Rich Text Editor Plugin

Hello Discourse Developers!

We’re looking for an experienced Discourse developer/agency to create a plugin that replaces the default Markdown editor with a WYSIWYG editor, preferably Quill or similar, for our community.

Project Requirements:

  • WYSIWYG Functionality: Replace the default Discourse Markdown editor with a WYSIWYG editor (Quill or similar).

  • Feature Parity: The WYSIWYG editor should support all essential formatting options currently available in the native Markdown editor (bold, italics, lists, blockquotes, links, code blocks, etc.). It should also include media attachments and rich snippets like polls and spoilers.

  • Seamless Integration: Ensure the plugin works seamlessly across both desktop and mobile versions of Discourse.

  • User-friendly: The WYSIWYG editor should provide a clean and intuitive experience for users unfamiliar with Markdown.

  • Maintainability: The plugin should be well-documented and designed for ease of future updates as Discourse evolves.

  • Communication: We’ll need regular updates and would like to be involved in testing/feedback during the development process.

If you have experience developing Discourse plugins, especially related to text editor functionality, we’d love to hear from you!

Respond with:

  • A brief description of your experience
  • Links to previous Discourse plugins you’ve developed (or relevant open-source projects)
  • Your proposed rate and estimated timeline

Note: This opportunity is only available to contractors/agencies that have a valid business presence in the United States

1 Like

Hey there @Rohail_Altaf, this will be a large and challenging job. I may be interested, however I have a few questions first.

Will you be using this editor from day one of your community? Have you already used the markdown editor? Will you want to also use the markdown editor alongside this? Will you possibly want to use the markdown editor in the future?

Could you elaborate on this a bit. How about:

  1. Interactive elements outside the composer that insert content into the composer (e.g. highlight and quote).
  2. @mentions.
  3. Emojis.
  4. Inserting dates and times.
  5. Right to left support.
  6. Onebox support (or equivalent “rich link” support).
  7. Tables.

If you could enumerate your exact list of expected features that would help, as it will likely influence the way this is built and hence the cost and timeline etc.

Are you expecting the plugin to implement a library like Quill or be functionally similar to Quill? Or are you just using that as an example of what you consider to be a well executed WYSIWYG editor?

To answer your questions.

I’m probably the most experienced Discourse plugin developer. I’ve developed about 40 plugins over the course of roughly eight years working with Discourse. Here are some highlights:

This will depend on your answers.

3 Likes

I recommend strongly delaying this project

Discourse are currently working in this area

19 Likes

Thank you for getting back to me @sam. Is there a roadmap or timeline you’re able to share?

@angus let me talk to my team and get a full list of specs. Stay tuned

4 Likes

@angus details shared in DMs

1 Like

@sam , i would like to get information on this plan. I was looking into Formatting toolbar

2 Likes

Hi Sam, do you have a rough, ballpark ETA for this? I am working on a demo for a community I’m part of to suggest moving from MyBB to Discourse but currently the message formatting (and to a degree composition) is weaker on discourse and we do make pretty significant use of it.

1 Like

Ballpark, I guess 6-12 months for the first release; it is a big project

5 Likes

Thank you kindly for the reply, having used a somewhat questionably functional rich text editor on mybb I can understand wanting to take some time with it. At the very least the experimental ability to paste formatted text is already pretty handy.
Til then, I will keep an ear to the ground :slight_smile: