Get started with a Slate text editor using Liveblocks 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/yjs package.

Quickstart

Install Liveblocks, Yjs, and Slate

Every Liveblocks package should use the same version.

Terminal

npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/react @liveblocks/yjs yjs slate slate-react @slate-yjs/core

Initialize the liveblocks.config.ts file
We can use this file later to define types for our application.
Terminal
npx create-liveblocks-app@latest --init --framework react

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={""}>      <RoomProvider id="my-room">        {/* ... */}      </RoomProvider>    </LiveblocksProvider>  );}

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 { CollaborativeEditor } from "./CollaborativeEditor";
export default function App() {  return (    <LiveblocksProvider publicApiKey={""}>      <RoomProvider id="my-room">        <ClientSideSuspense fallback={<div>Loading…</div>}>          <CollaborativeEditor />        </ClientSideSuspense>      </RoomProvider>    </LiveblocksProvider>  );}

Set up the collaborative Slate text editor

Now that we set up Liveblocks, we can start integrating Slate and Yjs in the CollaborativeEditor.tsx file. To make the editor collaborative, we can rely on withYjs from @slate-yjs/core.

CollaborativeEditor.tsx

"use client";
import { getYjsProviderForRoom } from "@liveblocks/yjs";import { useEffect, useMemo, useState } from "react";import { createEditor, Editor, Transforms } from "slate";import { Editable, Slate, withReact } from "slate-react";import { withYjs, YjsEditor } from "@slate-yjs/core";import * as Y from "yjs";import { useRoom } from "../liveblocks.config";import styles from "./CollaborativeEditor.module.css";
export function CollaborativeEditor() {  const room = useRoom();  const [connected, setConnected] = useState(false);
  // Set up Yjs  const yProvider = getYjsProviderForRoom(room);  const yDoc = yProvider.getYDoc();  const sharedType = yDoc.get("slate", Y.XmlText) as Y.XmlText;
  useEffect(() => {    yProvider.on("sync", setConnected);
    return () => {      yProvider?.off("sync", setConnected);    };  }, [room]);
  if (!connected || !sharedType) {    return <div>Loading…</div>;  }
  return <SlateEditor sharedType={sharedType} />;}
const emptyNode = {  children: [{ text: "" }],};
function SlateEditor({ sharedType }: { sharedType: Y.XmlText }) {  const editor = useMemo(() => {    const e = withReact(withYjs(createEditor(), sharedType));
    // Ensure editor always has at least 1 valid child    const { normalizeNode } = e;    e.normalizeNode = (entry) => {      const [node] = entry;
      if (!Editor.isEditor(node) || node.children.length > 0) {        return normalizeNode(entry);      }
      Transforms.insertNodes(editor, emptyNode, { at: [0] });    };
    return e;  }, []);
  useEffect(() => {    YjsEditor.connect(editor);    return () => YjsEditor.disconnect(editor);  }, [editor]);
  return (    <div className={styles.container}>      <div className={styles.editorContainer}>        <Slate editor={editor} initialValue={[emptyNode]}>          <Editable className={styles.editor} placeholder="Start typing here…" />        </Slate>      </div>    </div>  );}

And here is the Editor.module.css file to make sure your multiplayer text editor looks nice and tidy.

Next: set up authentication
By default, Liveblocks is configured to work without an authentication endpoint. This approach is great for prototyping and marketing pages where defining your own security isn’t always required. If you want to implement your own security logic to define if certain users should have access to a given room, you’ll need to implement an authentication endpoint.
Set up authentication