Getting the value of a CKEditor instance

JavaScript
1

I am new to Javascript and am working with Ajax. I am building a content manager for my site, and I have an instance of CKEditor. I was wondering what the javascript would be to get the value of the textarea. Normally with a textarea I use formname.elementname.value. When I use that with the CKEditor I get a null value.

2

I wrote a custom function in ckeditor/ckeditor_php5.php:


	/**
	* Custom function for retrieving the data of the current editor instance
	*
	* @param string instance id
	* @return string
	*/
	public function getData($id)
	{
		$js = "";
		if (!$this->initialized) {
			$js .= $this->init();
		}
		$js .= $this->returnGlobalEvents();
		$script = "document.write('<div id=\\"temp_zone\\" style=\\"display: none;\\"></div>');"
			. "$(document).ready(function(){"
				. '$("input[type=\\'submit\\']").each(function(i, v){'
					. "$('#' + v.id).click(function(){"
					. "var data = CKEDITOR.instances.$id.getData();"
					. "$('#temp_zone').html(data);"
					. "});"
				. "});"
			. "});";
		$js .= $this->script($script);
		return $js;
	}

Then, where I intialize the ckeditor instance,


$ckeditor = new CKEditor();
$ckeditor->BasePath = 'somepath/ckeditor.php';
$input_str = "<$type id=\\"$name\\" name=\\"$name\\""
	. " rows=\\"$rows\\" cols=\\"$cols\\">"
	. "$values</$type>";
$input_str .= $ckeditor->editor($name, $values, $configs);
$input_str .= $ckeditor->getData($name);

This feels extraordinarily hackish…but it works well.