README

silverstripe-markdown

A Programmer-Friendly Alternative to the Default TinyMCE Editor

Let’s be honest, the current TinyMCE editor used by Silverstripe for editing page content falls short in several ways. Its WYSIWYG interface often fails to accurately reflect what will be displayed on the final page, making content editing a frustrating experience. Manipulating HTML elements within the editor is awkward, with tags either mysteriously disappearing or being added unexpectedly. For those who work with technical content, this is more than a minor inconvenience—it’s a nightmare.

The Problem

For technical bloggers and developers, managing embedded media (videos, images, code snippets) in TinyMCE is a constant challenge. The editor's lack of reliable control over HTML makes the content less portable and error-prone, forcing users to repeatedly fine-tune the formatting to get things right. The result? Wasted time and headaches, especially when consistency across pages is a priority.

The Solution

This Silverstripe module aims to replace the current WYSIWYG approach with a more programmer-friendly editor that uses Markdown. Markdown is widely appreciated for its simplicity and versatility, making it a natural choice for developers who want more control over the final output.

Key Features

• Markdown-Friendly Editor: The module integrates a Markdown editor into Silverstripe, offering a much more streamlined and familiar experience for programmers and technical writers.
• Server-Side Rendering with Bootstrap 5 Support: The Markdown input is rendered server-side into clean HTML, styled using Bootstrap 5. This ensures consistent and responsive presentation, without sacrificing the control and precision developers expect.
• Extensible and Customizable: The module is designed to be extensible, allowing developers to tweak and expand upon the Markdown-to-HTML rendering process as needed.

Usage

#!/bin/bash
composer require loveduckie/silverstripe-markdown

Related Projects

This module works best with the following projects

• Blog Tool
  • A command-line tool written in Python for writing, managing, and publishing content written in Markdown syntax.
  • Support for multiple publishing platforms including Silverstripe, Wordpress, dev.to and Hashnode.
  • Link
• Silverstripe Image Uploader API
  • Enables for image assets to be uploaded remotely and securely to an existing Silverstripe installation through an exposed API.
  • Accepts Base64 and binary payloads.

Thanks

This project would not have been possible without the existence of another open-source project.

• silverstripers/markdown
  • Link