Getting started with ASP.NET MVC RichTextEditor control

22 Jul 2021 / 3 minutes to read

This section briefly explains how to include simple Rich Text Editor control in your ASP.NET MVC application. You can refer to ASP.NET MVC Getting Started documentation page for system requirements, and configure common specifications.

Adding Rich Text Editor Control to the Application

Add the Rich Text Editor control in view page to render our Syncfusion controls.

razor

controller.cs

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("defaultRTE").ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <div>
        <p>The Rich Text Editor is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor useful to create and edit content, and return the valid <a href='https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/RichTextEditor/Overview'>HTML markup</a> or <a href='https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/RichTextEditor/DefaultMode'>markdown</a> of the content</p>
        <p><b> Toolbar </b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> Toolbar contains commands to align the text, insert link, insert image, insert list, undo / redo operations, HTML view, etc </p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Toolbar is fully customizable </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
        <p><b> Links </b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> You can insert a hyperlink with its corresponding dialog</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Attach a hyperlink to the displayed text. </p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Customize the quick toolbar based on the hyperlink </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
        <p><b> Image.</b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> Allows you to insert images from an online source as well as the local computer</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> You can upload an image</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Provides an option to customize quick toolbar for an image </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
    </div>
</div>).Render()

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
}

Initialize from iframe element

Initialize the Rich Text Editor on <div> element as shown below and set the enable field of IframeSettings property as true to render the Rich Text Editor content in an <iframe> and its isolated from the rest of the page.

razor

controller.cs

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("iframe").ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <p>
        The Rich Text Editor control is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor that provides the best user experience to create and update the content.
        Users can format their content using standard toolbar commands.
    </p>
    <p><b> Key features:</b></p>

    <ul>
        <li><p> Provides &lt; IFRAME &gt; and &lt; DIV &gt; modes </p></li>

        <li><p> Capable of handling markdown editing.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains a modular library to load the necessary functionality on demand.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides a fully customizable toolbar.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides HTML view to edit the source directly for developers.</p></li>

        <li><p> Supports third - party library integration.</p></li>

        <li><p> Allows preview of modified content before saving it.</p></li>

        <li><p> Handles images, hyperlinks, video, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains undo / redo manager.</p></li>

        <li><p> Creates bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li>

    </ul>
</div>).IframeSettings(iframeSettings => iframeSettings.Enable(true)).Render()

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
}

Configure the toolbar with the tools using items field of the ToolbarSettings property as your application requires.

razor

controller.cs

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("toolbar").ToolbarSettings(e => e.Items((object)ViewBag.tools)).ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <p>
        The Rich Text Editor control is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor that provides the best user experience to create and update the content.
        Users can format their content using standard toolbar commands.
    </p>
    <p><b> Key features:</b></p>

    <ul>
        <li><p> Provides &lt; IFRAME &gt; and &lt; DIV &gt; modes </p></li>

        <li><p> Capable of handling markdown editing.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains a modular library to load the necessary functionality on demand.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides a fully customizable toolbar.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides HTML view to edit the source directly for developers.</p></li>

        <li><p> Supports third - party library integration.</p></li>

        <li><p> Allows preview of modified content before saving it.</p></li>

        <li><p> Handles images, hyperlinks, video, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains undo / redo manager.</p></li>

        <li><p> Creates bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li>

    </ul>
</div>).Render()

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.tools = new[] {
        "Bold", "Italic", "Underline", "StrikeThrough",
        "FontName", "FontSize", "FontColor", "BackgroundColor",
        "LowerCase", "UpperCase", "|",
        "Formats", "Alignments", "OrderedList", "UnorderedList",
        "Outdent", "Indent", "|",
        "CreateLink", "Image", "CreateTable", "|", "ClearFormat", "Print",
        "SourceCode", "FullScreen", "|", "Undo", "Redo"
            };
        return View();
    }
}

| and - can insert a vertical and horizontal separator lines in the toolbar.

Insert Images and Links

The Image module inserts an image into Rich Text Editor’s content area, and the Link module links external resources such as website URLs, to selected text in the Rich Text Editor’s content, respectively.

The link inject module adds a link icon to the toolbar and the image inject module adds an image icon to the toolbar.

Specifies the items to be rendered in quick toolbar based on the target element such image, link and text element. The quick toolbar opens to customize the element by clicking the target element.

razor

controller.cs

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("image").ToolbarSettings(e => e.Items((object)ViewBag.tools)).ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <p>
        The Rich Text Editor control is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor that provides the best user experience to create and update the content.
        Users can format their content using standard toolbar commands.
    </p>
    <p><b> Key features:</b></p>

    <ul>
        <li><p> Provides &lt; IFRAME &gt; and &lt; DIV &gt; modes </p></li>

        <li><p> Capable of handling markdown editing.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains a modular library to load the necessary functionality on demand.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides a fully customizable toolbar.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides HTML view to edit the source directly for developers.</p></li>

        <li><p> Supports third - party library integration.</p></li>

        <li><p> Allows preview of modified content before saving it.</p></li>

        <li><p> Handles images, hyperlinks, video, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains undo / redo manager.</p></li>

        <li><p> Creates bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li>

    </ul>
</div>).QuickToolbarSettings(e => { e.Image((object)ViewBag.image); }).Render()

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.image = new[] {
        "Replace", "Align", "Caption", "Remove", "InsertLink", "OpenImageLink", "-",
        "EditImageLink", "RemoveImageLink", "Display", "AltText", "Dimension"
            };

        ViewBag.tools = new[] {
        "Bold", "Italic", "Underline", "StrikeThrough",
        "FontName", "FontSize", "FontColor", "BackgroundColor",
        "LowerCase", "UpperCase", "|",
        "Formats", "Alignments", "OrderedList", "UnorderedList",
        "Outdent", "Indent", "|",
        "CreateLink", "Image", "CreateTable", "|", "ClearFormat", "Print",
        "SourceCode", "FullScreen", "|", "Undo", "Redo"
            };
        return View();
    }
}

Send formatted content using XmlHttpRequest

The Html string of the Rich Text Editor can be passed from View to the Controller through the XMLHttpRequest Post action. The HTML value binds to the corresponding mapped controller, and you can access it in the Post action parameter.

razor

mvcController.cs

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("defaultRTE").ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <div>
        <p>The Rich Text Editor is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor useful to create and edit content, and return the valid <a href='https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/RichTextEditor/Overview'>HTML markup</a> or <a href='https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/RichTextEditor/DefaultMode'>markdown</a> of the content</p>
        <p><b> Toolbar </b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> Toolbar contains commands to align the text, insert link, insert image, insert list, undo / redo operations, HTML view, etc </p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Toolbar is fully customizable </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
        <p><b> Links </b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> You can insert a hyperlink with its corresponding dialog</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Attach a hyperlink to the displayed text. </p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Customize the quick toolbar based on the hyperlink </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
        <p><b> Image.</b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> Allows you to insert images from an online source as well as the local computer</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> You can upload an image</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Provides an option to customize quick toolbar for an image </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
    </div>
</div>).Render()

<button id="getRTEvalue">Get RichTextEditor Value</button>

<script>
    document.getElementById('getRTEvalue').addEventListener('click', function () {
        var obj = document.getElementById('defaultRTE').ej2_instances[0];
        var value = JSON.stringify(
          { text: obj.value }
        );
        const Http = new XMLHttpRequest();
        const url = '@Url.Action("Save")';
        Http.open("POST", url);
        Http.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
        Http.send(value);
    });
</script>

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    public class RichTextEditorValue
    {
        public string text { get; set; }
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Save([System.Web.Http.FromBody]RichTextEditorValue value)
    {
        //Get the RichTextEditorValue value here
        string RTEValue = value.text;
        return View();
    }
}

Retrieve the Formatted Content

To retrieve the editor contents, use value property of Rich Text Editor.

  var rteValue = this.rteObj.value;

Or, you can use the public method, getHtml to retrieve the Rich Text Editor content.

  var rteValue = this.rteObj.getHtml();

To fetch the Rich Text Editor’s text content, use getText method of Rich Text Editor.

  var rteValue = this.rteObj.getText();

The final output will be displayed as follows

razor

controller.cs

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("link").ToolbarSettings(e => e.Items((object)ViewBag.tools)).ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <p>
        The Rich Text Editor control is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor that provides the best user experience to create and update the content.
        Users can format their content using standard toolbar commands.
    </p>
    <p><b> Key features:</b></p>

    <ul>
        <li><p> Provides &lt; IFRAME &gt; and &lt; DIV &gt; modes </p></li>

        <li><p> Capable of handling markdown editing.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains a modular library to load the necessary functionality on demand.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides a fully customizable toolbar.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides HTML view to edit the source directly for developers.</p></li>

        <li><p> Supports third - party library integration.</p></li>

        <li><p> Allows preview of modified content before saving it.</p></li>

        <li><p> Handles images, hyperlinks, video, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains undo / redo manager.</p></li>

        <li><p> Creates bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li>

    </ul>
</div>).Render()

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.tools = new[] {
        "Bold", "Italic", "Underline", "StrikeThrough",
        "FontName", "FontSize", "FontColor", "BackgroundColor",
        "LowerCase", "UpperCase", "|",
        "Formats", "Alignments", "OrderedList", "UnorderedList",
        "Outdent", "Indent", "|",
        "CreateLink", "Image", "CreateTable", "|", "ClearFormat", "Print",
        "SourceCode", "FullScreen", "|", "Undo", "Redo"
            };

        return View();
    }
}

Getting started with ASP.NET MVC RichTextEditor control

Adding Rich Text Editor Control to the Application

Initialize from iframe element

Configure the Toolbar

Insert Images and Links

Send formatted content using XmlHttpRequest

Retrieve the Formatted Content

See Also