CKEditor at MLH Beginners Week: Wrap-Up

MLH Beginners Week, held from January 10th to 16th, 2025, was a virtual event that brought together new developers eager to kickstart their coding journey. CKEditor was proud to participate in this event, offering challenges and workshops designed to help beginners gain hands-on experience in web development. With a focus on building and customizing rich text editors using CKEditor 5, we empowered participants to acquire practical skills while working on real-world use cases.

Let’s take a look back at the highlights of the week, celebrate the achievements of participants, and share how you can continue your journey with CKEditor.

# Highlights of the Week: Hands-On Challenges

To make the event interactive and engaging, CKEditor introduced five beginner-friendly challenges designed to teach the fundamentals of integrating and customizing a rich text editor. Each challenge was a stepping stone, helping participants build confidence as they learned to work with CKEditor 5.

# 1. Create an Account & Get a Trial Key

The journey began with participants signing up on the CKEditor portal to obtain a trial license key. This key enabled them to unlock premium plugins and features necessary for building powerful, feature-rich editors.

# 2. Build a Starter Project with CKEditor Builder

Participants used the CKEditor Builder to create their first rich text editor. They selected the Classic Editor preset, customized features, and downloaded a ready-to-use project for Vanilla JavaScript or Angular. This task showcased how simple and flexible CKEditor is, even for first-time users.

# 3. Add Code Blocks for Developers

To make editors more developer-friendly, participants integrated the Code Block plugin, which supports syntax highlighting for various programming languages. This was particularly useful for projects aimed at displaying or documenting code snippets.

# 4. Create Reusable Content with Templates

With the Templates plugin, participants enhanced their editors by adding pre-defined, reusable templates. This feature streamlines repetitive tasks such as creating standardized documents, emails, or reports.

# 5. Dynamically Insert Content with Merge Fields

The final challenge introduced participants to Merge Fields, a feature for creating dynamic placeholders in the editor. This capability is ideal for building applications like personalized forms, automated documents, or email templates.

These challenges were carefully designed to guide beginners through the fundamentals of working with CKEditor, while showcasing its potential to solve real-world problems.

# Live Workshops: Interactive Learning

In addition to the challenges, we hosted two live workshops to provide step-by-step guidance and hands-on practice.

# Workshop 1: Vanilla JS Starter Project

The first workshop focused on setting up CKEditor from scratch using Vanilla JavaScript. Participants learned how to:

• Install and configure CKEditor (https://ckeditor.com/docs/ckeditor5/latest/getting-started/index.html)

• Set up the editor with essential features

• Integrate useful plugins like spellcheck and templates

This workshop introduced participants to the basics of CKEditor, helping them gain the confidence to work on their own projects.

# Workshop 2: Custom Angular Editor

The second workshop demonstrated how to create a fully customized rich text editor using Angular. Topics covered included:

• Integrating CKEditor into Angular applications:. Learn how to embed CKEditor in your Angular projects, ensuring smooth performance and compatibility

• Configuring advanced plugins: Utilize plugins like Code Blocks, Templates, and Merge Fields to extend functionality

• Building scalable content editors: Design feature-rich editors suitable for real-world web applications

Both workshops created a collaborative learning environment, allowing participants to interact with our team, ask questions, and see the results of their work in action.

# Why Is Beginners Week Important?

At CKEditor, we’re committed to supporting developers of all levels by providing tools and resources that simplify web development. Participating in MLH Beginners Week gave us the chance to:

• Empower New Developers: Through interactive challenges and workshops, participants gained essential web development skills.

• Demystify Open Source: For many, this was their first encounter with open-source projects, and they came away with a better understanding of how to contribute.

• Build Community: Beginners Week fosters collaboration among developers, creating a space for shared learning and problem-solving.

By the end of the week, participants had not only completed projects but also gained the confidence to continue exploring coding and open-source development.

# Celebrating Participant Success

The creativity and determination shown by participants throughout the week were inspiring. Many completed all five challenges, while others focused on mastering specific features of CKEditor. Some highlights include:

• Developers successfully building their first rich text editor from scratch

• Projects that integrated advanced features like Code Blocks and Templates to address specific use cases

• Improvements in understanding GitHub workflows, including forking repositories, creating branches, and submitting pull requests

# What’s Next?

If you participated in MLH Beginners Week and are excited to continue your learning journey, here are some ways to stay involved with CKEditor:

# Explore More Features

CKEditor 5 offers a wide range of plugins and tools, from real-time collaboration to advanced content management features. Visit our documentation to explore new ways to enhance your projects.

# Contribute to CKEditor

If you’re interested in open-source development, head over to our GitHub repository to find beginner-friendly issues and ongoing projects. Contributing to open-source is an excellent way to grow your skills and connect with other developers.

# Build Your Own Projects

Take what you’ve learned and apply it to your own applications. Whether you’re creating a blog editor, a form builder, or a content management system, CKEditor 5 provides the tools you need to succeed.

# Stay Connected

Follow CKEditor on social media and visit our blog for tutorials, updates, and announcements.

# Thank You

We’d like to thank everyone who joined us for MLH Beginners Week, as well as the MLH team for organizing this event. Seeing participants learn, build, and grow with CKEditor was a rewarding experience for our team, and we’re excited to see where your new skills take you.

Let’s keep the momentum going. Whether you’re contributing to CKEditor, exploring other open-source projects, or developing your own tools, the foundation you’ve built during Beginners Week will serve you well.

Ready to dive deeper? Check out CKEditor’s resources to continue your learning journey. Let’s create something amazing together!