Open Source Project of the Week: CKEditor 5

What is the CKEditor 5 open source project?

CKEditor 5 is a state-of-the-art and easy-to-use framework for content creation. It’s the latest iteration of the long-running CKEditor platform. Built with MVC architecture, a custom data model and virtual DOM, CKEditor 5 provides ready-to-use solutions for common editing needs, and rich text features that offer additional functionality for end users. It’s one of the first-ever rich text editors and among the most powerful ones available, and it helps companies from Disney to Microsoft to Thomson Reuters deliver content.

Who’s running the open source project?

CKEditor 5 is run by CKSource, which began life as an open source project over 16 years ago and has evolved into a massive enterprise. The vision was simple: enable anyone, not just the tech-savvy, to write quality web-based content. With that in mind, the team has taken care of the backend functionality and built intuitive, well-designed tools for frontend users. CKEditor 5 lets content creators focus on creating content while it handles the rest.

CKEditor 5 open source goals

With plug-and-play options in a highly modular framework, CKEditor is delivering the features and tools that end users expect, the flexibility to customize the editor to ensure it’s always delivering what users need, and the ease of delivery on the backend that businesses need. By enabling real-time collaboration, easy exporting of pages to PDFs, and the ability to track and restore previous versions of documents, CKEditor 5 is positioned to meet the needs of all users.

The project is being built to last, featuring:

• Extensive documentation
• A full 100% code coverage and over 8,000 tests
• Built-in content filtering and Content Security Policy (CSP) support
• Guaranteed support until 2026

See Zenhub in action

By leveraging Zenhub’s tools, open source projects like CKEditor 5 can stay on track and efficient, even at scale. Let’s break down which features they’re leveraging.

Labels

Labels make it easier to sort information at a high level, but the CKEditor 5 team is using them to clearly define the package, which squad is working on it, and the type of package, adding even more information that can be easily digested at a glance from the board.

Custom pipelines

While Zenhub comes equipped with many of the pipelines teams will end up relying on, having the ability to customize them empowers teams to shape workflows that suit them. The CKEditor 5 team has added some of their own to facilitate their own process.

Centralized repositories

CKEditor 5 is a large project and requires multiple repositories to separate out sections of it and keep everything organized. Zenhub is the only tool that allows users to centralize multiple public or private repos into one workspace board view. This way, information can stay organized in its repo but still make it into the production pipeline when and where it should.

Epics

To keep everything organized, the CKEditor 5 team has been making extensive use of the epics feature to group related issues into larger goals that cover multiple sprints. This way, even larger, ambitious projects can stay on track over longer timelines.

Workflow automation

Nothing slows down a big job like busywork. But by automating workflows and handoffs, teams like CKEditor 5 can stay aligned and moving without getting bogged down by endless meetings. Zenhub’s workflows can be customized multiple ways, including by team, by feature, by project, or by stage in the customer journey.

Why you should contribute

When it gets right down to it, most of the content we consume on the internet relies on frameworks like CKEditor 5. Text is still mainly how we share information and ideas with one another through the web. Participating in the project is a way to help shape the system of information distribution that most people count on for everything from entertainment to information. It’s an opportunity to get in at the design level of how text-based web info gets organized.

Plus, everyone has had a frustrating experience working with online documents. Here’s a chance to fix some of your biggest gripes.

Where you can learn more

To learn more about the CKEditor 5 project:

• Check out the website
• Read a few case studies

Zenhub offers the tools and workflows that teams working on open source projects in GitHub need. It puts core open source collaboration principles like openness and transparency into practice, enabling projects and organizations to code in the open. It’s the only industry tool that lets you manage your team’s work across both public and private repos. And it makes it easier for all team members to communicate with each other, set goals, plan with more transparency and participation, and ship releases more predictably. Get a free 14-day trial.