Adding Word-Processing Capabilities to Form

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1

I just added a Comments Form to my website.

If I want my Form to have “Word-Processing” capabilities exactly like this form that I am typing into has, then what do I need to do?!

Also, what are the Pros/Cons of offering such an “Editor”? (I assume most people would appreciate it?)

Does it expose me to mega Security Risks?! :-/

Thanks,

Debbie

2

You could add a rich text editor such as CKEditor to your form, it’s the same one used here on SP.

Pros:

  • it’ll be easier for your visitors to mark up their comments
  • you can easily add extra plugins to expand the functionality of the editor

Cons:

  • pages may take a little longer to load
  • you’ll have to be extra careful keeping the plugin up-to-date
  • you’ll have to be extra careful checking and escaping what your visitors enter, and stripping out unwanted HTML/ Script/ CSS
  • if you want your users to be able to enter BBCode instead of HTML, you’ll need to find a special plugin to do that - this forum uses some custom script to turn the rich text editor into a bbcode editor

As for security risks, yes, you’ll have to be extra careful, RTE’s are quite often misused as attack vectors. But as long as you keep everything up-to-date, it should be OK.

3

How hard is it to implement CKEditor and get something that looks professional?

Cons:

  • pages may take a little longer to load
  • you’ll have to be extra careful keeping the plugin up-to-date

What does that entail? Updates monthly? weekly? daily?

  • you’ll have to be extra careful checking and escaping what your visitors enter, and stripping out unwanted HTML/ Script/ CSS

As for security risks, yes, you’ll have to be extra careful, RTE’s are quite often misused as attack vectors. But as long as you keep everything up-to-date, it should be OK.

I know this isn’t the PHP forum, but what will take?

Tons of fancy code?!

(I spent two weeks learning how to write what I believe to be a secure “Upload a Photo” module…)

Debbie