SimpleMDE - Markdown Editor

A drop-in JavaScript textarea replacement for writing beautiful and understandable Markdown. The WYSIWYG-esque editor allows users who may be less experienced with Markdown to use familiar toolbar buttons and shortcuts. In addition, the syntax is rendered while editing to clearly show the expected result. Headings are larger, emphasized words are italicized, links are underlined, etc. SimpleMDE is one of the first editors to feature both built-in autosaving and spell checking.

Demo

Why not a WYSIWYG editor or pure Markdown?

WYSIWYG editors that produce HTML are often complex and buggy. Markdown solves this problem in many ways, plus Markdown can be rendered natively on more platforms than HTML. However, Markdown is not a syntax that an average user will be familiar with, nor is it visually clear while editing. In otherwords, for an unfamiliar user, the syntax they write will make little sense until they click the preview button. SimpleMDE has been designed to bridge this gap for non-technical users who are less familiar with or just learning Markdown syntax.

Install

Via npm.

npm install simplemde --save

Via bower.

bower install simplemde --save

Via jsDelivr. Please note, jsDelivr may take a few days to update to the latest release.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/simplemde/latest/simplemde.min.css">
<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/simplemde/latest/simplemde.min.js"></script>

Quick start

After installing, load SimpleMDE on the first textarea on a page

<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
</script>

Using a specific textarea

Pure JavaScript method

<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({ element: document.getElementById("MyID") });
</script>

jQuery method

<script>
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({ element: $("#MyID")[0] });
</script>

Get/set the content

simplemde.value();

simplemde.value("This text will appear in the editor");

Configuration

• autoDownloadFontAwesome: If set to true, force downloads Font Awesome (used for icons). If set to false, prevents downloading. Defaults to undefined, which will intelligently check whether Font Awesome has already been included, then download accordingly.
• autofocus: If set to true, autofocuses the editor. Defaults to false.
• autosave: Saves the text that's being written and will load it back in the future. It will forget the text when the form it's contained in is submitted.
  • enabled: If set to true, autosave the text. Defaults to false.
  • delay: Delay between saves, in milliseconds. Defaults to 10000 (10s).
  • uniqueId: You must set a unique string identifier so that SimpleMDE can autosave. Something that separates this from other instances of SimpleMDE elsewhere on your website.
• blockStyles: Customize how certain buttons that style blocks of text behave.
  • bold Can be set to ** or __. Defaults to **.
  • italic Can be set to * or _. Defaults to *.
• element: The DOM element for the textarea to use. Defaults to the first textarea on the page.
• hideIcons: An array of icon names to hide. Can be used to hide specific icons shown by default without completely customizing the toolbar.
• indentWithTabs: If set to false, indent using spaces instead of tabs. Defaults to true.
• initialValue: If set, will customize the initial value of the editor.
• insertTexts: Customize how certain buttons that insert text behave. Takes an array with two elements. The first element will be the text inserted before the cursor or highlight, and the second element will be inserted after. For example, this is the default link value: ["[", "](http://)"].
  • horizontalRule
  • image
  • link
  • table
• lineWrapping: If set to false, disable line wrapping. Defaults to true.
• parsingConfig: Adjust settings for parsing the Markdown during editing (not previewing).
  • allowAtxHeaderWithoutSpace: If set to true, will render headers without a space after the #. Defaults to false.
  • strikethrough: If set to false, will not process GFM strikethrough syntax. Defaults to true.
  • underscoresBreakWords: If set to true, let underscores be a delimiter for separating words. Defaults to false.
• previewRender: Custom function for parsing the plaintext Markdown and returning HTML. Used when user previews.
• renderingConfig: Adjust settings for parsing the Markdown during previewing (not editing).
  • singleLineBreaks: If set to false, disable parsing GFM single line breaks. Defaults to true.
  • codeSyntaxHighlighting: If set to true, will highlight using highlight.js. Defaults to false. To use this feature you must include highlight.js on your page. For example, include the script and the CSS files like:
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/highlight.js/latest/highlight.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/highlight.js/latest/styles/github.min.css">
• showIcons: An array of icon names to show. Can be used to show specific icons hidden by default without completely customizing the toolbar.
• spellChecker: If set to false, disable the spell checker. Defaults to true.
• status: If set to false, hide the status bar. Defaults to true.
  • Optionally, you can set an array of status bar elements to include, and in what order.
• tabSize: If set, customize the tab size. Defaults to 2.
• toolbar: If set to false, hide the toolbar. Defaults to the array of icons.
• toolbarTips: If set to false, disable toolbar button tips. Defaults to true.

// Most options demonstrate the non-default behavior
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	autofocus: true,
	autosave: {
		enabled: true,
		uniqueId: "MyUniqueID",
		delay: 1000,
	},
	blockStyles: {
		bold: "__",
		italic: "_"
	},
	element: document.getElementById("MyID"),
	hideIcons: ["guide", "heading"],
	indentWithTabs: false,
	initialValue: "Hello world!",
	insertTexts: {
		horizontalRule: ["", "\n\n-----\n\n"],
		image: ["![](http://", ")"],
		link: ["[", "](http://)"],
		table: ["", "\n\n| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |\n| -------- | -------- | -------- |\n| Text     | Text      | Text     |\n\n"],
	},
	lineWrapping: false,
	parsingConfig: {
		allowAtxHeaderWithoutSpace: true,
		strikethrough: false,
		underscoresBreakWords: true,
	},
	previewRender: function(plainText) {
		return customMarkdownParser(plainText); // Returns HTML from a custom parser
	},
	previewRender: function(plainText, preview) { // Async method
		setTimeout(function(){
			preview.innerHTML = customMarkdownParser(plainText);
		}, 250);
		
		return "Loading...";
	},
	renderingConfig: {
		singleLineBreaks: false,
		codeSyntaxHighlighting: true,
	},
	showIcons: ["code", "table"],
	spellChecker: false,
	status: false,
	status: ["autosave", "lines", "words", "cursor"], // Optional usage
	tabSize: 4,
	toolbar: false,
	toolbarTips: false,
});

Toolbar icons

Below are the built-in toolbar icons (only some of which are enabled by default), which can be reorganized however you like. "Name" is the name of the icon, referenced in the JS. "Action" is either a function or a URL to open. "Class" is the class given to the icon. "Tooltip" is the small tooltip that appears via the title="" attribute. Any Ctrl or Alt in the title tags will be converted automatically to their Mac equivalents when needed. Additionally, you can add a separator between any icons by adding "|" to the toolbar array.

Name	Action	Tooltip Class
bold	toggleBold	Bold (Ctrl+B) fa fa-bold
italic	toggleItalic	Italic (Ctrl+I) fa fa-italic
strikethrough	toggleStrikethrough	Strikethrough fa fa-strikethrough
heading	toggleHeadingSmaller	Heading (Ctrl+H) fa fa-header
heading-smaller	toggleHeadingSmaller	Smaller Heading (Ctrl+H) fa fa-header
heading-bigger	toggleHeadingBigger	Bigger Heading (Shift+Ctrl+H) fa fa-lg fa-header
heading-1	toggleHeading1	Big Heading fa fa-header fa-header-x fa-header-1
heading-2	toggleHeading2	Medium Heading fa fa-header fa-header-x fa-header-2
heading-3	toggleHeading3	Small Heading fa fa-header fa-header-x fa-header-3
code	toggleCodeBlock	Code (Ctrl+Alt+C) fa fa-code
quote	toggleBlockquote	Quote (Ctrl+') fa fa-quote-left
unordered-list	toggleUnorderedList	Generic List (Ctrl+L) fa fa-list-ul
ordered-list	toggleOrderedList	Numbered List (Ctrl+Alt+L) fa fa-list-ol
link	drawLink	Create Link (Ctrl+K) fa fa-link
image	drawImage	Insert Image (Ctrl+Alt+I) fa fa-picture-o
table	drawTable	Insert Table fa fa-table
horizontal-rule	drawHorizontalRule	Insert Horizontal Line fa fa-minus
preview	togglePreview	Toggle Preview (Ctrl+P) fa fa-eye no-disable
side-by-side	toggleSideBySide	Toggle Side by Side (F9) fa fa-columns no-disable no-mobile
fullscreen	toggleFullScreen	Toggle Fullscreen (F11) fa fa-arrows-alt no-disable no-mobile
guide	This link	Markdown Guide fa fa-question-circle

Customize the toolbar using the toolbar option like:

// Customize only the order of existing buttons
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	toolbar: ["bold", "italic", "heading", "|", "quote"],
});

// Customize all information and/or add your own icons
var simplemde = new SimpleMDE({
	toolbar: [{
			name: "bold",
			action: SimpleMDE.toggleBold,
			className: "fa fa-bold",
			title: "Bold (Ctrl+B)",
		},
		{
			name: "custom",
			action: customFunction(editor){
				// Add your own code
			},
			className: "fa fa-star",
			title: "Custom Button",
		},
		"|", // Separator
		...
	],
});

Height

To change the minimum height (before it starts auto-growing):

.CodeMirror, .CodeMirror-scroll {
	min-height: 200px;
}

Or, you can keep the height static:

.CodeMirror {
	height: 300px;
}

Event handling

You can catch the following list of events: https://codemirror.net/doc/manual.html#events

var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
simplemde.codemirror.on("change", function(){
	console.log(simplemde.value());
});

Useful methods

The following self-explanatory methods may be of use while developing with SimpleMDE.

var simplemde = new SimpleMDE();
simplemde.isPreviewActive(); // returns boolean
simplemde.isSideBySideActive(); // returns boolean
simplemde.isFullscreenActive(); // returns boolean
simplemde.clearAutosavedValue(); // no returned value

jQuery validation

To mimic the jQuery validation on the editor, you can use the following code.

    editor.codemirror.on("change", function() {
        var element = $(editor.element);
        $(element).val(editor.value());
        $(element).trigger('keyup');
    });

    editor.codemirror.on("focus", function() {
        $(editor.element).trigger('focus');
    });

    editor.codemirror.on("blur", function() {
        $(editor.element).trigger('blur');
    });

How it works

SimpleMDE is an improvement of lepture's Editor project and includes a great many number of changes. It is bundled with CodeMirror and depends on Font Awesome.

CodeMirror is the backbone of the project and parses much of the Markdown syntax as it's being written. This allows us to add styles to the Markdown that's being written. Additionally, a toolbar and status bar have been added to the top and bottom, respectively. Previews are rendered by Marked using GFM.

What's changed?

As mentioned earlier, SimpleMDE is an improvement of lepture's Editor project. So you might be wondering, what's changed? Quite a bit actually. Here's some notable changes:

• Upgraded from CodeMirror 3 to CodeMirror 5
• Many changes to the style, appearance, and user friendliness
• Interface more closely resembles Bootstrap
• Now mobile friendly
• Option to autosave the text as you type
• Now spell checks what you write
• The text editor now automatically grows as you type more
• Fixed a large amount of bugs
• Switched to Font Awesome icons
• Improved preview rendering in many ways
• Improved as-you-type appearance of headers and code blocks
• Simplified the toolbar
• Many new options during instantiation
• New icons and tooltips
• Additional keyboard shortcuts