Rich text field

The rich text field (RichTextFieldDefinition) is powered by CKEditor 5. It is a custom Magnolia field. The field properties allow you to configure some CKEditor features in the rich text field.

This rich text field definition is part of the Magnolia 6 UI framework. The fully qualified class name is info.magnolia.ui.field.RichTextFieldDefinition.

CKEditor 4 migration to CKEditor 5

Magnolia 6.2 uses CKEditor 4 in its rich text field. Magnolia 6.3 is released with CKEditor 5. While most field properties from Magnolia 6.2 are supported, CKEditor 4 and CKEditor 5 are very different in their core architecture. For this reason, Magnolia recommends previewing any content transferred from CKEditor 4 in Magnolia 6.2 and checking that the content is published as you want it.

In particular, you should check their compatibility tables for configuration and plugins to determine which content might be affected. Furthermore, follow their migration guidelines to ensure a smooth transition of any content.

Rich text vs light rich text field

Alternatively, if you’re considering using a Rich text field as part of a blog post template, consider using a Light rich text field. The Light rich text field is a special type of rich text field provided by the Content Editor module. Compared to the rich text field, the light rich text field has limited formatting functions. In addition, the field can only be used as a content block in a custom content editor.

Configuration

Example definition

richText:
  $type: richTextField
  label: Text editor
  height: 300
  tables: true
  source: true

You can preview this example using the field-examples-module. See Field examples module for more information.

Field properties

Field-specific properties

Property Description

ckEditorVersion

optional, default is CKEDITOR_5

This property sets the version of CKEditor. You don’t need to add it to your field definitions in Magnolia 6.3.

You must check the migration recommendations when migrating rich text field definitions from Magnolia 6.2. In particular, the configJsFile property is deprecated in Magnolia 6.3.

alignment

optional, default is false

Allows text alignment for paragraphs. When true, this property adds alignment buttons (left, center, right, and justify) to the toolbar.

colors

optional

Colors displayed in the color selector. Comma-separated hexadecimal color codes without the # prefix (for example, 00923E,F8C100,28166F).

fonts

optional

List of font names displayed in the font selector. Separate entries with a semi-colon (for example, Arial,sans-serif;Times New Roman,serif). It is possible to have more than one font for each entry separated by a comma. A display name may be optionally defined by prefixing the entries with the name and the slash character.

Your browser selects the nearest supported font from the font family’s list to render the text. Alternatively, you can use the font plugin’s default values. For example, when you want to load a list of default fonts, define an empty string in the definition.

$type: richTextField
fonts: ""

fontSizes

optional

List of fonts sizes displayed in the font selector. Separate entries with a semi-colon (for example, 16/16px;24/24px;48/48px). Any CSS-supported size can be used (for example, 12px, 2.3em, 130%, tiny, small, big, or huge). A display name may be optionally defined by prefixing the entries with the name and the slash character. For example, Bigger Font/14px will be displayed as Bigger Font in the list and outputted as 14px.

height

optional, default is -1

Height of the field (including the toolbar). This property accepts an integer (to denote a value in pixels). Value of -1 means that the component will take the minimum necessary space.

images

optional, default is false

Allows images from the DAM. When true, this property adds an image button to the toolbar. The user can define the size and alignment of the image and some metadata.

lists

optional, default is true

Allows bulleted and numbered lists. When false, this property removes list buttons from the toolbar.

source

optional, default is false

Allows toggling between text and HTML editing. When true, this property adds a source button to the toolbar.

tables

optional, default is false

Allows tables. When true, this property adds a table button to the toolbar.

linkFieldDefinitions

optional

List of JCR or DAM link field definitions. It can be used to provide custom chooser dialogs.

Example configuration
linkFieldDefinitions:
  website:
    $type: pageLinkField
  dam:
    $type: damLinkField

editorType

optional

Use this property to specify which editor you want to use from the ones configured in your custom build, for example, BalloonEditor or ClassicEditor.

Common simple field properties

Property Description

name

required

Name of the field definition item. Derived from the configured node name. Use alphanumeric characters without spaces.

class

required (unless $type is used)

Type of the field definition item. The value must be a fully qualified class name and a subtype of info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldDefinition. See Field types for possible values.

$type

You can use this as a shortcut for class if the definition class is annotated with info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldType. The proper value is defined by the annotation.

Example class annotation
@FieldType("textField")
public class TextFieldDefinition extends ConfiguredFieldDefinition<String> {
...
}

See Field types for possible values.

type

optional

Property type of the field.

A default type is typically hard-coded in each definition class. You only need to add this property if you want to override the default implementation.

In text fields, make sure that type has a value matching the type of data you entered (for example, java.lang.Long for long values) and that converterClass is set accordingly.

Example definition
text:
  $type: textField
  type: java.lang.Long
  converterClass: com.vaadin.data.converter.StringToLongConverter

You can’t configure this property through YAML but it can be used in your Java code.

converterClass

optional

Converts values between the presentation (UI) and model (stored data). The property must extend com.vaadin.data.Converter. Available classes:

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrNodeToIdentifierConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrNodeToPathConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrNodeToWorkspaceAndIdConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrPathToIdentifierConverter

com.vaadin.data.converter.StringToBigDecimalConverter and com.vaadin.data.converter.StringToDoubleConverter always round the presentation value by default. For non-rounding converters, use the following classes instead:

  • info.magnolia.ui.field.converter.NonRoundingStringToBigDecimalConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.field.converter.NonRoundingStringToDoubleConverter

You can’t configure this property through YAML but it can be used in your Java code.

conversionErrorMessage

optional, default is translated conversion.message.error key

Message shown when there is an error in the conversion process. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

defaultValue

optional

Pre-filled default value displayed in the field. The value can be overwritten by the user. Use alphanumeric characters.

This is only applied only when creating a new item, not for existing items.

For defaultValue to work, the populate property in info.magnolia.ui.dialog.actions.OpenDialogActionDefinition must be set to false.

description

optional

Help text displayed when the user clicks the help icon. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

factoryClass

optional

Defines the factory class that initializes and builds the Vaadin form field. The default factory class depends on the particular field.

The value must be a fully qualified class name and a subtype of info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldFactory.

You can’t configure this property through YAML but it can be used in your Java code.

fieldBinderClass

optional

Defines the binder class that applies configuration parameters from the field.

i18n

optional, default is false

Enables i18n authoring support, which allows editors to write foreign-language or regionally targeted content. A two-letter language identifier (en, de, fr, etc.) is displayed on controls where i18n is set to true.

label

optional

Field label displayed to editors. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

If you do not provide the property, Magnolia will fall back to a generated i18n key.

If you do not want to have any label, set the property to an empty string such as label: "" in YAML.

readOnly

optional, default is false

Makes the field uneditable.

required

optional, default is false (not relevant for checkbox field)

Makes the field required. When true, an asterisk is displayed next to the field label.

When false, empty values are accepted as valid. For those empty values, any field validators are ignored.

requiredErrorMessage

optional, default is translated validation.message.required key

Error message shown when required is set to true and the user saves an empty field. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

styleName

optional

Additional style information for an editor property definition item applied to the element when the form is rendered. The value can be a CSS class or a list of CSS classes separated by white spaces.

The style name will be rendered as an HTML class name, which can be used in a CSS definition. The class name is added to the field by calling the Vaadin method addStyleName.

The referenced class can be defined in:

validators

optional

List of field validator definition items. Any value must be a subtype of info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldValidatorDefinition.

See Field validators for more information.

More example definitions

The first way to change the rich text field is by adding YAML field properties. The example at the top of the page is extended below to include colors, fonts, and font sizes in the CKEditor dialog toolbar.

form:
  properties:
    richText:
      $type: richTextField
      label: Magnolia richTextField
      height: 300
      tables: true
      source: true
      colors: 00923E,F8C100,28166F
      fonts: Arial/Arial,sans-serif;Times New Roman/Times New Roman,serif;Verdana
      fontSizes: 16/16px;24/24px;48/48px

Rich text field - custom YAML

Decode CKEdtior output text

If the content from a rich text field is not decoded, you can see the HTML tags when previewing the page in Magnolia. When the content is decoded in the respective FTL file, the content is displayed without the HTML elements.

  • Preview before decoding

  • Preview after decoding

Rich text content not decoded

Rich text content decoded

CKEditor produces HTML such as <p> elements for paragraphs. However, text stored in JCR usually escapes HTML code. To render text that originates from a rich text field, you need to decode the stored content to make sure the HTML tags are rendered properly again.

Here is how to decode the content object in your FTL file and get the desired property from it:

${cmsfn.decode(content).text!""}

See cmsfn: Decode HTML for more information.

Customization

For more details, see CKEditor 5 customization. If you are using CKEditor 4 for customization, set the ckEditorVersion property to CKEDITOR_4 and follow the CKEditor 4 customization documentation on creating a CKEditor configuration file.

You can’t currently use CKEditor 4 and CKEditor 5 in the same webapp because it may lead to unpredictable behavior. For example, if you edit a CKEditor field, its toolbar might not display until the page refreshes.
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