CKEditor Anchor Link

We all are excited about Drupal 8 - there are many articles explaining why we shouldn’t be afraid to migrate to it. Briefly speaking, D8 is more mobile-friendly, multilingual, robust, and makes it easier to edit content by including several must-have modules to the core. However, since the new Drupal version was released not a long time ago, there are still many things left in the CMS that require from developers more effort when using Drupal 8. Some of the CKEditor plugins like CKEditor's AutoGrow will be integrated into D8 in the nearest future, but some plugins still have no integration or at least a plan of integration.

Working on the last project with our Drupal team at Vardot I’ve realized that there is a basic feature in D7’s CKEditor that is missing in D8, that is Anchor Link. Basically, this is the background of how the new module was created.

CKEditor Anchor Link

CKEditor Anchor Link allows content editors to insert links and anchors using multiple protocols. The possibility to link content was integrated into the core of Drupal 8, however, as we can see from the screenshot it didn’t provide users the option to create flags within the document they are editing.

The ability to jump from one part of the page to another was critical for our client, and in Drupal 8 we had to go an extra mile and code it instead of just installing a module like in D7. CKEditor Anchor Link solves this problem and adds the new icon just in a few minutes. Moreover, it adds to the standard link icons their alternatives that provide site editors with more options of setting up the URL.

Installing CKEditor Anchor Link on Drupal 8

Below you can find a quick guide on how to install this module:

1. Download CKEditor Anchor Link from drupal.org
2. Enable the CKEditor Anchor module.
3. Go to Configuration -> Text formats and editors.
4. Select which text format you want to add the anchor button too. For example “Basic HTML”.
5. Add the Link, Unlink, and Anchor, which came from CKEditor Anchor Link module.
6. Manually remove default link and unlink command buttons, which came with Drupal 8 Core.
7. Save the settings for the “Basic HTML” text format.
8. Try to add new content, for example, Basic page or Blog post, then in the body select the “Basic HTML” text format, then you should see the flag icon in the CKEditor tool.

Usage statistics for CKEditor Anchor Link 

The module is pretty new, and the number of users is not very big yet. The good thing, however, is that it's constantly growing and promises to reach a good level in the future (this blog post is to increase the visibility of CKEditor Anchor Link Module).

Bottom line

For many editors the ability to quickly jump within the page they are editing (link, unlink, and flag it) is one of the top editing priorities. Since the goal of Vardot distributions Varbase and Uber Publisher is to make Drupal as more editor-friendly as possible, CKEditor Anchor Link seems to be an important addition to our products. If you find this module valuable, please feel free to install it, share this article with others and of course provide me your feedback about the module.