[qwertox]

I am trying to implement drag and drop of raw text and html (html is mostly Vue components) inside contenteditable="true" to move it around. Like in a WYSIWYG editor.

It is insane how complicated this is. Then you need to consider the differences between browsers. Ultimately you have to start using a library. And integrate that library with the framework and then hope that the framework won't have a major technical overhaul like Angular or Vue had.

Most of the time you just sit there thinking what will be the best approach and start to get more demotivated the more you dig deeper into it.

It is hard.

CKEditor would have solved most of my issues, but their licensing is absolutely crazy. I'd have to contact them to get an offer to use it for normal internet usage, but if I don't know if it will work, and if the site will be a success, then it simply does not make sense to contact them. 37 USD for 25 users? Or getting a custom contract where I don't know how they will change it in the future? I don't understand what assumptions they have about the usage of their editor, but just embedding it into a blog or something similar, where you don't really know how many users you will have, definitely isn't one of them.

[lifthrasiir]

It feels weird to me that you are complaining about the complexity of WYSIWYG editors then proceed to complain the licensing cost of CKEditor which would have solved that very complexity. Wouldn't that mean the complexity of WYSIWYG editors is so high that such a business model works?

[qwertox]

I'm not even sure if it really fits my case, since the editor would need to be able to create Vue components which maintain the reactivity. TinyMCE breaks all reactivity as soon as it "wraps" it all in the editor. CKEditor apparently has a way to do this (up- and downscaling), but there is the very unclear licensing issue. One active user is a user which has used the editor once in a month. So, for example, one which just signs up to check out the service and then does nothing with it ever again and doesn't subscribe.

So if I invest my time into learning this upscaling/downscaling issue, which can get complicated with a Vue component, all this in the context of prototyping the entire app, where the primary functionality gained by CKEditor the ability to enable drag and drop (move) of components as if they were pictures, it seems like overkill, since directly manipulating the DOM to move elements appears to be a a much more simple task.

I've made a test wit ondrag, ondrop and what JavasScript has to offer and it mostly works, but there are some small issues which I just can't resolve and don't know if I can resolve them if I invest more time in that direction.

So currently I'm checking out drag and drop libraries, which mostly seem to fit the purpose, but also have issues.

This is what I was getting at with my initial comment, that it's so hard to make these decisions if the outcome of the paths is so unclear. It's all a struggle between decisions and their tests which need to be made.

Assuming CKEditor would solve the issues for me, then the initial cost would still be to high. That would be different with a stable stream of income, but new services usually don't have that.

Free for up to 5 active users per billing period? This would be take 5 users to just check out the service and then that's it for the rest of the month. 37 USD for 25 active users per billing period? Simply not doable for me in the context of a startup.

> What is the minimum length of subscription-based software licenses? 12 months.

That's 444 USD for 288 potential users which wouldn't get charged more than 2 or 3 USD per month.

[mrrobotchicken]

I'd suggest you to contact sales to learn the details of custom licensing options if you haven't already, also to make sure you're understanding the active users correctly for your case.

It still offers an open source option so you can test all its limits and see if it fits your case or not. Also if your project is not proprietary there is still the free for open source option in case your project is not compatible with GPL2+.

[ch_sm]

Have you looked at TipTap 2? Sounds like it might fit the bill for you!

[specialist]

Someday soon, someone will port WebKit to WASM, WebGL, etc.

Run your virtualized browser within any browser.

[GrumpyNl]

Its only complicated if your HTML is modified HTML.

[nkrisc]

The time you’ll spend building it yourself is worth less than 37 USD?