wysihtml

wysihtml is an extended and less strict approach on xing/wysihtml5 open source rich text editor based on HTML5 technology. The code is completely library agnostic: No jQuery, Prototype or similar is required.

This project was initiated and is supported by the XING AG. Thanks!

Features

• Auto linking of urls as-you-type
• Generates valid and semantic HTML5 markup (no <font> tags)
• Can use class-names instead of inline styles
• Unifies line-break handling across browsers (hitting enter will create <br> instead of <p> or <div>)
• Auto-parses content inserted via copy & paste (from Word, Powerpoint, PDF, other web pages, ...)
• Converts invalid or unknown html tags into valid/similar tags
• Source code view for users with HTML skills
• Uses sandboxed iframes in order to prevent identity theft through XSS
• Editor inherits styles and attributes (placeholder, autofocus, ...) from original textarea (you only have to style one element)
• Speech-input for Chrome

Extended features not present in xing/wysihtml5:

• Can be used without iframe sandbox when initiated on div instead of textarea
• Blocking of image drag drop in editable is removed
• Table insertion management and cell merging commands
• Improved parser with options to: unwrap tag instead of remove, keep defined styles, complex object type definitions for allowing elements.
• Ability to add uneditable area inside editor text flow (useful when building modules like video tools, advanced image editor etc.)
• Improved formatblock handling
• Ability for user to remove formating with only collapsed caret. (without having to select exactly whole text)
• Improved speed
• Anchor creting and removing logic changed to more universal
• Default build is without internal toolbar functions and build with "-toolbar" suffix contains default toolbar functions

Browser Support

The rich text editing interface is supported in IE8+, FF 3.5+, Safari 4+, Safari on iOS 5+, Opera 11+ and Chrome. Graceful Degradation: Users with other browsers will see the textarea and are still able to write plain HTML by themselves.

Companies using wysihtml5

• Basecamp - Leading web-based project management and collaboration tool
• XING - Business Social Network with more than 12 million members
• Qype - Largest user-generated local review site in Europe
• and many more ...

Research

Before starting wysihtml5 we spent a lot of time investigating the different browsers and their behaviors.

Check this repository: https://github.com/tiff/wysihtml5-tests

A compatibility table for rich text query commands can be found here: http://tifftiff.de/contenteditable/compliance_test.html

A pure native rich text editor with HTML validator and live source preview is here: http://tifftiff.de/contenteditable/editor.html

Development

wysihtml5 can be built using Grunt. Installation instructions for Grunt can be found here. Once you have it installed, wysihtml5 can be built by simply running

npm install
npx grunt

This builds both minified and development versions, including one with toolbar support.

Customer.io Usage

This is Customer.io's fork of Voog/wysihtml. The UI app consumes this library as a git dependency via tags:

"wysihtml5x": "customerio/wysihtml5#cio-v1.2"

Tags

Customer.io releases are managed through cio-* tags (not branches):

Tag	Date	Description
cio-v1.0	2014-08-06	Initial fork with liquid template variable support
cio-v1.1	2014-12-17	Build update
cio-v1.2	2026-05-08	Security fixes: upgraded grunt to 1.6, resolved 40 dependency vulnerabilities

How changes are managed

1. Create a branch from the latest cio-* tag (not main — the main branch has diverged from the tagged releases):

   git checkout -b my-fix cio-v1.2

2. Make changes and rebuild dist:

   npm install
   npx grunt

3. Verify the non-minified dist files (dist/wysihtml5x.js, dist/wysihtml5x-toolbar.js) are unchanged if you only modified dependencies. The UI app imports the non-minified toolbar file.

4. Commit and push the branch (include dist files in the commit).

5. Create a new tag with the next version:

   git tag -a cio-v1.3 -m "Description of changes"
   git push origin cio-v1.3

6. Update the UI app (customerio/ui):

   • Update package.json: "wysihtml5x": "customerio/wysihtml5#cio-v1.3"
   • Run npm install to update package-lock.json
   • Commit both files

Local testing

To test changes locally before creating a tag:

1. Point the UI app to your local clone:

   "wysihtml5x": "file:../wysihtml5"

2. Run npm install in the UI app
3. Start the UI app and test the rich text editor
4. Once verified, revert to the tag reference and create the tag

How the UI app loads this library

The UI app imports two files in ember-cli-build.js:

• node_modules/wysihtml5x/dist/wysihtml5x-toolbar.js (editor + toolbar)
• node_modules/wysihtml5x/parser_rules/advanced.js (HTML sanitization rules)

These are loaded as global scripts (not ES modules), making wysihtml5 available on the window object. The UI app then wraps it with Ember components (cio-wysihtml5-editor for full-featured editing, wysihtml5-editor for simple drafts).

Contributors

See the list of contributors here.