How To Add A Custom Rich Text-Editor In Your Django Website

Are you looking to add a custom rich text editor to your Django website, but not sure where to start? In this blog post, we will walk you through the steps to add a custom rich text editor to your Django website, and provide some tips on customizing the editor to suit your needs.

Step 1: Install a rich text editor package

The first step to adding a custom rich text editor to your Django website is to install a rich text editor package. There are several options available, such as django-ckeditor, django-tinymce, and django-summernote. In this tutorial, we will use django-ckeditor as an example.

To install django-ckeditor, open a terminal and run the following command:

pip install django-ckeditor

Step 2: Add the package to your INSTALLED_APPS list

After the package has been installed, you need to add it to your INSTALLED_APPS list in your Django project's settings.py file. This will let Django know that you want to use the package in your project.

Open the settings.py file and add the package name to the INSTALLED_APPS list, like this:

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

Step 3: Use the RichTextField in your model

Next, you can use the RichTextField provided by the package in your model's definition. This field will be used to store the rich text content entered by the user in the editor.

Open your model file and add the RichTextField to the model, like this:

from ckeditor.fields import RichTextField

class Post(models.Model):
    ...
    body = RichTextField()
    ...

Run the following commands to create the necessary database tables:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Step 4: Use the rich text editor widget in your form

In your Django form, you will need to use the rich text editor widget provided by the package, instead of the default text area widget. This will enable the rich text editor in your form, allowing the user to enter and edit rich text content.

Open your form file and import the widget, like this:

from ckeditor.widgets import CKEditorWidget

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    ...
    body = forms.CharField(widget=CKEditorWidget())
    ...

Step 5: Use the template tag in your template

In your template, you will need to use the appropriate template tag provided by the package to render the rich text editor. This will enable the editor in your template, allowing the user to view and edit the rich text content.

For django-ckeditor, you can use the ckeditor template tag, like this:

{% load ckeditor %}

<form method="POST">
    ...
    {{ form.body|ckeditor }}
    ...
</form>

optinal things you can
Finally, you can customize the editor's configuration and appearance, if necessary, by modifying the package's settings in your project's settings.py file. For example, to enable the "Code Snippet" plugin in django-ckeditor, you can add the following settings to your settings.py file:

CKEDITOR_CONFIGS = {
    'default': {
        'toolbar': [
            ...
            {'name': 'codesnippet', 'items': ['CodeSnippet']},
            ...
        ],
    },
}

With these steps, you should now have a custom rich text editor integrated into your Django website. You can continue to customize the editor and its settings to suit your needs.

I hope this tutorial has been helpful in showing you how to add a custom rich text editor to your Django website. Happy coding!

Thank you for reading my article! If you enjoyed it and would like to support my work, please consider buying me a coffee at Buy Me a Coffee. You can also learn more about me and my work by visiting my Giasuddin Bio and following me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you for your support!