Installation & setup

Install the package like any Joomla extension (System → Install → Extensions). It contains three parts that work together:

• Markdown editor — the EasyMDE-based editor with the AI toolbar button.
• Cross-editor buttons — adds the AI generator and an editor switcher to your other editors.
• Renderer (system plugin) — turns your saved Markdown into HTML on the front end and handles editor switching.

The installer enables all three automatically; if any is off, enable it under System → Manage → Plugins.

Choosing the editor

• Site-wide: System → Global Configuration → Site → Default Editor → Editor - Joomlab (Markdown).
• Per user: each user can pick it under their profile's Basic Settings → Editor.
• On the fly: the Switch editor button (added to every editor) lets you flip editors without visiting configuration — it reloads the page with your choice.

Setting up AI providers

Open System → Manage → Plugins → Editor - Joomlab (Markdown) and go to the AI content generation tab. Paste an API key (and choose a model) for any of:

• ChatGPT (OpenAI)
• Gemini (Google)
• DeepSeek

Only providers that have a key configured appear in the AI dialog. You can also set a system prompt per output format (Markdown / HTML) to steer tone and style.

Using the AI assistant

Click the AI button in the editor toolbar to open the dialog. Then:

• Describe what you want and pick a provider, then generate.
• Tick use current content as context to let the AI build on what's already there.
• Choose Insert at cursor or Replace all.
• Leave the prompt empty (with context on) to reformat / clean up the existing content.

The model replies directly in the editor's format, so there is no messy conversion step — you get clean Markdown ready to publish.

Editing in Markdown

The toolbar covers the essentials — bold, italic, strikethrough, headings, quotes, lists, code, tables, links and images — plus a Write ⇄ Preview toggle, side-by-side view and fullscreen. You write Markdown text directly (no WYSIWYG surprises), and the live preview is styled to match exactly what visitors will see on the published page.

AI in your other editors & switching

The cross-editor plugin adds two buttons to every Joomla editor (TinyMCE, CodeMirror, …):

• AI generate — the same assistant, everywhere. Insertion is format-aware: it inserts Markdown in the Joomlab editor and rendered HTML in an HTML editor.
• Switch editor — change the active editor in one click; the page reloads and re-renders your fields with the editor you chose.

How content is stored & published (SEO)

Your content is saved as Markdown wrapped in a marker, so the renderer knows exactly which regions to process and leaves everything else untouched:

Hello

 a task

On the front end, those regions are rendered to real HTML server-side (PHP) — so search engines and no-JavaScript visitors get semantic HTML right in the page source. No front-end JavaScript is needed, and the read stylesheet loads only on pages that actually contain a marker.

Opening existing HTML content

Joomla articles are stored as HTML. When you open an HTML field, the editor converts it to Markdown automatically, so you always work in clean Markdown and saving won't corrupt the article.

Checklists use standard GFM (- [ ] todo / - [x] done); loosely-typed checkboxes are normalised automatically in both the preview and the published page.

Requirements

• Joomla 5 or 6 (primary target: 6)
• PHP 8.0+
• Your own AI provider key (OpenAI, Google or DeepSeek) — optional; the editor works without AI, just without the assistant
• The editor bundle is admin-only; the front end loads only a small stylesheet (no JavaScript)

FAQ

Does it store HTML or Markdown?

Markdown (inside the {joomlab-md} marker). The published HTML is rendered server-side at display time.

Do I need an AI subscription?

You bring your own provider key. Without a key the editor still works — you just won't see the AI button.

Is my API key exposed to visitors?

No. Keys live in the plugin settings and are only ever used on the server.

Can I use it only for some fields?

Yes — set it per user, or switch editors per page with the Switch-editor button.