Bind Ckeditor value to model text in AngularJS and Rails

CKEditor does not update textarea while typing, so you need to take care of it.

Here’s a directive that will make ng-model binding work with CK:

angular.module('ck', []).directive('ckEditor', function() {
  return {
    require: '?ngModel',
    link: function(scope, elm, attr, ngModel) {
      var ck = CKEDITOR.replace(elm[0]);

      if (!ngModel) return;

      ck.on('pasteState', function() {
        scope.$apply(function() {
          ngModel.$setViewValue(ck.getData());
        });
      });

      ngModel.$render = function(value) {
        ck.setData(ngModel.$viewValue);
      };
    }
  };
});

In html, just use:

<textarea ck-editor ng-model="value"></textarea>

The previous code will update ng-model on every change.

If you only want to update binding on save, override “save” plugin, to not do anything but fire “save” event.

// modified ckeditor/plugins/save/plugin.js
CKEDITOR.plugins.registered['save'] = {
  init: function(editor) {
    var command = editor.addCommand('save', {
      modes: {wysiwyg: 1, source: 1},
      readOnly: 1,
      exec: function(editor) {
        editor.fire('save');
      }
    });

    editor.ui.addButton('Save', {
      label : editor.lang.save,
      command : 'save'
    });
  }
};

And then, use this event inside the directive:

angular.module('ck', []).directive('ckEditor', function() {
  return {
    require: '?ngModel',
    link: function(scope, elm, attr, ngModel) {
      var ck = CKEDITOR.replace(elm[0]);

      if (!ngModel) return;

      ck.on('save', function() {
        scope.$apply(function() {
          ngModel.$setViewValue(ck.getData());
        });
      });
    }
  };
});