Installation & Usage

1. Installation
2. Usage
   1. Using The Form Input
   2. Using The Editor Widget

Installation

MJXGUI uses MathJax as a core dependency, so you need to include both MathJax as well as MJXGUI into your webpage. MJXGUI does not have a built-in renderer, and uses MathJax to render the equations as they are being built.

Make sure you include MathJax before including MJXGUI.

Then include the MJXGUI javascript file and stylesheet. You can get both the script and the stylesheet from GitHub -

1. mjxgui.js
2. mjxgui.css

You can include MJXGUI’s stylesheet before your site’s stylesheet, to allow your CSS to override MJXGUI’s CSS.

An example config is shown below -

<script src="https://polyfill.io/v3/polyfill.min.js?features=es6"></script>
<script id="MathJax-script" async src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/mjxgui/css">
<script src="path/to/mjxgui/javascript"></script>

Usage

Using The Form Input

You can use MJXGUI to convert an <input type="text"> element into an equation input using the editor widget.

The behaviour is straightforward. MJXGUI will hide the actual <input> element and show users a button asking them to enter an equation. Once they are done entering the equation, it will generate the LaTeX for the created equation and set the value of the original input to the generated LaTeX.

Once your input element(s) have been loaded into the DOM, call the MJXGUI.createEquationInput() static method.

MJXGUI.createEquationInput('.my-equation-input');

MJXGUI.createEquationInput() takes a CSS selector as an argument. It converts all elements that match that selector into equation inputs. Make sure that the selector you pass only selects <input type="text"> elements.

For customizing the appearance of the equation input element, see form input HTML structure.

See an example of using the MJXGUI form input here.

Using The Editor Widget

To get started quickly, check one of the examples.

MJXGUI works by showing your users a button/clickable element prompting them to insert an equation. MJXGUI attaches event listeners to these elements and shows the editor UI when they are clicked.

Once the user is done entering the equation, the editor UI disappears and a callback function that you supply is run. This callback function is where you can access the generated LaTeX for the expression the user just entered and handle however you need. The most common use case is to store it as LaTeX and/or render it on your page using MathJax.

Initialize MJXGUI by creating a new MJXGUI instance, which takes 3 parameters - a CSS selector, a callback function, and an options object.

const mjxgui = new MJXGUI('selector', function(latex, instance) {}, options={});

The selector is a CSS selector that should be able to select the elements you want users to click on to start entering an equation. MJXGUI attaches click event listeners to all selected elements and shows the editor UI whenever they are clicked.

The callback function is a function that is run when the user is done entering the equation and clicks on the “✔” button. This is where you will be able to access the LaTeX for the equation. For more information on how you should write a callback function, see writing a success callback.

You would build a minimal example as shown below. This example takes the LaTeX for the equation the user has created, appends it to the body, and typesets it using MathJax.

<button id="mjxgui-button">Add Equation</button>
<div id="equation-output"></div>
<script>
    const eqnOutput = document.querySelector('#equation-output');
    
    const mjxgui = new MJXGUI('#mjxgui-button');
    
    mjxgui.successCallback = function (latex, instance) {
        MathJax.typesetClear([eqnOutput]);
        eqnOutput.innerHTML += '$$' + latex + '$$' + '<br>';
        MathJax.typesetPromise([eqnOutput]).then(() => {});
    }
</script>

The API provided by the MJXGUI instance is documented in MJXGUI Instance documentation.