve the same with TinyMCE, infact if you take a look at the extension source you should be able to figure out how to do that yourself.
File attached.
Enjoy.
p.s. I (obviously) provide this software AS IS, and will not be held responsible for loss of data / life / friends / wmd / etc
Wow! That is absolutely awesome!! I well and truly owe you one 😊
I’ll bung it into EE and let you know how it goes. Cheers!
Ok, after viewcreative’s VERY helpful assistance in bashing that YUI extension together so quickly, I’ve taken it a step further and created my very first ExpressionEngine extension: TinyMCE Communicate.
This extension requires you have already installed and use LG TinyMCE as it shares it’s settings.
Simply install and enable TinyMCE Communicate and you will find WYSIWYG goodness in the Communicate tab.
This extension is: A) Hot off the press, not really tested in a production environment. B) My first ever EE extension, therefore likely to go horribly wrong 😉
If you want to use this, you are more than welcome, but tread carefully 😊
Can be downloaded from my Github repo: http://github.com/aaronrussell/ee-tinymce-communicate/
Enjoy!
This looks handy. Has anyone tried it for real yet - safe to use?
Hi there
I’m due to start testing this with one of my clients next week - so can’t say for sure until then. But I’m pretty confident. As long as there is a solid email template behind it and the WYSIWIG is just used to edit basic markup then I can’t see any reason for there to be issues?
If you do give it a whirl, I’d be keen to hear any feedback.
OK - if I use it, I’ll let you know. Thanks!
Hi folks, I took the plunge and we are using this. I’ve send a few test emails using HTML header/footer in the mailing list template and the WYSIWYG editor for the content area. I have not sent an email to our mailing list yet but so far so good with the test emails.
Basically - THIS IS GREAT!
One problem though - I’m using the TinyBrowser extension for TinyMCE to manage image uploads, and when, in the Communications tab, I use the WYSIWYG editor to attempt to add an image, the dialog box appears with the TinyBrowser icon next to the Image URL box, but clicking the TinyBrowser icon does not have any results. (no second box opens to browser and upload pictures).
I checked and the TinyBrowser is still working fine in the WYSIWYG editor for entries.
Do you know what the difference could be/what could be causing this?
I think the TinyBrowser issue has something to do with this:
From the LG TinyMCE + TinyBroswer tutorial at http://www.wil-linssen.com/tinymce-wysiwyg-editor-with-tinybrowser-file-browser-in-expression-engine
We now need to edit the LG TinyMCE extension to handle file browsing. To do this open the system/extensions/ext.lg_tinycme.php file and search for the linewe’re going to add this line underneath it:$r .= "n" . '[removed]settings['script_path']) . '">[removed]';Be careful not to delete any lines, we’re only adding that line.$r .= "n" . '[removed]settings['script_path'])) .'">[removed]';
There is a line of code close to the first line referenced here in the ext.tinymce_communicate extention:
$replace = '[removed]settings['script_path']) . '">[removed]' . NL;However adding the line underneath as written above does not work, causes TinyMCE to not load on the communicate page at all.
But I’m not sure not sure what to change/ how to make a change that will make it work.
I’m sorry charmedworks, I have not used TinyBrowser so I’m not sure. I’m using the official MCFileManage and MCImageManager and they both work well.
Going by the TinyBrowser documentation, I can only suggest trying the following:
http://gist.github.com/192660 (instructions posted on GistHub as these forums clean up some code.
If that doesn’t work, then I don’t really know I’m afraid. If it’s mission critical stuff then like I say, the official Moxiecode addons work well so you could pay for one of those?
Good luck.
Thanks for responding, I’ll see if there is anything helpful at the link.
Meanwhile as a work around, I am able to have the client upload images elsewhere on the site (we could even make a non-viewable weblog / entry for this purpose) and then, they can copy/paste URL image paths from there into the Communicate entry. Not ideal but it gets the job done while I work on the TinyBrowser plugin compatibility.
This works well enough - and our HTML emails look TERRIFIC by the way. Thanks again.
Hi again, The code that you provided at the link does the trick - TinyBrowser plugin is now working with TinyMCE Communicate extension. Many thanks.
Cool. Glad it’s working.
When I get the chance I’ll try and add a settings page and see if can make that an option rather than having to hack around with the source code.
Might take me a while though - bit busy at the moment!! But keep your eyes peeled 😊