Toolbar in ASP.NET MVC RichTextEditor control

ASP.NET MVC

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20 Apr 2021 / 6 minutes to read

The Rich Text Editor’s toolbar contains a collection of tools such as bold, italic and text alignment buttons that are used to format the content. However, in most integrations, it’s desirable to change the toolbar configuration to suit needs. Fortunately, that’s quite easy to do too.

To create Rich Text Editor with Markdown editing feature, it can be added by defining the Toolbar as a collection of built-in items.

The Rich Text Editor allows you to configure different types of toolbar using Type field in ToolbarSettings property. The types of toolbar are:

Expand
MultiRow

The default mode of Type is Expand, it will hide the overflowing items in the next row. By clicking the expand arrow, view the overflowing toolbar items.

razor

controller.cs

@using Syncfusion.EJ2.RichTextEditor

<div style="width:500px; margin:0 auto;">
    @Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("toolbar-types").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>).ToolbarSettings(e => { e.Type(ToolbarType.Expand); }).Render()
</div>

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

Set the type as MultiRow in ToolbarSettings to moves the overflowing items in the next row. All toolbar items are visible.

razor

controller.cs

@using Syncfusion.EJ2.RichTextEditor

<div style="width:500px; margin:0 auto;">
    @Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("toolbar-types").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>).ToolbarSettings(e => { e.Type(ToolbarType.MultiRow); }).Render()
</div>

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

By default, toolbar is float at the top of the Rich Text Editor on scrolling. By disabling the EnableFloating, toolbar at the top of the content area of Rich Text Editor. Floating toolbar offset can be customize by specifies the offset of the floating toolbar from documents top position using FloatingToolbarOffset.

Enable or disable the floating toolbar using EnableFloating of ToolbarSettings property.

razor

controller.cs

@using Syncfusion.EJ2.RichTextEditor
<div class="control-wrapper">
    <div class="control-section">
        @Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("toolbar-floating").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>).Created("created").Height("720px").ToolbarSettings(e => { e.Type(ToolbarType.Expand).EnableFloating(false); }).Render()
    </div>
    <div class="col-lg-4">
        <span id="props"> Enable/Disable Floating: </span>
        @Html.EJS().CheckBox("float").Checked(false).Label("Enable Floating").Change("checkchange").Render()
    </div>
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var defaultRTE;
    function created() {
        defaultRTE = this;
    }
    function checkchange(args) {
        defaultRTE.toolbarSettings.enableFloating = args.checked;
        defaultRTE.dataBind();
    }
</script>

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

The following table lists the available tools on the toolbar.

Name	Summary	Initialization
Undo	Allows to undo the actions.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Undo’]}
Redo	Allows to redo the actions.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Redo’]}
Alignment	Align the content with left, center, and right margin.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Alignments’]}
OrderedList	Create a new list item(numbered).	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘OrderedList’]}
UnorderedList	Create a new list item(bulleted).	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘UnorderedList’]}
Indent	Allows to increase the indent level of the content.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Indent’]}
Outdent	Allows to decrease the indent level of the content.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Outdent’]}
Hyperlink	Creates a hyperlink to a text or image to a specific location in the content.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘CreateLink’]}
Images	Inserts an image from an online source or local computer.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Image’]}
LowerCase	Change the case of selected text to lower in the content.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘LowerCase’]}
UpperCase	Change the case of selected text to upper in the content.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘UpperCase’’]}
SubScript	Makes the selected text as subscript (lower).	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘SubScript’]}
SuperScript	Makes the selected text as superscript (higher).	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘SuperScript’’]}
Print	Allows to print the editor content.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Print’]}
FontName	Defines the fonts that appear under the Font Family DropDownList from the Rich Text Editor’s toolbar.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘FontName’]}
FontSize	Defines the font sizes that appear under the Font Size DropDownList from the Rich Text Editor’s toolbar.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘FontSize’]}
FontColor	Specifies an array of colors can be used in the colors popup for font color.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘FontColor’]}
BackgroundColor	Specifies an array of colors can be used in the colors popup for background color.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘BackgroundColor’]}
Format	An Object with the options that will appear in the Paragraph Format dropdown from the toolbar.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘Formats’]}
StrikeThrough	Apply double line strike through formatting for the selected text.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘StrikeThrough’]}
ClearFormat	The clear format tool is useful to remove all formatting styles (such as bold, italic, underline, color, superscript, subscript, and more) from currently selected text. As a result, all the text formatting will be cleared and return to its default formatting styles.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘ClearFormat’]}
FullScreen	Stretches the editor to the maximum width and height of the browser window.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘FullScreen’]}
SourceCode	Rich Text Editor includes the ability for users to directly edit HTML code via “Source View”. If you made any modification in Source view directly, synchronize with Design view.	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘SourceCode’]}
Table	Creates a table to a specific location in the content	toolbarSettings: { items: [‘CreateTable’]}

By default, tool will be arranged in following order.

items: [‘Bold’, ‘Italic’, ‘Underline’, ’|’, ‘Formats’, ‘Alignments’, ‘OrderedList’, ‘UnorderedList’, ’|’, ‘CreateLink’, ‘Image’, ’|’, ‘SourceCode’, ‘Undo’, ‘Redo’]

We can customize the tools order as our application requirement. If you are not specifying any tools order, the editor will create the toolbar with default items.

Custom Tool

The Rich Text Editor allows you to configure your own commands to its toolbar using ToolbarSettings property. The command can be plain text, icon, or HTML template. You can also define the order and group where the command should be included. Bind the action to the command by getting its instance.

This sample shows how to add your own commands to toolbar of the Rich Text Editor. The “Ω” command is added to insert special characters in the editor.

The below code snippet, for custom tool with tooltip text which will be included in Items field of ToolbarSettings property.

var tools = new {
    tooltipText = "Insert Symbol",
        template = "<button class='e-tbar-btn e-btn' tabindex='-1' id='custom_tbar'  style='width:100%'><div class='e-tbar-btn-text rtecustomtool' style='font-weight: 500;'> &#937;</div></button>"
};
ViewBag.items = new object[] { "Bold", "Italic", "Underline", "|", "Formats", "Alignments", "OrderedList",
    "UnorderedList", "|", "CreateLink", "Image", "|", "SourceCode", tools
    , "|", "Undo", "Redo"
};

Click the “Ω” command to show the special characters list, and then choose the character to be inserted in the editor.

razor

controller.cs

<div id="rteSection">
    @Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("customtool").ContentTemplate(@<div><p>
    The custom command 'insert special character' is configured as the last item of the toolbar.
    Click on the command and choose the special character you want to include from the popup.
</p></div>).Created("created").ToolbarSettings(e => e.Items((object)ViewBag.items)).Render()

    @Html.EJS().Dialog("customTbarDialog").Visible(false).Header("Special Characters").Created("onDialogCreate").ZIndex(1000).ShowCloseIcon(false).IsModal(true).OverlayClick("dialogOverlay").Buttons(e =>
    {
    e.ButtonModel(ViewBag.button).Click("onInsert").Add();
    e.ButtonModel(ViewBag.button1).Click("dialogOverlay").Add();
}).ContentTemplate(@<div id="rteSpecial_char">
        <div class="char_block" title="^">^</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="_">_</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="`">`</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="{">{</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="|">|</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="}">}</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="~">~</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="&nbsp;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¡">¡</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¢">¢</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="£">£</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¤">¤</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¥">¥</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="₹">₹</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¦">¦</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="§">§</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¨">¨</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="©">©</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="ª">ª</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="«">«</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¬">¬</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="-">-</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="®">®</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¯">¯</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="°">°</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="±">±</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="²">²</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="³">³</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="´">´</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="µ">µ</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¶">¶</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="·">·</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¸">¸</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¹">¹</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="º">º</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="»">»</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¼">¼</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="½">½</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¾">¾</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="¿">¿</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="À">À</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="Á">Á</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="Â">Â</div>
        <div class="char_block" title="Ã">Ã</div>
    </div>).Render()

</div>
<script>
    var defaultRTE, selection, ranges, dialog;

    function onDialogCreate() {
        dialog = this;
        dialog.element.style.maxHeight = '300px';
    }
    function onInsert() {
        var activeEle = dialog.element.querySelector('.char_block.e-active');
        if (defaultRTE.formatter.getUndoRedoStack().length === 0) {
            defaultRTE.formatter.saveData();
        }
        defaultRTE.executeCommand('insertText', activeEle.textContent);
        defaultRTE.formatter.saveData();
        defaultRTE.formatter.enableUndo(defaultRTE);
        dialogOverlay();
    }
    function dialogOverlay() {
        var activeEle = dialog.element.querySelector('.char_block.e-active');
        if (activeEle) {
            activeEle.classList.remove('e-active');
        }
        dialog.hide();
    }
    function created() {
        defaultRTE = this;
        selection = new ej.richtexteditor.NodeSelection();
        var customBtn = defaultRTE.element.querySelector('#custom_tbar');
        customBtn.onclick = function (e) {
            dialog.element.style.display = '';
            ranges = selection.getRange(document);
            dialog.width = defaultRTE.element.offsetWidth * 0.5;
            dialog.dataBind();
            dialog.show();
            var dialogCtn = document.getElementById('rteSpecial_char');
            dialogCtn.onclick = function (e) {
                var target = e.target;
                var activeEle = dialog.element.querySelector('.char_block.e-active');
                if (target.classList.contains('char_block')) {
                    target.classList.add('e-active');
                    if (activeEle) {
                        activeEle.classList.remove('e-active');
                    }
                }
            };
            customBtn.onclick = function (e) {
                defaultRTE.focusIn();
                dialog.element.style.display = '';
                ranges = selection.getRange(document);
                dialog.width = defaultRTE.element.offsetWidth * 0.5;
                dialog.dataBind();
                dialog.show();
            };
        };
    }
</script>
<style>
    #customTbarDialog #special_char,
    #customTbarDialog .char_block {
        display: inline-block;
    }

    #custom_tbar,
    #custom_tbar div {
        cursor: pointer;
    }

    #rteSpecial_char {
        padding: 15px 0 15px 0;
    }

    #customTbarDialog .char_block.e-active {
        outline: 1px solid #e3165b;
        border-color: #e3165b;
    }

    #customTbarDialog .char_block {
        width: 30px;
        height: 30px;
        line-height: 30px;
        margin: 0 5px 5px 0;
        text-align: center;
        vertical-align: middle;
        border: 1px solid #DDDDDD;
        font-size: 20px;
        cursor: pointer;
        user-select: none;
    }

    #custom_tbar .rtecustomtool {
        font-size: 18px;
    }
</style>

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var tools = new
        {
            tooltipText = "Insert Symbol",
            template = "<button class='e-tbar-btn e-btn' tabindex='-1' id='custom_tbar'  style='width:100%'><div class='e-tbar-btn-text rtecustomtool' style='font-weight: 500;'> &#937;</div></button>"
        };
        ViewBag.items = new object[] { "Bold", "Italic", "Underline", "|", "Formats", "Alignments", "OrderedList",
        "UnorderedList", "|", "CreateLink", "Image", "CreateTable", "|", "SourceCode", tools
        , "|", "Undo", "Redo"
            };
        ViewBag.button = new
        {
            content = "Insert",
            isPrimary = true
        };
        ViewBag.button1 = new
        {
            content = "Cancel"
        };

        return View();
    }
}

Quick commands are opened as popup on clicking the corresponding element. The commands must be passed as string collection to image, text, and link attributes of the QuickToolbarSettings property.

Target Element	Default Quick Toolbar items
Image	‘Replace’, ‘Align’, ‘Caption’, ‘Remove’, ‘InsertLink’, ‘Display’, ‘AltText’,‘Dimension’.
Link	‘Open’, ‘Edit’, ‘UnLink’.
Text (`Deprecated`)	‘Cut’, ‘Copy’, ‘Paste’.
Table	‘TableHeader’, ‘TableRows’, ‘TableColumns’, ‘BackgroundColor’, ’-’, ‘TableRemove’, ‘Alignments’, ‘TableCellVerticalAlign’, ‘Styles’.

Custom tool can be added to the corresponding quick toolbar, using QuickToolbarSettings property.

The below sample demonstrates the option to insert the image to the Rich Text Editor content as well as option to rotate the image through the quick toolbar.

razor

controller.cs

<div class="control-section">
    @Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("inline").Created("onCreated").ToolbarClick("onToolbarClick").InlineMode(e => e.Enable(true).OnSelection(true)).ToolbarSettings(e => e.Items((object)ViewBag.items)).QuickToolbarSettings(e => { e.Image((object)ViewBag.image); }).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()
</div>

<style>
    .e-rte-quick-popup .e-rte-quick-toolbar .e-rotate-left::before {
        content: "\e341";
    }

    .e-rte-quick-popup .e-rte-quick-toolbar .e-rotate-right::before {
        content: "\e354";
    }
</style>
<script>
    function onCreated() {
        defaultRTE = this;
    }
    function onToolbarClick(e) {
        var nodeObj = new ej.richtexteditor.NodeSelection();
        var range = nodeObj.getRange(defaultRTE.contentModule.getDocument());
        var imgEle = nodeObj.getNodeCollection(range)[0];
        var transform;
        if (e.item.tooltipText === 'Rotate Right') {
            transform = (imgEle.style.transform === '') ? 0 :
                parseInt(imgEle.style.transform.split('(')[1].split(')')[0], 10);
            imgEle.style.transform = 'rotate(' + (transform + 90) + 'deg)';
        }
        else if (e.item.tooltipText === 'Rotate Left') {
            transform = (imgEle.style.transform === '') ? 0 :
                Math.abs(parseInt(imgEle.style.transform.split('(')[1].split(')')[0], 10));
            imgEle.style.transform = 'rotate(-' + (transform + 90) + 'deg)';
        }
    }
</script>

public class HomeController : Controller
{

    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.items = new[] { "Bold", "Italic", "Underline",
            "Formats", "Alignments", "-", "OrderedList", "UnorderedList", "Image",
             "CreateLink" };
        object tools1 = new
        {
            tooltipText = "Rotate Left",
            template = "<button class='e-tbar-btn e-btn' id='roatateLeft'><span class='e-btn-icon e-icons e-rotate-left'></span>"
        };
        object tools2 = new
        {
            tooltipText = "Rotate Right",
            template = "<button class='e-tbar-btn e-btn' id='roatateRight'><span class='e-btn-icon e-icons e-rotate-right'></span>"
        };
        ViewBag.image = new[] {
            "Replace", "Align", "Caption", "Remove", "InsertLink", "OpenImageLink", "-",
             "EditImageLink", "RemoveImageLink", "Display", "AltText", "Dimension",tools1
             , tools2
             };

        return View();
    }

}

Toolbar in ASP.NET MVC RichTextEditor control

Expand Toolbar

Multi-row Toolbar

Floating Toolbar

Toolbar Items

Custom Tool

Quick Inline Toolbar

See Also