@lexical/react

What is @lexical/react?

@lexical/react is a powerful and flexible text editor framework for React applications. It provides a set of tools and components to build rich text editors with ease, offering features like collaborative editing, custom formatting, and extensibility.

What are @lexical/react's main functionalities?

Basic Editor Setup

This code sets up a basic Lexical editor with rich text capabilities and history support. The LexicalComposer component initializes the editor with a configuration, and the RichTextPlugin and HistoryPlugin add rich text editing and undo/redo functionality.

import React from 'react';
import { LexicalComposer } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer';
import { RichTextPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalRichTextPlugin';
import { ContentEditable } from '@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable';
import { HistoryPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalHistoryPlugin';

const editorConfig = {
  namespace: 'MyEditor',
  theme: {},
  onError: (error) => {
    console.error(error);
  },
};

function MyEditor() {
  return (
    <LexicalComposer initialConfig={editorConfig}>
      <RichTextPlugin
        contentEditable={<ContentEditable />}
        placeholder={<div>Enter some text...</div>}
      />
      <HistoryPlugin />
    </LexicalComposer>
  );
}

export default MyEditor;

Custom Formatting

This code adds a toolbar to the Lexical editor, allowing users to apply custom formatting to their text. The ToolbarPlugin provides a set of formatting options like bold, italic, and underline.

import React from 'react';
import { LexicalComposer } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer';
import { RichTextPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalRichTextPlugin';
import { ContentEditable } from '@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable';
import { HistoryPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalHistoryPlugin';
import { ToolbarPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalToolbarPlugin';
import { $createTextNode } from 'lexical';

const editorConfig = {
  namespace: 'MyEditor',
  theme: {},
  onError: (error) => {
    console.error(error);
  },
};

function MyEditor() {
  return (
    <LexicalComposer initialConfig={editorConfig}>
      <ToolbarPlugin />
      <RichTextPlugin
        contentEditable={<ContentEditable />}
        placeholder={<div>Enter some text...</div>}
      />
      <HistoryPlugin />
    </LexicalComposer>
  );
}

export default MyEditor;

Collaborative Editing

This code enables collaborative editing in the Lexical editor. The CollaborationPlugin allows multiple users to edit the same document in real-time, identified by a unique room ID.

import React from 'react';
import { LexicalComposer } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer';
import { RichTextPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalRichTextPlugin';
import { ContentEditable } from '@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable';
import { HistoryPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalHistoryPlugin';
import { CollaborationPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalCollaborationPlugin';

const editorConfig = {
  namespace: 'MyEditor',
  theme: {},
  onError: (error) => {
    console.error(error);
  },
};

function MyEditor() {
  return (
    <LexicalComposer initialConfig={editorConfig}>
      <RichTextPlugin
        contentEditable={<ContentEditable />}
        placeholder={<div>Enter some text...</div>}
      />
      <HistoryPlugin />
      <CollaborationPlugin id="my-collab-room" />
    </LexicalComposer>
  );
}

export default MyEditor;

Other packages similar to @lexical/react

draft-js

Draft.js is a framework for building rich text editors in React. It provides a set of immutable models and helper functions to manage editor state and content. Compared to @lexical/react, Draft.js is more mature but may require more boilerplate code for advanced features.

slate

Slate is a highly customizable framework for building rich text editors in React. It offers a more flexible and extensible architecture compared to @lexical/react, allowing developers to define their own data models and editor behaviors. However, this flexibility can come with a steeper learning curve.

quill

Quill is a modern WYSIWYG editor built for the web. It provides a rich set of features out of the box, including formatting, themes, and modules for extending functionality. Quill is less focused on React specifically but can be integrated with React applications using wrappers like react-quill.

README

@lexical/react

This package provides a set of components and hooks for Lexical that allow for text editing in React applications.

Getting started

Install lexical and @lexical/react:

npm install --save lexical @lexical/react

Below is an example of a basic plain text editor using lexical and @lexical/react (try it yourself).

import {$getRoot, $getSelection} from 'lexical';
import {useEffect} from 'react';

import LexicalComposer from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer';
import LexicalPlainTextPlugin from '@lexical/react/LexicalPlainTextPlugin';
import LexicalContentEditable from '@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable';
import {HistoryPlugin} from '@lexical/react/LexicalHistoryPlugin';
import LexicalOnChangePlugin from '@lexical/react/LexicalOnChangePlugin';
import {useLexicalComposerContext} from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposerContext';

const theme = {
  // Theme styling goes here
  ...
}

// When the editor changes, you can get notified via the
// LexicalOnChangePlugin!
function onChange(editorState) {
  editorState.read(() => {
    // Read the contents of the EditorState here.
    const root = $getRoot();
    const selection = $getSelection();

    console.log(root, selection);
  });
}

// Lexical React plugins are React components, which makes them
// highly composable. Furthermore, you can lazy load plugins if
// desired, so you don't pay the cost for plugins until you
// actually use them.
function MyCustomAutoFocusPlugin() {
  const [editor] = useLexicalComposerContext();

  useEffect(() => {
    // Focus the editor when the effect fires!
    editor.focus();
  }, [editor]);

  return null;
}

// Catch any errors that occur during Lexical updates and log them
// or throw them as needed. If you don't throw them, Lexical will
// try to recover gracefully without losing user data.
function onError(error) {
  throw error;
}

function Editor() {
  const initialConfig = {
    theme,
    onError,
  };

  return (
    <LexicalComposer initialConfig={initialConfig}>
      <LexicalPlainTextPlugin
        contentEditable={<LexicalContentEditable />}
        placeholder={<div>Enter some text...</div>}
      />
      <LexicalOnChangePlugin onChange={onChange} />
      <HistoryPlugin />
      <MyCustomAutoFocusPlugin />
    </LexicalComposer>
  );
}

Changelog

0.2.5 (April 28, 2022)

• Add TextMarks to TextNode (#1912)
• Fix various collab bugs with lists (#1984)
• Fix cached getTextContent() to reflect new lines (#1993)
• Fix equation node handling on Android (#1968)
• Fix formatting on embeds (#1963)
• Improve multi element indentation - added ElementNode.canIndent (#1982)
• Fix bugs around pressing the enter key in Safari (#1943)
• Fix delete empty lines on tables (#1905)
• Fix copy-paste format loss (#1913)
• Fix memory leak with EditorContext (#1767)
• Fix various selection issues on node boundaries (#1917)
• Fix some .js.flow and d.ts types