I could not in good conscious deliver the customized .text community site I'm currently working on without rich text editing support for Firefox and Netscape. Besides, I'd like to use Firefox for posting to my own blog! J This had to get done.
I knew it was going to be hairy and I was not dissappointed. The plan was to go with FTB3.0. Sweet. The problem in going that route is that FTB3.0 requires a static httpHandler setting in the web.config, so you can forget wildcard aspnet_isapi.dll mapping. As I said on a FreeTextBox Forum post here, I would LOVE for someone to prove me wrong and that FTB3.0 does indeed work with wildcard mapping.
If you want FTB3.0 to work in a multiblog environment, you can turn off wildcard mapping and create dummy user/admin directories with a web.config in each user/admin directory. The EntryEditor Utilities.CheckIsIE55() method needs replaced, but other than that FTB3.0 works great. Here's an excellent post by Dan Bartels on how he got FTB3.0 working with with 0.95 in a single blog setup. I used that as a basis for getting FTB3.0 working on my blog here.
I decided to go with FTB2.0 for the customized .text community site. It took some focus and nerd obsession, but I got it to work. Here's a post by Scott Galloway on his experience with FTB2.0 and .Text, here another by Bill Shen. They provide everything most people will need to get FTB2.0 working in 0.95. As an overview for what I had to do to get FTB2.0 working in 0.95, I
- added a CheckIsIE55OrGecko() method in Utilities.cs
- added a browsercaps section in the .text root web.config
- [new] disabled the confirmation page functionality on EntryEditor.cs
- [new] used a ftbBody.SupportFolder external setting (my FTB2.0 build didn't support ButtonPath)
- [new] changed the lkbpost and lkbcancel asp:Linkbuttons to asp:Buttons.
Here's the most important tip I can provide: if you are doing everything right and its still not working (I was getting an inexplicable “your post must have a body” required field message) TRY ANOTHER 2.x VERSION OF FREETEXTBOX.DLL! That's the best advice I can offer. Hopefully, if you're like me and do a search on freetextbox.dll, you'll retrieve a list of 50 or so found in various projects over the last 4 years. I used the filesize (and file location) as version indicators. Right-click-->Properties on the freetextbox.dll in the VS.NET References folder will give you the version. I used 2.0.5000.3, but I can't help but think that there are different builds of FTB2x with this same version number floating around.
Blessings and solicitudes to other pilgrims seeking to provide rich text editor support to Firefox and Netscape in .Text 0.95. May your journey be uneventful and blissfulness be your most pronounced memory.