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GuidesYjs, Node.js, Webhooks, Databases, REST API

Can I use my own database with Yjs?

When building collaborative applications with Yjs and Liveblocks, you may wish to store document data in your own database alongside Liveblocks. While Liveblocks needs to store Yjs document data to handle realtime collaboration, you can use webhooks to duplicate this data to your own database whenever changes occur.

Why Liveblocks stores Yjs data

Liveblocks must store Yjs document data to provide realtime collaboration features. This storage is essential for:

  • Realtime synchronization: Distributing changes to all connected users instantly.
  • Conflict resolution: Merging changes from multiple users working simultaneously.
  • Offline support: Syncing changes when users reconnect after being offline.
  • Document loading: Loading the current document state when a user enters the room.

Without storing this data, Liveblocks wouldn't be able to provide the realtime collaboration features that make Yjs powerful. However, you can still maintain your own copy of the data for additional purposes like backups, analytics, or creating full-text search.

Duplicating data with webhooks

The best way to keep your own database in sync with Liveblocks is to use the YDocUpdated webhook event. This event fires whenever a Yjs document changes, allowing you to copy the updated data to your database. Your server can then:

  1. Receive the webhook event.
  2. Fetch the latest document data from Liveblocks.
  3. Store it in your database.

This approach ensures your database stays synchronized with Liveblocks without interfering with realtime collaboration.

Webhook throttling

Yjs documents can update up to 60 times per second during active collaboration, so the YDocUpdated webhook is throttled to prevent overwhelming your server. The webhook event will run no more than once every 60 seconds by default, but on Enterprise plans, you can configure this throttle to be as low as every 5 seconds, giving you near realtime synchronization to your database.

Setting up database synchronization

We have detailed guides that walk you through how to set up your webhooks and store the Yjs data in your database.

If your database isn’t mentioned in these guides, the process is still similar, so we recommend following the general steps outlined in the guides. The guides above detail fetching your Yjs data, however if you’re using one of our text editor extensions, you can use our server packages to fetch the Tiptap or Lexical data instead.

Tiptap

If you’re using Tiptap, withProsemirrorDocument can be used to fetch the Tiptap data, as text, markdown, JSON, and more, when receiving the webhook event.

const textContent = await withProsemirrorDocument(  { roomId: "my-room-id", client: liveblocks },  async (api) => {    return api.toMarkdown();  });
// "# Hello world"console.log(textContent);

Additionally you can modify the live document with setContent.

Lexical

If you’re using Lexical, withLexicalDocument can be used to fetch the Lexical data, as text, markdown, JSON, and more, when receiving the webhook event.

const textContent = await withLexicalDocument(  { roomId: "my-room-id", client: liveblocks },  async (doc) => {    return doc.toMarkdown();  });
// "# Hello world"console.log(textContent);

Additionally you can modify the live document with update.

Learn more

For more information about data storage and webhooks, check out these resources:

API documentation

Learn more about the APIs for working with Yjs data:

Related guides

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