Installation

This website contains links to software which is either no longer maintained or will be supported only until the end of 2019 (CKFinder 2). For the latest documentation about current CKSource projects, including software like CKEditor 4/CKEditor 5, CKFinder 3, Cloud Services, Letters, Accessibility Checker, please visit the new documentation website.

If you look for an information about very old versions of CKEditor, FCKeditor and CKFinder check also the CKEditor forum, which was closed in 2015. If not, please head to StackOverflow for support.

Installing CKEditor is easy. In order to install the editor, choose an appropriate procedure (fresh install or upgrade) and follow the steps described below.

Installation Procedures

Fresh Installation

To install CKEditor for the first time, proceed in the following way:

  1. Download the latest version of the editor from our website: http://ckeditor.com/download
  2. Extract (decompress) the downloaded archive to a directory called ckeditor in the root of your website.
important note

You can place the files in any path of your website. The ckeditor directory is the default one.


Upgrade

To upgrade an existing CKEditor installation, proceed in the following way:

  1. Rename your old editor folder to a backup folder, for example ckeditor_old.
  2. Download the latest version of the editor from our website: http://ckeditor.com/download
  3. Extract (decompress) the downloaded archive to the original editor directory, for example ckeditor.
  4. Copy all configuration files that you have changed from the backup folder to their corresponding position in the new directory. These could include (but do not have to be limited to) the following files:
    • config.js
    • content.css
    • plugins/templates/templates/default.js
    • plugins/styles/styles/default.js
    • plugins/styles/styles/default.js
    • plugins/pastefromword/filter/default.js

Verification of the Installation

CKEditor comes with a few sample pages that can be used to verify that installation proceeded properly. In order to see whether the editor is working, take a look at the _samples directory.

To test your installation, call the following page at your website:
http://<your site>/<CKEditor installation path>/_samples/index.html

For example:
http://www.example.com/ckeditor/_samples/index.html

Minimum Setup

You probably do not need to use all of the files from the CKEditor installation package on a production server, so you can go through the list below and manually remove some of them according to your needs.

  • _samples — this directory contains CKEditor samples. Using the sample files is the easiest way to verify whether your setup works properly. If CKEditor works correctly, you can safely remove the whole _ samples folder.
  • _source — this directory contains CKEditor source code. It is needed only if you intend to use the ckeditor_source.js script and load CKEditor from source files.
  • adapters — this directory contains CKEditor adapters. It may be removed if you do not use any adapters, like the jQuery one.
  • images — this directory contains CKEditor graphics files. It is necessary for CKEditor to work.
  • lang — this directory contains CKEditor language files. It is necessary for CKEditor to work, although you can remove the unused language files if you force the CKEditor interface language using the CKEDITOR.config.language property set in the config.js file or limit the number of languages available using the CKEDITOR.lang.languages setting from the core/lang.js file.
  • plugins — this directory contains the plugin files and is necessary for CKEditor to work. Due to the modular construction of the editor some core functionality was delegated to plugins. You can remove some unused plugins that are not packed in ckeditor.js (and thus listed in the ckeditor.pack file) and are only loaded on demand through the CKEDITOR.config.extraPlugins property.
  • skins — this directory contains CKEditor skin files along with toolbar buttons and stylesheet definitions and is necessary for CKEditor to work. You can however remove unused skins and their files.
  • themes — is necessary for CKEditor to work.

From the CKEditor root directory you can safely remove the following files:

  • CHANGES.html
  • All .asp files.
  • All .php files.
  • ckeditor.pack
  • ckeditor_basic.js and ckeditor_basic_source.js files (if you do not use this method for loading CKEditor)
  • ckeditor_source.js (if you do not use this method for loading CKEditor)
  • INSTALL.html