[TYPO3] Is htmlArea dead?

[Francois Suter]

Hi,

> My biggest problem setting up TYPO3 is the RTE - every time. It's just
> not the same in the editor as in the frontend. "You don't really see
> what you get" - that's why I'm considering an alternative in the last
> months. It's really a pain configuring the RTE through the  
> PageTSConfig.
> Maybe there is an easy "real-time" configurator for that?

It's true that configuring the rtehtmlarea is not easy at first, but  
it's feasible. There are a lots of options, which may seem daunting,  
but that also gives you incredible flexibility. It got even better  
since version 4.0 of TYPO3, where you can put Page TSConfig inside  
the User TSConfig, which means every user (group) can have its own  
settings of the RTE. This - I think - is amazingly powerful, although  
it does come at a price. The reason I'm not switching the TinyRTE is  
that I *need* all those options.

A "real-time" configurator for so many options is certainly feasible,  
but represents a huge undertaking IMO.

> I will definitely check out tinyRTE for all my T3 projects.
> It doesn't feel as sloppy as htmlarea, don't know if it's better to
> configure etc. though.

Now I agree that the thought that HTMLArea is a dead project is  
disturbing. Both FCK and TinyMCE are valid alternatives, alive and  
kicking, as well as Xinha, for example.

One thing to remember though is that the complexity of configuring  
rtehtmlarea does not come just from the extension itself. Part of the  
nightmare is due to TYPO3's transformation process. Text input into  
the RTE goes through several transformations: from RTE to DB, form DB  
to RTE, from DB to FE,... I'm not sure if I've got everything, but  
most often when people complain of HTMLArea stripping this or that  
tag, it really one of those parseFunc's fault.

> btw... I was just smiling the other day: Remember that the old RTE had
> only support for IE? tsts... ;-)

You betcha! What a nightmare!

Cheers

François Suter
Directeur technique
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