SilverStripe 2.4 accesses the obsolete TinyMCE version 2 API which was dropped in TinyMCE 3.2.6 released 2009-08-19.

Has there been any work done to upgrade SS to use the TinyMCE version 3 API?

From the TinyMCE change log dated 2009-08-19
"Removed the compat2x plugin people should have upgraded to the 3.x API by now. 3.0 was released more then a year ago."
http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/js/tinymce/changelog.txt

TinyMCE is continually patched to work around countless browser bugs...
e.g. http://www.silverstripe.org/content-editor-discussions/show/285687#post285687
...and fix a few of its own bugs of course. So it's really important that it can be upgraded easily in SilverStripe.

SilverStripe now has a really nice clean modular interface with TinyMCE, which *should* allow new TinyMCE versions to be swapped in. However, they do not work because SilverStripe uses the TinyMCE v2 compatibility layer that has gone in newer versions of TinyMCE.

Once SilverStripe is upgraded to use the v3 API, new versions *should* be able to be dropped in because the TinyMCE developers go to great lengths to make that interface back-compatible.

Hm not sure whats happening here - http://open.silverstripe.org/ticket/4238 would suggest that it has been updated to 3.2.4.1 but that was done over a year ago. I think the upgrade for 2.4 was pushed back just 'in case' anything broke. I attempted to migrate to the jquery version (http://open.silverstripe.org/ticket/4657) but that was unsuccessful. We should upgrade to the latest (even the non jquery one) to keep up to date.

>We should upgrade to the latest (even the non jquery one) to keep up to date.

I don't think it's important to have the latest version regardless, but it is important to have a stable version, and to have the option to upgrade quickly and easily if necessary.

What if there's an update to a popular browser tomorrow that fixes a bug that TinyMCE 'works around' and the editor is messed up. TinyMCE would be fixed in hours but we would be stuck.

Actually this has already happened (See the post I referenced above). That bug is not too severe but it illustrates the risk.

> ...would suggest that it has been updated to 3.2.4.1
Yes, SilverStripe 2.4 uses TinyMCE 3.2.4.1. The TinyMCE version after that one, 3.2.5 is the last with the compat2x plugin, which was dropped in 3.2.6.

Interactions with the TinyMCE API are tagged with...

// NOTE: TinyMCE coupling

in LeftAndMain.js so someone has put thought into smoothing the upgrade path. Hopefully it will make switching to TinyMCE version 3 API easy :)

Not sure if this is the right approach but I took the liberty of opening a ticket:
http://open.silverstripe.org/ticket/5704