CKEditor for Drupal 7 Upgrade (Open Source Version)

This website contains links to software which is either no longer maintained or will be supported only until the end of 2019 (CKFinder 2). For the latest documentation about current CKSource projects, including software like CKEditor 4/CKEditor 5, CKFinder 3, Cloud Services, Letters, Accessibility Checker, please visit the new documentation website.

If you look for an information about very old versions of CKEditor, FCKeditor and CKFinder check also the CKEditor forum, which was closed in 2015. If not, please head to StackOverflow for support.

This instruction assumes that you are upgrading the CKEditor module [M] and CKEditor (the editor) [E] at the same time. Instructions specific for module upgrades are tagged with [M]. Steps that must be taken when upgrading CKEditor (the editor) are marked with [E].

  1. [M] Download the latest version of the CKEditor module from http://drupal.org/project/ckeditor (it is advised to read the release notes before going further).
  2. [E] Download the latest version of CKEditor from http://ckeditor.com/download (it is advised to read the "What's New" page before going further).
  3. [M] Back up your database.
  4. [EM] Place the site in the "Off-line" mode to let the database updates run without interruption and to avoid displaying errors to end users of the site.
  5. [E] If you are using CKFinder, make sure you do not delete it, and move it to a safe place.
  6. [E] If you introduced any changes (e.g. custom toolbar definitions etc.) in the sites/all/modules/ckeditor/ckeditor.config.js file (or sites/all/modules/ckeditor/ckeditor/config.js), write down your changes and add them again after uploading new files.
    In general, try to avoid making any changes to CKEditor's config.js/<code> file and add everything to <code>ckeditor.config.js.
  7. Delete old files:
    [EM] Simply remove the modules/ckeditor directory if upgrading both the editor and the module.
    [M] If you are upgrading the module only, remember to leave the modules/ckeditor/ckeditor directory intact.
    [E] When upgrading the editor, remove the contents of the modules/ckeditor/ckeditor directory only.
    WARNING
    If you do not remove old files and just rename the ckeditor directory instead (e.g. to ckeditor_old), Drupal may use the module from the renamed ckeditor_old directory.
  8. [M] Upload the CKEditor module (extracted files and folders) to the sites/all/modules directory.
  9. [E] Upload standalone CKEditor (extracted files and folders from the ckeditor directory) to the sites/modules/ckeditor/ckeditor directory (i.e. where the COPY HERE.txt file exists).
  10. [E] Restore the CKFinder files from where you copied them (see step 5).
  11. [E] Apply your modifications to default configuration in the ckeditor.config.js file (see step 6).
  12. [M] Run update.php.
  13. [EM] Put the site back online.
important note
The sites/all/libraries/ckeditor directory is the default and recommended path for standalone CKEditor files when drush is used to download the editor JavaScript code. If you are using drush to upgrade CKEditor, all the contents of the sites/all/modules/ckeditor/ directory will be wiped, including the files for standalone editor if you placed them there.
This page was last edited on 31 May 2012, at 13:57.