Brainstorming: Using the color theme for CKEditor

Hello!

Context

Lately I’ve been spending a bit of time on our integration of CKEditor as a WYSIWYG editor (e.g. this ticket about the contrast of tables when editing).

I realized that CKEditor does not follow the current theme. I got used to it quickly when starting to use XWiki, but there’s no reason we do not apply the color theme to CKEditor, except that it would take development time and iterating to make sure we apply it properly.

Question

Do you think applying the current color theme to the CKEditor interface is something we should aim for?

Details

In my opinion it’s worth a bit of time at least to improve consistency of our UI.
From what I know, it shouldn’t be too difficult, we already have some customization of the CKEditor UI, but it doesn’t cover everything, and it was never discussed before.

From what I understand of the situation, we’ll still be relying on our CKEditor integration for a while. @mleduc probably has a more precise idea than me of when we would drop CKEditor (Cf. Proposal page about a rich editor alternative) and wether such an upgrade is worth it.

Examples

Those screenshots were made using the Darkly color theme, it makes it easier to spot out what is in the color theme and what is styled by CKEditor.


The dialog windows for image/table insertions are styled radically different:


Other example of a dialogue with an UI which is not consistent with the color theme.

This inconsistency in the color theme used poses an issue for the source mode of the editor: white text (from the color theme) on white background (from CKEditor).

Conclusion

Do you think applying the current color theme to the CKEditor interface is something we should aim for?
Given the info I have, I’m in favor of trying to improve the consistency of CKEditor in our UI :+1:
If the idea is approved overall, I’ll start opening consistency tickets about examples shown above. I’ll open a usability ticket for the last one no matter what :slight_smile:

Thank you in advance for your answer!
Lucas C.

1 Like

+1 to fix the important (blocker) issues (like the one making the Source area unusable) and to try to fix inconsistencies, but I wouldn’t spend too much time on this. We should prioritize based on cost versus reward, and if the cost is too much with little reward then leave it as is.

Thanks,
Marius