[iStudent 2003]

Is there a free DHTML or java script rich text box editor that can be used to update html web page with out a database?

[Millennium]

I'm not aware of any. Theoretically, though, one should not be hard to build, if you know any server-side language.

[Chris O'Brien]

Sorry, what are you trying to do? Have something like dreamweaver?

I presume you want a program that will allow you to type out updates to a web page in a kindof blog type way without you having to type out HTML?

Am I right or way off?

If I am right, then you could use Midas and make your own wee HTML editor which could then call some server-side script to add it to the page you want to keep using. Midas only works for Mozilla (and presumably some of it's newer derivatives) though... Of course, theres always IE/win's richedit thing (designMode and execCommands).

Still, if you want to be more precise, maybe I could knock something up for you...

[Millennium]

If I am right, then you could use Midas and make your own wee HTML editor which could then call some server-side script to add it to the page you want to keep using. Midas only works for Mozilla (and presumably some of it's newer derivatives) though... Of course, theres always IE/win's richedit thing (designMode and execCommands).

Or, better still, you could use Kevin Roth's excellent Cross-Browser Rich-Text Editor, which sits on top of Midas and designMode so that it works in both Mozilla/Netscape and IE.

The problem with this is that it won't work in Safari, Opera, iCab, AOL, or IE/Mac; you must use Netscape/Mozilla/Firebird, or IE/Windows, in order for it to work (I don't think it works with Camino; can someone out there prove me wrong?) This isn't so much an issue of standards-compliance (since there are no standards for this sort of thing) as the fact that no other browsers support anything like this yet. In other browsers you'll just get a plain text area, much like the one you use to type messages in these forums.

[iStudent 2003]

Thanks Millennium!

This is just what I am looking for!!!

Two qeustions:

1. With this text editor do I need a database?
2. How do I install this on a site?

[Millennium]

Originally posted by iStudent 2003:
Thanks Millennium!

This is just what I am looking for!!!

Two qeustions:

1. With this text editor do I need a database?

That depends. What do you want to do with it?

You do need access to some kind of server-side scripting language; this would be true for any kind of in-browser editor. Just about anything -Perl, PHP, ASP, or whatever- can be made to work.

2. How do I install this on a site?

That also depends on what you want to do with it, I'm afraid. We'll need a little more information: most important, who's your Web host?

[iStudent 2003]

I built a web site for a friend, and I would like to setup a rich text (or plan text) editor so he can update the site himself. My friend will be adding a news link to the home page, about 3 times a week.

His brother is hosting the site for free, but he will not host a database or support ASP for me. I don’t know about Pearl or PHP. The site is running on Windows 2000.

[Chris O'Brien]

Yeah, without access to any server-side scripting, saving the stuff he types out is going to be less than seemless. If you don't have a method of appending the changes to the HTML document via a server-side script then he's going to have to copy and paste the HTML into it himself. Or get you to do it. In which case he could always write what he wants in Word and send it to you to transpose it to HTML...

But then, you could easily teach him a little bit of HTML - <a href=""> would be enough I suppose and he could write it himself... (just put in some <!-- add new stuff below here --> tags or something).

Failing that, a small app using XUL so that you can have Midas working and also have standard application stuff like saving etc could be knocked up. Although, this all seems a bit much when you could just write a nice semantic web page for him so that each post is put in <p>'s or something and teach him a little HTML. (I've had the same sort of experience with a mate of mine).

Saying that - if this page is updated three times a week, it'll soon get very long, no? In which case it's going to need to be edited and have archives and stuff (like blog sites and stuff). You could use an XML file as a database, but that's another kettle of fish (something I'm doing for a mate of mine at the moment)...

Sorry for going on, but this is relevant to some stuff I'm doing for a few mates at the moment

[Millennium]

Originally posted by iStudent 2003:
His brother is hosting the site for free, but he will not host a database or support ASP for me. I don’t know about Pearl or PHP. The site is running on Windows 2000.

If he won't support ASP on Win2K, it's fairly unlikely he'll support Perl, PHP, or anything else either.

That's a problem, because you need some kind of server-side scripting in order to get your rich-text editor to actually save anything, unless you want to write an app in XUL like Black Book suggested.

[Chris O'Brien]

Oh, quick point about a little 'app' that might be easier than writing it in XUL - what about an HTA?

Does the guy you are writing the page for (the one who's going to update it) use windows? If so, then saving any HTML page as an whatever.hta (instead of whatever.html) gives the web page (now and HTML Application) full access to reading and writing to the filesystem. With this, you could easily set up a rich text editor (the one Millenium suggested, for example) to then edit the page with what you've typed in.

I'm not sure, but can you pull in HTML as you would XML so that you have access to the file's DOM in order to append where you want? Anyone know? Anyhoo - if not, this approach using HTA's is almost trivial to implement.

All you'll need further to the rich text editor is a knowledge of the filesystem Object (JScript - an M$ implementation of JavaScript).

Anyway - there's loads of solutions, but a quick tutorial on HTML for your mate would probs be the simplest solution

[iStudent 2003]

Thanks guys for all of you input. I agree, the best thing to do is to teach him to html/front page. But he lives out of state and I won't see him until summer, so for now he'll have to email me the updates.

Thanks again everyone.

The site is www.mormoninfo.org