@ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine

What is @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine?

@ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine is a core package of CKEditor 5, a modern JavaScript rich text editor. This package provides the engine that powers the editor, including the data model, editing view, and rendering process. It is highly modular and extensible, allowing developers to create custom editing experiences.

What are @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine's main functionalities?

Creating a Document

This feature allows you to create a new document instance, which is the core of the editing engine. The document holds the data model and manages the editing operations.

const { Document } = require('@ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine');
const doc = new Document();
console.log(doc);

Adding a Root Element

This feature allows you to add a root element to the document. The root element is the top-level container for the document's content.

const { Document } = require('@ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine');
const doc = new Document();
const root = doc.createRoot();
console.log(root);

Inserting Text

This feature allows you to insert text into the document. The Writer class is used to perform editing operations on the document.

const { Document, Writer } = require('@ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine');
const doc = new Document();
const root = doc.createRoot();
const writer = new Writer();
writer.insertText('Hello, world!', root);
console.log(root);

Listening to Changes

This feature allows you to listen to changes in the document. The document emits events whenever its content is modified, enabling you to react to these changes.

const { Document } = require('@ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine');
const doc = new Document();
doc.on('change', (event, batch) => {
  console.log('Document changed:', batch);
});

Other packages similar to @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine

prosemirror

ProseMirror is a toolkit for building rich-text editors on the web. It provides a similar data model and editing capabilities as @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine but is more low-level, offering greater flexibility at the cost of requiring more setup and configuration.

slate

Slate is another framework for building rich text editors. It offers a more React-friendly API compared to @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine and is highly customizable. However, it may require more effort to implement complex features.

quill

Quill is a modern WYSIWYG editor built for compatibility and extensibility. It provides a simpler API compared to @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine and is easier to get started with, but it may not offer the same level of customization and control.

README

CKEditor 5 editing engine

The CKEditor 5 editing engine implements a flexible MVC-based architecture for creating rich text editing features.

Installation

This plugin is part of the ckeditor5 package. Install the whole package to use it.

npm install ckeditor5

Create free account

If you want to check full CKEditor 5 capabilities, sign up for a free non-commitment 14-day trial.

Architecture overview

• Custom data model. CKEditor 5 implements a tree-structured custom data model, designed to fit multiple requirements such as enabling real-time collaboration and complex editing features (like tables or nested blocks).
• Virtual DOM. CKEditor 5's editing engine features a custom, editing-oriented virtual DOM implementation that aims to hide browser quirks from your sight. No more contentEditable nightmares!
• Real-time collaborative editing. The editor implements Operational Transformation for the tree-structured model as well as many other mechanisms which were required to create a seamless collaborative UX. Additionally, we provide cloud infrastructure and plugins enabling real-time collaborative editing in your application! Check the collaboration demo.
• Extensible. The entire editor architecture was designed for maximum flexibility. The code is event-based and highly decoupled, allowing you to plug in or replace selected pieces. Features do not directly depend on each other and communicate in standardized ways.
• Schema-less core. The core makes minimal assumptions and can be controlled through the schema. This leaves all decisions to plugins and to you.
• Modular architecture. Not only can the core modules be reused and recomposed but even the features were implemented in a highly granular way. Feel like running a headless CKEditor 5 with a couple of features in Node.js? Not a problem!
• Framework for building rich-text editors. Every use case is different and every editor needs to fulfill different goals. Therefore, we give you the freedom to create your own editors with custom-tailored features and UI.
• Heavily tested from day one. CKEditor 5 comes with 3x more tests than React itself. All packages have 100% code coverage.
• 8+ years of support. It is not yet another framework to be gone next year or a hyped proof-of-concept to fail in a real-life scenario. We have over 15 years of experience in creating rich text editors and invested over 4 years in designing and building your next future-proof rich text editor of choice.

Documentation

For a general introduction see the Overview of CKEditor 5 Framework guide and then the Editing engine architecture guide.

Additionally, refer to the @ckeditor/ckeditor5-engine package page in CKEditor 5 documentation for even more information.

License

Licensed under a dual-license model, this software is available under:

• the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later,
• or commercial license terms from CKSource Holding sp. z o.o.

For more information, see: https://ckeditor.com/legal/ckeditor-licensing-options.

Changelog

44.1.0 (December 16, 2024)

We are pleased to announce the latest CKEditor 5 release, focusing on performance enhancements and key bug fixes to improve your editing and collaboration experience.

Release Highlights

⚡ Performance enhancements: Part 3

This release introduces another set of performance related improvements, focused on faster editor initialization for huge documents. The initialization time was lowered by further 15% to 45%, depending on the tested sample.

The combined improvements introduced in recent releases amount to around 65%-80% lower loading time in total, which means the editor will load 3-5x faster. As the gain is not linear, bigger documents see even better improvement (more than 10x faster).

Moreover, all these improvements positively impact document save time (editor.getData()), which should help with autosave issues, among others.

We still actively work in this area, so you may expect even more editor load and save efficiency improvements in the upcoming releases.

🔨 Bug Fixes and improvements

• Comments enhancements:
  • Data export options: We introduced the showCommentHighlights option in editor.getData(), that changes the comment marker conversion, allowing for styling comments in the output. Perfect for showing what was commented in Export to PDF, for example.
  • Inline mode improvements: We addressed a problem where comment annotations in inline mode did not close properly when clicking elsewhere in the content.
  • Thread management: We resolved an issue where creating a new thread was not interrupted when the corresponding marker was removed from the content, ensuring better stability during collaborative editing.
• Revision History update:
  • Restore functionality: We disabled the ability to restore the current (edited, not saved) revision, as it represents current content, so there is nothing to restore. At the same time, using it led to some non-obvious behaviors.
• Image handling: We resolved an issue where images in the uploading state could be deleted when dragged and dropped within the editor. Keep dragging, even when it is not there 🙈.

🎄 Happy holidays!

As the holiday season approaches, we extend our warmest wishes to our community and users. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to bringing you further enhancements and exciting features in the coming year.