CKEditor, AJAX Save

Question

Can you provide an example on how to setup CKEditor to save via AJAX using the Save button in the CKEditor toolbar?

I'm interested in creating a CKEditor AJAX save page but am not seeing any examples on their site.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use the beforeCommandExec event & cancel() method:

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {

    $('.ckeditoriz').ckeditor(/* config */);

    $('.ckeditoriz').each(function () {
        var id = $(this).attr('id'),
            form = this.form;

        CKEDITOR.instances[id].on('beforeCommandExec', function (event) {
            if (event.data.name === 'save') {
                event.cancel();
                $(form).submit();
            }
        });

    });

    $('.ajaxForm').submit(function (event) {
        event.preventDefault();
        var $this = $(this);
        $.ajax({
            type: $this.attr('method'),
            url: $this.attr('action'),
            data: $this.serialize()
        });
    });

});
</script>

<form action="url" method="post" class="ajaxForm">
  <!-- Your textarea must have an ID! -->
  <textarea id="textarea1" name="textarea1" class="ckeditoriz"></textarea>
</form>

Update:

This doesn't work in CKEditor versions 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, however it works again since version 4.3.

Since CKEditor version 4.2 you can use the save event with the cancel() method:

CKEDITOR.instances[id].on('save', function (event) {
    event.cancel();
    $(form).submit();
});

Answer 2

Try copying straight from _source/plugins/save/plugin.js and changing as needed. Create your new plugin in /path/to/ckeditor/plugins (i.e. Not in /path/to/ckeditor/_source/plugins). For example, in /path/to/ckeditor/plugins create a new directory "AjaxSave", then in that directory create a file "plugin.js". Then in that file do something like this (adapted from the normal "save" plugin in the source folder):

(function()
{
  var saveCmd =
  {
    modes : { wysiwyg:1, source:1 },
    exec : function( editor )
    {
      var $form = editor.element.$.form;
      if ( $form )
      {
          try
          {
            editor.updateElement();
//Here is where you put your ajax submit function. For example... if you are using
// jQuery and the ajaxform plugin, do something like this:
            $($form).ajaxSubmit({
               success: function(response){
                 //do something with the response
               }
            });
          } catch ( e ) {
            //alert(e);
          }
      }
    }
  }
  var pluginName = 'ajaxsave';
  CKEDITOR.plugins.add( pluginName,
  {
     init : function( editor )
     {
        var command = editor.addCommand( pluginName, saveCmd );
        command.modes = { wysiwyg : !!( editor.element.$.form ) };
        editor.ui.addButton( 'AjaxSave',
         {
            label : editor.lang.save,
            command : pluginName,
            icon: "/img/save.png"
         });
     }
   });
})();

Then in the config, where you define your toolbar, change 'AjaxSave' for 'Save'.

EDIT: you must also add config.extraPlugins = "ajaxsave"; to the config.