June 2016 - Froala

Notice of Chrome browser problem

You may have heard about some problems with the Froala Editor's toolbar in Chrome browser recently. We would like to make sure that you have the facts about what happened, what features are involved and the steps we took to address them.

What Happened?

Chrome version 51.0.2704 is the current stable version and it was released on May 25. They made some changes on how the style bottom property is computed in Javascript and this affects the toolbar sticky feature of the editor. We have reported this glitch on Chromium bug tracker a month before the Chrome release and we were hoping that they will fix it while still in development. You can read more about this on the Chromium bug tracker.

What We Were Doing?

We put the changes that address this browser problem on GitHub development repository of the editor on April 25, as soon as we got aware of the problem. Also, on May 20, we released V2.3.0 with the fixes required to overcome the Chrome problem.

What Should I Do?

You don’t have to do anything if:

You are using editor V1.
You are using V2.3.0 or higher.
You are using editor V2 and you have a version prior to V2.3.0 and you have disabled the toolbarSticky option.

If you are using editor V2 and you have a version prior to V2.3.0 with default configuration then please make sure you upgrade to the latest version as soon as possible. Be aware that on upgrade, it is necessary to update all the of editor's JS files, not only the main one.

For More Information

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the Support Team via our website or leave us a comment below.

“Why your blog hasn’t been updated this year?”

A vintage typewriter with raised buttons sitting on a wooden table with a vine growing from its side.

That's what someone asked us in an email. And it's a very good question. We used to write here more often and lots of you were eagerly waiting for updates from us. However, this year we focused most of our resources in improving the editor, the design framework and building another great product. I'll tell you a little more about it a bit later.

Editor releases

This year, we made 9 releases for the editor so far containing bug fixing, enhancements and lots of new features. That's at least one release each month. Back in May we added in a new feature which gets rid of the Javascript execCommand method which is not consistent in all browsers and produces unpredictable results. It's a big step forward we made in WYSIWYG editing.

Some of you asked about specific features such as multiple image upload, video upload or an enhanced media manager. Yes, we're currently working on them and they will be available this summer.

Design Framework

This is our 2nd product, launched after the editor, that many of you tried and sent feedback over to us. In late spring we redesigned its basics, added some nice touches of material design and version 2 will be released in the following months. Also, we moved it from LESS to SAAS and we'll do the same thing with the editor shortly.

Under progress

Besides these two products, we're currently developing a website building service. Like we did with the editor two years ago, we're pushing forward the website building limits and introducing new features that make it fun to create and manage a website.

The website builder is based on the other two products: WYSIWYG HTML Editor and Design Framework. It combines the super simple editing experience with the modern clean design provided by the design framework to create an outstanding website. We're working hard on this right now and we'll start taking betas soon. Therefore, make sure you subscribe for it so that you can be the first one to find about it.

Our promise

Indeed, we have ignored this blog a bit in the last months, however you'll hear from us more often from now on. We'll make sure to bring the latest news to you about WYSIWYG editing and creating websites every two weeks in short blog posts. That's a promise!

Name Your Startup

A cluster of press printing letters of various sizes and fonts.

It might seem a bit odd that we’re writing about this, but we believe that sharing some of our experience might help others. As a startup, we had to deal with lots of the common startups' problems and any help we could get was a big thing for us. Although we mainly write about web editing and web design, we decided that we should also cover some startup topics.

What to look for

After we put down our vision, we hit a wall trying to find an appropriate name for the “new thing”. Usually, entrepreneurs think that this won’t take more than one hour and the startup name will come naturally. Yeah, keep on dreaming.

I remember that settling on the “Froala” name took us a bit over 2 months. Creating the first fully working prototype took half of that. We were looking for a new name available on social networks and that is short enough. We wanted a maximum of 8 characters, to be an original name and something that no one else is using. I bet you want to be at the top of the page when someone searches your business name on Google. That's why I recommend avoiding common names.

Social networks

I have to admit that finding something that you can use for the domain name, Facebook, Twitter and every other social network is for sure a challenge. We got lucky with Froala because only the Twitter username was taken. It was an inactive user with very few tweets.

After going back and forth, we decided to go with the Froala name, purchased the domain name and created an account on the other social networks, except Twitter where we chosen froala_labs. Only 2 years later, we managed to actually get the @froala username after reaching Twitter to see if maybe they can release it. They don’t have a username policy, but if the username you’re asking for is inactive for a very long period of time then you might get lucky.

Google Translator helps

We were using all sorts of tools that generate startup names without any results. Lately, we decided to focus on a phrase and see how it sounds in other languages and maybe choose from there. We started with “For everyone” in English and tried all kind of translations and combinations until we got to “For alle” in Danish. We played a bit with it and came up with Froala. It was short enough and we were able to pronounce it easily in English.

This worked for us, I don’t know if it would work for everyone, but it took us less time and was producing better results than other tools which generate a startup name for you.

Make fun of it

People will misspell it. That’s not a problem if it doesn’t happen too often. From time to time people call us Forala, but as long as this is happening only once or twice a year, I really don’t see why we should worry about it.

A month ago, there was a tweet that made our day: “What do you get when you mix a frog and a koala?” Never thought about that until then, but indeed Froala name might make you think of a weird animal combination. Just try to imagine. You’ll definitely not forget our name again. 🙂

We’d love to hear from you what you thought of when you first heard the Froala name. If anything comes into your mind, share it in a comment below.