CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ckeditor5
Jeff Creighton
Jeff Creighton

Reputation: 61

CK Editor 5 Versus 4 for New User

I have a more generic question. We want to install an editor in our application to allow teachers to teach others through learning posts. In order to accomplish this we plan to start with the classic ckeditor5 and then customize it to allow certain users to add things like science and math formulas, slide show presentations, etc.

Are we too early for this with CKE5? Should we stick with CKE4 and use the variety of plug-ins that are offered out of the box.

I just want to make sure CKE5 is ready for prime time.

Thanks so much for your response.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 3243

Answers (2)

Maicon Mauricio
Maicon Mauricio

Reputation: 3021

From Which editor is best:

The choice between the editors depends on the user’s specific needs and requirements.

You should consider continuing using CKEditor 4 if the compatibility with old browsers is a must for you or if features that are essential for you are not yet available in CKEditor 5. However, being a totally new editor, with time CKEditor 5 will have more and more features developed and available for end users to benefit from. At the same time, we are determined to continue the CKEditor 4 development and maintenance for some good time still. The CKEditor 4.x line is under a “Long Term Support” (LTS) programme which means that its development and support is guaranteed until 2023, giving the users enough time to make a move towards CKEditor 5.

If great user experience and clean UI are your priority and the features currently available with CKEditor 5 Builds (Classic editor, Inline editor, Balloon editor, Document editor) are sufficient for your use case, then you should consider using CKEditor 5 Builds.

To find out more about CKEditor 5 Builds refer to the CKEditor 5 Builds documentation.

If you wish to create your own text editing solution and have full control over every aspect of the editor, from UI to features, and the possibility to enable real-time collaborative editing inside the editor you should consider CKEditor 5 Framework.

To find out more about CKEditor 5 Framework refer to the CKEditor 5 Framework documentation.

From How to migrate from CKEditor 4 to CKEditor 5:

When compared to its predecessor, CKEditor 5 should be considered a totally new editor. Every single aspect of it was redesigned — from installation, to integration, to features, to its data model, and finally to its API. Therefore, moving applications using a previous CKEditor version to version 5 cannot be simply called an "upgrade". It is something bigger, so the "migration" term fits better.

CKEditor 5's architecture and custom data model makes it possible to enable real-time collaborative editing.

In 2019 Chris Harris wrote this comment:

We have been using CKEditor 4 for some years, and since support is to be dropped soon, I have just spent several days working on migrating to CKEditor 5. This has been a frustrating experience, and as a result, we will probably be moving to some other alternative instead.

My frustrations with CKEditor 5 include:

  1. There are few features by default, and every new feature needs a different plugin, each one needing research and time to add in.

  2. Adding plugins is not a simple download/install. Each one needs editing the main build config file, doing a rebuild, working out the config we want, putting it in the build config file, building again. None of which is difficult, but certainly more hassle than I would expect.

  3. CKeditor 4 had a re-sizeable window, CKEditor 5 doesn't. Adding CSS3 resizeable works, but had some odd effects when changing focus from the editor to the page outside it (the window would resize to its default size). I'm not saying that's the fault of CKEditor 5, but it's another example where bringing it up to 4 level is not simple.

  4. CKeditor 4 used inline element styling for e.g. floating an image left/right. CKEditor 5 doesn't, it adds a class to the element. So the code produced by the editor doesn't work right without additional styling, which adds complication to the deployment of the code it produces.

My research suggests I'm not the only one who would like a simple download that provided the same functionality as CKEditor 4, but it's not available - by design. And I've come to the conclusion that the design of CKeditor 5 has been driven ideologically, providing something that the creators think developers ought to want - rather than something they really do want.

See more on:

Upvotes: 1

Arnab Roy
Arnab Roy

Reputation: 11

Ckeditor4 pros:

  1. A lot of plugins available and easy to create custom plugin
  2. UI customisation easy
  3. A lot of pre-build skins available including Microsoft word 2013
  4. Custom build can be easily made with online builder

CKeditor4 cons:

  1. Difficult to implement with frameworks like react. Has to be implemented by creation script elements and appending to the DOM.

CKeditor5 pros:

  1. Direct implementation with react possible with rpm packages.
  2. Basic UI and toolbar looks a little better than ck4

CKeditor cons:

  1. Very Less plugins available.
  2. Plugins need to be installed as packages
  3. UI customisation difficult

Upvotes: 1

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