Reverting To Express Edit

Express Edit is designed to be a highly compatible editor that can run even when the user doesn't have Java installed so we load it initially for maximum compatibility. If the user needs the full functionality they can easily click to upgrade to the full editor and their preference will be remembered to give them the best possible editing experience without having to keep clicking upgrade. In most situations this is exactly what you want because the user is then known to have Java installed and be able to run the full editor and it has been downloaded and cached locally so it starts up in around the same time as the JavaScript based editor.

However, for development you often need to revert back to the JavaScript editor for testing. Fortunately, there's a simple way to do that, simply by clearing out the cookie using the Flash Settings Manager. You can either clear all the cookies or just the cookie for the particular site you're working with.

On a technical note, we used the flash cookie to remember the setting to avoid incompatibilities with sites that don't handle extra cookies being returned which would occur if we used JavaScript which we've seen problems with in the past. If flash isn't installed the editor handles it gracefully.

Based on client feedback we are investigating adding an option to force the editor to always load in Express Edit mode but we don't currently have a timeline for it. As always, we'd appreciate any feedback or comments you have on the LiveWorks! mailing list.

Adrian spends his days working out ways to make life easier for Ephox clients through initiatives like LiveWorks! Previously a senior engineer, he has now moved on to the fancier sounding title of CTO.

Leave a Reply