Overview of markdown editors for Django

Target:

Choose a convenient tool for working with markdown from the Django admin panel, without unnecessary dancing with a tambourine.

Several conditions:

• Comfortable preview of the markup result.

• Ability to upload (upload) images directly from the editor.

• Support DefaultStorageso that you can use the integration with django-storages.

• Comfortable work in the editor + sane appearance.

On the djangopackages I liked 2 libraries:

Having searched the back streets of JavaScript, I found several markdown editors and through them went to integration into Django, but not all of them fit our requirements, let’s consider one of them.

For convenience, I created repository with a Django project where all these editors are connected to the admin panel.

Let’s get started:

martor

Link to repository: https://github.com/agusmakmun/django-markdown-editor

Implemented on the basis Ace Editor

pros

• It has a pretty nice (2 themes to choose from) and user-friendly interface.

• Convenient “chips” by type: framing selected text with brackets, auto-closing brackets, auto-substitution of characters when typing lists.

• Supports hotkeys.

• Inserting images via default_storage (which allows integration with django-storage), and automatic unloading to imgur.comwithout using its own storage.

• Frequent updates

Minuses

• Ability to switch between preview/editor only in the header, which is not very convenient if there is a lot of content.

• No support side-by-sideyou can specify in the settings 'living': 'true', but this is not so convenient, because live preview is displayed below and if there is a lot of content, then you have to constantly scroll to “up / down”.

• At the time of writing, there was problem with XSS in links, keep this in mind if you want to use the editor outside of the admin area and trusted users.

• Most of the settings for images are hardcoded in the controller, you can take them out of the settings yourself, but this is not provided out of the box.

django-markdownx

Link to repository: https://github.com/neutronX/django-markdownx

This is not a full-fledged editor, rather a plugin for creating your own templates and forms, but if necessary, it can also be used in the admin panel.
So. Paying attentionthat at the time of the publication of the article, the release version of the library не поддерживает Django >= 4you can use the beta version, or override a couple of classes yourself (example here)

pros

• Support drag & drop to upload images.

• Settings for uploaded images (size, compression, cropping, etc.).

Minuses

• Terrible basic widget in the admin panel, inconvenient both to read and write. Maybe I’m not completely lit up how to use it and additional plugins or creating a custom template are needed, but “by default” it looks bad.

• Rare updates

• Poor documentation and description

django-mdeditor

Link to repository: https://github.com/pylixm/django-mdeditor

Implemented on the basis editor.md.

pros

• Various implementations previewthere is also side-by-sibethe ability to select the mode only editor or previewfull screen mode.

• Auxiliary functions, such as: help with creating signs, auto-closing brackets, autosave (when you go to another page without saving, you can go back and you will not lose the text you have already typed, which is very useful), etc.

• Additional configuration options.

Minuses

• When using buttons that call modal windows, the page scrolls to the beginning, strange behavior.

• The standard implementation of image loading is done “strange”, it uses its own implementation with os.makedirs() & file.write()which prevents integration with batteries such as django-storages, I threw PR with corrections to them into the repository, but xs, they will accept it or not. You can see the implementation that worked for me here

Let’s summarize:

We have looked at several ready-made integrations that can suit our needs.