Revision as of 08:34, 31 January 2011

With CKEditor content writers can select a template from a list by clicking the button in the toolbar. A template is a predefined piece of HTML that is inserted into a document. Using this feature, the user does not need to start formatting the text from scratch. Designers can prepare well designed templates which helps avoid user errors before they happen.

Template Definition Files

CKEditor comes with three sample templates that are there just to show the way this feature works. They are defined in the plugins/templates/templates/default.js file. Developers should most definitely modify the default templates as they are not particularly useful to end users.

Note that a template definition file is a JavaScript file that is loaded when opening the Content Templates dialog window for the first time. This file may be modified to include custom templates, or you can create a separate template file outside the editor installation directory, and configuring the editor to use it.

Pointing the Editor to a Custom Templates Definition File

Suppose you have created a custom template definition file named mytemplates.js (starting from a copy of default.js) and placed it in the root directory of your website. You can now add the following setting in the editor configuration:

config.templates_files = [ '/mytemplates.js' ];

Note that the templates_files setting is an array, which means that more than one template file can be used.

Template Definition File Contents

Below you will find a sample template definition file that defines two simple templates.

// Register a template definition set named "default".
CKEDITOR.addTemplates( 'default',
{
	// The name of the subfolder that holds the preview images of the templates.
	imagesPath : CKEDITOR.getUrl( CKEDITOR.plugins.getPath( 'templates' ) + 'templates/images/' ),

	// The template definitions.
	templates :
		[
			{
				title: 'My Template 1',
				image: 'template1.gif',
				description: 'Description of My Template 1.',
				html:
					'<h2>Template 1</h2>' +
					'<p><img src="/logo.png" style="float:left" />Type your text here.</p>'
			},
			{
				title: 'My Template 2',
				html:
					'<h3>Template 2</h3>' +
					'<p>Type your text here.</p>'
			}
		]
});

The above example contains pure JavaScript code. It is a simple call to the CKEDITOR.addTemplates function, which registers the templates under a unique name (default). This name can be later used by the templates setting.