---
title: "Integrating TinyMCE into an Express JS App"
description: "A quick start guide on integrating TinyMCE into an Express JS Application"
canonical_url: "https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/latest/expressjs-pm/"
md_url: "https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/5/expressjs-pm/index.md"
version: "5"
last_updated: "2024-04-09T09:35:32Z"
tokens: 1087
---
Important This page documents TinyMCE 5. For new projects, Tiny recommends using the latest, most up-to-date version. [See TinyMCE 8 documentation](../../latest/expressjs-pm/).
# Integrating TinyMCE into an Express JS App
This quick start guide walks through creating a [basic Express JS application](https://expressjs.com/en/starter/generator.html) containing a TinyMCE editor based on our [Basic example](../basic-example/).
> **Note:** Tiny Cloud users should use the [Tiny Cloud quick start guide](../quick-start/).
## Prerequisites
This procedure requires:
- [Node.js (and npm)](https://nodejs.org/).
## Procedure
1. On a command line or command prompt, create a basic Express JS application:
```sh
$ npx express-generator --git --no-view my_tinymce_app
```
2. Change into the newly created directory.
```sh
$ cd my_tinymce_app
```
3. Add the `tinymce` package to your `package.json` with `--save`.
```sh
$ npm install --save tinymce
```
4. Download and install the TinyMCE and Express JS Node modules (and their dependencies):
```sh
$ npm install
```
5. Using a text editor, open `/path/to/my_tinymce_app/app.js` and add the following route:
```js
app.use('/tinymce', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', 'tinymce')));
```
For example:
```js
var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
var logger = require('morgan');
var indexRouter = require('./routes/index');
var usersRouter = require('./routes/users');
var app = express();
app.use(logger('dev'));
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(cookieParser());
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
/* New Route to the TinyMCE Node module */
app.use('/tinymce', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', 'tinymce')));
app.use('/', indexRouter);
app.use('/users', usersRouter);
module.exports = app;
```
6. Create a new javascript file containing the TinyMCE configuration (`tinymce.init`), such as:
Linux/macOS/Unix:
```sh
$ touch public/javascripts/my-tinymce-config.js
```
Windows:
```sh
> type nul >public/javascripts/my-tinymce-config.js
```
7. Add the TinyMCE configuration to the newly created javascript file (`my-tinymce-config.js`):
```js
tinymce.init({
selector: 'textarea#my-expressjs-tinymce-app',
height: 500,
menubar: false,
plugins: [
'advlist autolink lists link image charmap print preview anchor',
'searchreplace visualblocks code fullscreen',
'insertdatetime media table paste code help wordcount'
],
toolbar: 'undo redo | formatselect | ' +
'bold italic backcolor | alignleft aligncenter ' +
'alignright alignjustify | bullist numlist outdent indent | ' +
'removeformat | help'
});
```
8. Update `public/index.html` to include:
- The document type declaration, ``.
- A `