Get started - Get started with Liveblocks, Lexical, and React

Liveblocks is a realtime collaboration infrastructure for building performant collaborative experiences. Follow the following steps to start adding collaboration to your React application using the APIs from the @liveblocks/react-lexical package.

Quickstart

1. Install Liveblocks and Lexical

   Every Liveblocks package should use the same version.

   $npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/react @liveblocks/react-ui @liveblocks/react-lexical lexical @lexical/react

2. Initialize the liveblocks.config.ts file

   We can use this file later to define types for our application.

   $npx create-liveblocks-app@latest --init --framework react

3. Set up the Liveblocks client

   Liveblocks uses the concept of rooms, separate virtual spaces where people collaborate, and to create a realtime experience, multiple users must be connected to the same room. Set up a Liveblocks client with LiveblocksProvider, and join a room with RoomProvider.

   App.tsx

   "use client";
   import {  LiveblocksProvider,  RoomProvider,} from "@liveblocks/react/suspense";import { Editor } from "./Editor";
   export default function App() {  return (    <LiveblocksProvider publicApiKey={"pk_prod_xxxx…xxxxxxpk_prod_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"}>      <RoomProvider id="my-room">        {/* ... */}      </RoomProvider>    </LiveblocksProvider>  );}

4. Join a Liveblocks room

   After setting up the room, you can add collaborative components inside it, using ClientSideSuspense to add loading spinners to your app.

   App.tsx

   "use client";
   import {  LiveblocksProvider,  RoomProvider,  ClientSideSuspense,} from "@liveblocks/react/suspense";import { Editor } from "./Editor";
   export default function App() {  return (    <LiveblocksProvider publicApiKey={"pk_prod_xxxx…xxxxxxpk_prod_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"}>      <RoomProvider id="my-room">        <ClientSideSuspense fallback={<div>Loading…</div>}>          <Editor />        </ClientSideSuspense>      </RoomProvider>    </LiveblocksProvider>  );}

5. Set up the collaborative Lexical text editor

   Now that we set up Liveblocks, we can start integrating Lexical and Liveblocks in the Editor.tsx file. To make the editor collaborative, we can use LiveblocksPlugin from @liveblocks/react-lexical. FloatingToolbar adds a text selection toolbar.

   Editor.tsx

   "use client";
   import { LexicalComposer } from "@lexical/react/LexicalComposer";import { RichTextPlugin } from "@lexical/react/LexicalRichTextPlugin";import { ContentEditable } from "@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable";import { LexicalErrorBoundary } from "@lexical/react/LexicalErrorBoundary";import {  liveblocksConfig,  LiveblocksPlugin,  FloatingToolbar,} from "@liveblocks/react-lexical";import { Threads } from "./Threads";
   export function Editor() {  // Wrap your Lexical config with `liveblocksConfig`  const initialConfig = liveblocksConfig({    namespace: "Demo",    onError: (error: unknown) => {      console.error(error);      throw error;    },  });
     return (    <LexicalComposer initialConfig={initialConfig}>      <div className="editor">        <RichTextPlugin          contentEditable={<ContentEditable />}          placeholder={<div className="placeholder">Start typing here…</div>}          ErrorBoundary={LexicalErrorBoundary}        />        <LiveblocksPlugin>          <Threads />          <FloatingToolbar />        </LiveblocksPlugin>      </div>    </LexicalComposer>  );}

6. Render threads and composer

   To add Comments to your text editor, we need to import a thread composer and list each thread on the page. Create a Threads.tsx file that uses FloatingComposer for creating new threads, alongside AnchoredThreads and FloatingThreads for displaying threads on desktop and mobile.

   Threads.tsx

   "use client";
   import { useThreads } from "@liveblocks/react/suspense";import {  AnchoredThreads,  FloatingComposer,  FloatingThreads,} from "@liveblocks/react-lexical";
   export function Threads() {  const { threads } = useThreads();
     return (    <>      <div className="anchored-threads">        <AnchoredThreads threads={threads} />      </div>      <FloatingThreads className="floating-threads" threads={threads} />      <FloatingComposer className="floating-composer" />    </>  );}

7. Style your editor

   Lexical text editor is unstyled by default, so we can create some custom styles for it in a globals.css file. Import globals.css, alongside the default Liveblocks styles. You can import them into the root layout of your app or directly into a CSS file with @import.

   globals.css

   import "@liveblocks/react-ui/styles.css";import "@liveblocks/react-lexical/styles.css";import "./globals.css";

8. Next: authenticate and add your users

   Text Editor is set up and working now, but each user is anonymous—the next step is to authenticate each user as they connect, and attach their name, color, and avatar, to their cursors and mentions.

   Add your users to Text Editor

9. Optional: add more features

   Lexical is a highly extensible text editor and it's possible to create complex rich-text applications. A great example is in the Lexical playground which enables features such as tables, text highlights, embedded images, and more. This is all supported using Liveblocks.

   Learn more about Lexical

What to read next

Congratulations! You now have set up the foundation for your collaborative Lexical text editor inside your React application.

• Overview
• @liveblocks/react-lexical API Reference
• @liveblocks/node-lexical API Reference
• Lexical website

Examples using Lexical

• 

  Collaborative Text Editor

  Next.js