Get started – Get started with Liveblocks, CodeMirror, Yjs, and JavaScript

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

Quickstart

  1. Install Liveblocks, Yjs, and CodeMirror

    Every Liveblocks package should use the same version.

    $npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/yjs yjs codemirror @codemirror/lang-javascript y-codemirror.next

  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 javascript

  3. Create an HTML element

    <div id="editor"></div>

  4. Set up your collaborative CodeMirror code editor

    app.js
    import { createClient } from "@liveblocks/client";import { LiveblocksYjsProvider } from "@liveblocks/yjs";import * as Y from "yjs";import { yCollab } from "y-codemirror.next";import { EditorView, basicSetup } from "codemirror";import { EditorState } from "@codemirror/state";import { javascript } from "@codemirror/lang-javascript";
    // Set up Liveblocks clientconst client = createClient({  publicApiKey: "",});
    // Enter a multiplayer roomconst { room, leave } = client.enterRoom("my-room");
    // Set up Yjs document, shared text, and Liveblocks Yjs providerconst yDoc = new Y.Doc();const yText = yDoc.getText("codemirror");const yProvider = new LiveblocksProvider(room, yDoc);
    // Set up CodeMirror and extensionsconst state = EditorState.create({  doc: yText.toString(),  extensions: [    basicSetup,    javascript(),    yCollab(ytext, yProvider.awareness, { undoManager }),  ],});
    // Attach CodeMirror to elementconst parent = document.querySelector("#editor");view = new EditorView({  state,  parent,});

  5. Next: set up authentication

    By default, Liveblocks is configured to work without an authentication endpoint where everyone automatically has access to rooms. This approach is great for prototyping and marketing pages where setting up your own security isn’t always required. If you want to limit access to a room for certain users, you’ll need to set up an authentication endpoint to enable permissions.

    Set up authentication

What to read next

Congratulations! You now have set up the foundation for your collaborative CodeMirror code editor inside your JavaScript application.