Ultimate Guide on how to setup Editor.js with Next.js 12+ (Typescript)

EditorJS is an awesome rich text editor. However, there are many issues with just setting it up in Next.js 12 or React 18, and especially when you combine typescript into the mix.

We are going to setup editor.js and afterwards, check the issues encountered by some developers before. We won't be using react-editor-js, I found it better to use the @editorjs/editorjs package only since we can directly access the types and have lesser dependencies.

Here's a link to the final output: https://editorjs-next.vercel.app/

What is Editor.JS? #

Editor.js is a block-style editor for rich media stories. It outputs clean data in JSON instead of heavy HTML markup. And more important thing is that Editor.js is designed to be API extendable and pluggable.

- Quote from editorjs.io

Project Setup #

Lets create a brand new Next.js application with typescript setting.

npx create-next-app --ts editorjs-next1

Lets Install the dependencies:

cd editorjs-next
1

yarn add @editorjs/editorjs @editorjs/code @editorjs/paragraph1

Creating the Editor component #

First lets create EditorTools.js (Javascript) since the plugins for editorjs doesn't have types. This is a good way to avoid the typescript errors since we're only using them for the config.

//./components/EditorTools.js
import Code from "@editorjs/code";
import Header from "@editorjs/header";
import Paragraph from "@editorjs/paragraph";
export const EDITOR_TOOLS = {
  code: Code,
  header: Header,
  paragraph: Paragraph
};
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Next let's create the editor component.

//./components/Editor
import React, { memo, useEffect, useRef } from "react";
import EditorJS, { OutputData } from "@editorjs/editorjs";
import { EDITOR_TOOLS } from "./EditorTools";

//props
type Props = {
  data?: OutputData;
  onChange(val: OutputData): void;
  holder: string;
};

const EditorBlock = ({ data, onChange, holder }: Props) => {
  //add a reference to editor
  const ref = useRef<EditorJS>();

  //initialize editorjs
  useEffect(() => {
    //initialize editor if we don't have a reference
    if (!ref.current) {
      const editor = new EditorJS({
        holder: holder,
        tools: EDITOR_TOOLS,
        data,
        async onChange(api, event) {
          const data = await api.saver.save();
          onChange(data);
        },
      });
      ref.current = editor;
    }

    //add a return function handle cleanup
    return () => {
      if (ref.current && ref.current.destroy) {
        ref.current.destroy();
      }
    };
  }, []);


  return <div id={holder} />;
};

export default memo(EditorBlock);
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Below is how to initialize editor.js without using react-editor-js package. This is awesome because we have access to the types/intellisense of editor.js. See the screenshot below. We have full access to the editor.js api whenever we need it. Having access to these methods just gives us a more maintainable application.

Editor.js type autocomplete/intellisense

Using the `Editor` component #

The only thing to remember when using the editor component is to use dynamic loading from next.js, we can't really render it server-side since editor.js library uses window object. Attempting to use static import will result in an error.

//index.tsx
import { OutputData } from "@editorjs/editorjs";
import type { NextPage } from "next";
import dynamic from "next/dynamic";
import { useState } from "react";

// important that we use dynamic loading here
// editorjs should only be rendered on the client side.
const EditorBlock = dynamic(() => import("../components/Editor"), {
  ssr: false,
});

const Home: NextPage = () => {
  //state to hold output data. we'll use this for rendering later
  const [data, setData] = useState<OutputData>();
  return (
    <EditorBlock data={data} onChange={setData} holder="editorjs-container" />
  );
};

export default Home;
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Run the app and see the output #

yarn dev1

Running the app gives us the output below:

Apply styling to the editor #

We've sucessfully setup Editor.js however when using the header block, its not properly styled when we write to the editor. One way I like to style it using @tailwindcss/typography prose class. It automatically applies styling in all the elements of our Editor component

The nice thing about about tailwind is we can plug it in to any project since they are only utility classes. Let's setup tailwindcss in our Next.js project and install some dependencies.

yarn add tailwindcss autoprefixer postcss @tailwindcss/typography1

Create tailwindcss.config.js and postcss.config.js files at the root project directory and copy-paste the code below.

//tailwindcss.config.js
  /** @type {import('tailwindcss').Config} */
module.exports = {
  content: [
    "./pages/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}",
    "./components/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}",
  ],

  theme: {
    container: {
      center: true,
      padding: {
        DEFAULT: "1rem",
      },
    },
  plugins: [require("@tailwindcss/typography")],
};
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//postcss.config.js
module.exports = {
  plugins: ["tailwindcss"],
};
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To fully activate tailwind, lets add the tailwind classes to our global.css file

#global.css

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

html,
body {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Oxygen,
    Ubuntu, Cantarell, Fira Sans, Droid Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif;
}12345678910111213

Apply styling to our index.tsx file

//index.tsx
...
<div className="container max-w-4xl">
  <EditorBlock data={data} onChange={setData} holder="editorjs-container" />
</div>
...123456

Apply styling to our Editor.tsx component

//Editor.tsx
...
<div id={holder} className="prose max-w-full" />;
...1234

And now we have proper styles in our Editor component

Proper styles after adding prose class using tailwindcss

Rendering the contents of our editor #

Now that we have successfully configured our editor for the basic plugins. Let's look at how to render the data from the editor. Let's install the dependency editorjs-html. This is a great package since it allows us to customize how we render the data.

yarn add editorjs-html
1

Let's create a EditorJsRenderer.tsx component that accepts the OutputData as props. OutputData is the data used and received by EditorJS.

//components/EditorJsRenderer.tsx

import { OutputData } from "@editorjs/editorjs";
import React from "react";

//use require since editorjs-html doesn't have types
const editorJsHtml = require("editorjs-html");
const EditorJsToHtml = editorJsHtml();

type Props = {
  data: OutputData;
};
type ParsedContent = string | JSX.Element;

const EditorJsRenderer = ({ data }: Props) => {
  const html = EditorJsToHtml.parse(data) as ParsedContent[];
  return (
    //✔️ It's important to add key={data.time} here to re-render based on the latest data.
    <div className="prose max-w-full" key={data.time}>
      {html.map((item, index) => {
        if (typeof item === "string") {
          return (
            <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: item }} key={index}></div>
          );
        }
        return item;
      })}
    </div>
  );
};

export default EditorJsRenderer;
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Let's modify index.tsx to show the editor and preview.

//index.tsx
import { OutputData } from "@editorjs/editorjs";
import type { NextPage } from "next";
import dynamic from "next/dynamic";
import { useState } from "react";
import EditorJsRenderer from "../components/EditorJsRenderer";

// important that we use dynamic loading here
// editorjs should only be rendered on the client side.
const EditorBlock = dynamic(() => import("../components/Editor"), {
  ssr: false,
});

const Home: NextPage = () => {
  //state to hold output data. we'll use this for rendering later
  const [data, setData] = useState<OutputData>();
  return (
    <div className="grid grid-cols-2 gap-2">
      <div className="col-span-1 ">
        <h1>Editor</h1>
        <div className="border rounded-md">
          <EditorBlock
            data={data}
            onChange={setData}
            holder="editorjs-container"
          />
        </div>
      </div>
      <div className="col-span-1 ">
        <h1>Preview</h1>
        <div className="border rounded-md">
          <div className="p-16">{data && <EditorJsRenderer data={data} />}</div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

export default Home;
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Awesome. now the output should be something like this

Output after rendering content for editorjs

Common Problems when setting up Editor.js in React 18 / Next.js v12 #

1. ReferenceError: window is not defined

The solution for this is to import the comonent using dynamic import and {ssr: false}

// important that we use dynamic loading here
// editorjs should only be rendered on the client side.
const EditorBlock = dynamic(() => import("../components/Editor"), {
  ssr: false,
});
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2. The Editor is rendered/initialized twice.

The solution is to keep a reference to the editor using useRef and add a guard statement to check if it's already initialized.

How to prevent double initialization in editorjs in React

Conclusion #

We have successfully setup editor.js in React 18+ / Nextjs 12.3.1 while having type safety in our typescript usage. We also went through on how to render the data and discussed common problems related to setting up editor.js in React 18 and Next.js 12.3.1

Resources #

Full code is available here:
https://github.com/jmarioste/editorjs-next

Demo: https://editorjs-next.vercel.app/

Credits:

Image by 🌼Christel🌼 from Pixabay

ReactHustle

Ultimate Guide on how to setup Editor.js with Next.js 12+ (Typescript)

What is Editor.JS? #

Project Setup #

Creating the Editor component #

Using the `Editor` component #

Run the app and see the output #

Apply styling to the editor #

Rendering the contents of our editor #

Common Problems when setting up Editor.js in React 18 / Next.js v12 #

1. ReferenceError: window is not defined

2. The Editor is rendered/initialized twice.

Conclusion #

Resources #

Related Posts

How to Create Custom Formik Radio Button / Radio Group (with Typescript)

How to Update State when Props Change in React

How to Read a CSV File in React

How to Validate Array of Strings using Yup

How to Create a React Scroll Indicator using TailwindCSS

How to Auto Scroll to Bottom in React

Disclaimer

Categories

Tags

All tags

What is Editor.JS? #

Project Setup #

Creating the Editor component #

Using the Editor component #

Run the app and see the output #

Apply styling to the editor #

Rendering the contents of our editor #

Common Problems when setting up Editor.js in React 18 / Next.js v12 #

1. ReferenceError: window is not defined

2. The Editor is rendered/initialized twice.

Conclusion #

Resources #

Related Posts

How to Create Custom Formik Radio Button / Radio Group (with Typescript)

How to Update State when Props Change in React

How to Read a CSV File in React

How to Validate Array of Strings using Yup

How to Create a React Scroll Indicator using TailwindCSS

How to Auto Scroll to Bottom in React

Disclaimer

Categories

Tags

All tags

Using the `Editor` component #