Exploring WYSIWYG Editors in Django: A Guide to Popular Libraries and Configuration

When building a content-rich application with Django, offering a rich text editor (WYSIWYG — What You See Is What You Get) to users is often essential. A WYSIWYG editor allows non-technical users to format content without knowing HTML or CSS, making it ideal for blog platforms, CMS, forums, and e-commerce systems.

Django has excellent support for integrating WYSIWYG editors through third-party libraries. In this post, we will explore some of the most popular WYSIWYG editors for Django, how to install them and configure them to meet your specific project needs.

What is a WYSIWYG Editor?

A WYSIWYG editor allows users to create and edit content in a format that closely resembles its final appearance, without requiring knowledge of the underlying markup languages like HTML. These editors often provide a toolbar with options for formatting text, inserting images, embedding videos, creating tables, and much more.

Popular WYSIWYG Editors for Django

Here are some widely-used WYSIWYG editors that integrate seamlessly with Django:

1. Django Summernote

Django Summernote is a lightweight and easy-to-configure WYSIWYG editor based on Summernote, a popular JavaScript editor. It is ideal for projects that need basic text formatting, image insertion, and some media embedding without the complexity of larger editors.

Key Features:

• Simple and lightweight with an easy-to-use interface.
• Supports media embedding and file/image uploads.
• Customizable toolbar.
• Responsive design for mobile use.

pip install django-summernote

Configuration:

1. Add django_summernote to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django_summernote',
]

2. Include the summernote URLs in your urls.py file:

from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('summernote/', include('django_summernote.urls')),
]

3. Use SummernoteWidget in your Django forms:

from django import forms
from django_summernote.widgets import SummernoteWidget
from .models import YourModel

class YourModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = YourModel
        fields = ['content']
        widgets = {
            'content': SummernoteWidget(),
        }

You can also customize the toolbar options, height, and language by adding settings in settings.py:

SUMMERNOTE_CONFIG = {
    'summernote': {
        'toolbar': [
            ['style', ['bold', 'italic', 'underline']],
            ['para', ['ul', 'ol', 'paragraph']],
            ['insert', ['link', 'picture']],
        ],
        'height': 300,
        'lang': 'en-US',
    }
}

2. Django CKEditor

Django CKEditor integrates CKEditor, one of the most powerful WYSIWYG editors available. CKEditor is feature-rich, making it suitable for complex content management systems and large-scale projects.

Key Features:

• Highly customizable toolbar with rich formatting options.
• Supports embedding media, file upload, and image insertion.
• Has a dedicated file browser for media management.
• Plugins for additional features like code highlighting, math equations, etc.

Installation:

pip install django-ckeditor

Configuration:

1. Add ckeditor and ckeditor_uploader (if using the file upload feature) to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'ckeditor',
    'ckeditor_uploader',
]

2. Configure CKEditor in settings.py:

CKEDITOR_UPLOAD_PATH = "uploads/"
CKEDITOR_CONFIGS = {
    'default': {
        'toolbar': 'full',
        'height': 400,
        'width': 'auto',
        'extraPlugins': ','.join([
            'uploadimage',  # For file uploads
            'codesnippet',  # Code syntax highlighting
        ]),
    },
}

3. Include the CKEditor URLs in urls.py:

from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('ckeditor/', include('ckeditor_uploader.urls')),
]

4. Use CKEditorWidget in your forms:

from ckeditor.widgets import CKEditorWidget
from django import forms
from .models import YourModel

class YourModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = YourModel
        fields = ['content']
        widgets = {
            'content': CKEditorWidget(),
        }

3. Django TinyMCE

Django TinyMCE is a wrapper around the TinyMCE editor, another powerful and widely-used JavaScript WYSIWYG editor. TinyMCE is known for its extensibility and robust plugin system.

Key Features:

• Highly customizable with support for a wide array of plugins.
• File and image uploads.
• Built-in spell check and language support.
• Mobile-friendly and responsive.

Installation:

pip install django-tinymce

Configuration:

1. Add tinymce to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'tinymce',
]

2. Include TinyMCE URLs in urls.py:

from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('tinymce/', include('tinymce.urls')),
]

3. Configure TinyMCE in settings.py:

TINYMCE_DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
    'height': 360,
    'width': 600,
    'cleanup_on_startup': True,
    'custom_undo_redo_levels': 20,
    'toolbar': 'undo redo | bold italic | alignleft aligncenter alignright | bullist numlist outdent indent',
    'menubar': False,
}

4. Use TinyMCE widget in your Django forms:

from tinymce.widgets import TinyMCE
from django import forms
from .models import YourModel

class YourModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = YourModel
        fields = ['content']
        widgets = {
            'content': TinyMCE(),
        }

4. Django Quill

Django Quill integrates the Quill editor, which is an open-source WYSIWYG editor focused on simplicity and extensibility. Quill is lightweight and provides a minimalistic approach to text editing.

Key Features:

• Simple, clean interface.
• Extensible through modules (e.g., syntax highlighting, image resizing).
• Modern design with built-in mobile support.
• Excellent for projects requiring a straightforward editor without too many complex features.

Installation:

pip install django-quill-editor

Configuration:

1. Add django_quill to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django_quill',
]

2. Configure Quill in settings.py (optional):

QUILL_CONFIGS = {
    'theme': 'snow',  # Other options: 'bubble'
    'modules': {
        'toolbar': [
            ['bold', 'italic', 'underline', 'strike'],        # toggled buttons
            ['blockquote', 'code-block'],

            [{'header': 1}, {'header': 2}],               # custom button values
            [{'list': 'ordered'}, {'list': 'bullet'}],
            [{'script': 'sub'}, {'script': 'super'}],      # superscript/subscript
            [{'direction': 'rtl'}],                         # text direction

            [{'size': ['small', False, 'large', 'huge']}],  # custom dropdown
            [{'header': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, False]}],

            [{'color': []}, {'background': []}],          # dropdown with defaults
            [{'font': []}],
            [{'align': []}],

            ['clean']                                         # remove formatting button
        ]
    }
}

3. Use the QuillWidget in your Django forms:

from django_quill.widgets import QuillWidget
from django import forms
from .models import YourModel

class YourModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = YourModel
        fields = ['content']
        widgets = {
            'content': QuillWidget(),
        }

Conclusion

Django offers several powerful WYSIWYG editor integrations to enhance user experience in content creation. Whether you need a simple editor like Django Summernote, a feature-rich tool like Django CKEditor, or a lightweight and modern editor like Django Quill, there’s a library that fits your project’s requirements.

• Django Summernote: Lightweight, quick setup, great for smaller projects.
• Django CKEditor: Full-featured, highly customizable, ideal for complex content needs.
• Django TinyMCE: Powerful with many plugins, perfect for professional-grade projects.
• Django Quill: Simple, modern, and easy to use, excellent for minimalist applications.

By selecting the right editor and configuring it properly, you can provide a seamless content creation experience for your users. Happy coding!