Get started - Get started with Liveblocks, Yjs, Quill, and React

Liveblocks is a real-time 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/yjs package.

Quickstart

  1. Install Liveblocks, Yjs, and Quill

    $npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/react @liveblocks/yjs yjs quill quill-cursors react-quill y-quill

  2. Initialize the liveblocks.config.ts file

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

  3. Set up the Liveblocks client

    The first step in connecting to Liveblocks is creating a client which will be responsible for communicating with the back end. You can do this by modifying createClient in your config file, and passing your public API key.

    liveblocks.config.ts
    const client = createClient({  publicApiKey: "pk_prod_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",});

  4. Join a Liveblocks room

    Liveblocks uses the concept of rooms, separate virtual spaces where people collaborate. To create a real-time experience, multiple users must be connected to the same room.

    index.tsx
    import { RoomProvider } from "./liveblocks.config";import { Editor } from "./Editor";import { ClientSideSuspense } from "@liveblocks/react";
    export default function Page() {  return (    <RoomProvider id="my-room" initialPresence={{}}>      <ClientSideSuspense fallback="Loading…">        {() => <Editor />}      </ClientSideSuspense>    </RoomProvider>  );}

  5. Set up the collaborative Quill text editor

    Now that we set up Liveblocks, we can start integrating Quill and Yjs in the Editor.tsx file. To make the editor collaborative, we can rely on QuillBinding and QuillCursors from y-quill and quill-cursors.

    Editor.tsx
    import Quill from "quill";import ReactQuill from "react-quill";import QuillCursors from "quill-cursors";import { QuillBinding } from "y-quill";import * as Y from "yjs";import LiveblocksProvider from "@liveblocks/yjs";import { useRoom } from "@/liveblocks.config";import { useCallback, useEffect, useRef, useState } from "react";
    Quill.register("modules/cursors", QuillCursors);
    // Collaborative text editor with simple rich text, live cursors, and live avatarsexport function CollaborativeEditor() {  const room = useRoom();  const [text, setText] = useState<Y.Text>();  const [provider, setProvider] = useState<any>();
      // Set up Liveblocks Yjs provider  useEffect(() => {    const yDoc = new Y.Doc();    const yText = yDoc.getText("quill");    const yProvider = new LiveblocksProvider(room, yDoc);    setText(yText);    setProvider(yProvider);
        return () => {      yDoc?.destroy();      yProvider?.destroy();    };  }, [room]);
      if (!text || !provider) {    return null;  }
      return <QuillEditor yText={text} provider={provider} />;}
    type EditorProps = {  yText: Y.Text;  provider: any;};
    function QuillEditor({ yText, provider }: EditorProps) {  const reactQuillRef = useRef<ReactQuill>(null);
      // Set up Yjs and Quill  useEffect(() => {    let quill;    let binding: QuillBinding;
        if (!reactQuillRef.current) {      return;    }
        quill = reactQuillRef.current.getEditor();    binding = new QuillBinding(yText, quill, provider.awareness);    return () => {      binding?.destroy?.();    };  }, [yText, provider]);
      return (    <ReactQuill      placeholder="Start typing here…"      ref={reactQuillRef}      theme="snow"      modules={{        cursors: true,        history: {          // Local undo shouldn't undo changes from remote users          userOnly: true,        },      }}    />  );}

  6. 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 Quill text editor inside your React application.

Examples using Quill