The official editor for editing Portable Text – the JSON based rich text specification for modern content editing platforms.

[!NOTE] We are currently working hard on the general release of this component. Better docs and refined APIs are coming.

End-User Experience

In order to provide a robust and consistent end-user experience, the editor is backed by an elaborate E2E test suite generated from a human-readable Gherkin spec.

Build Your Own Portable Text Editor

[!WARNING] The @portabletext/editor is currently on the path to deprecate legacy APIs and introduce new ones. The end goals are to make the editor easier to use outside of Sanity (and without @sanity/* libraries) as well as providing a brand new API to configure the behavior of the editor.

This means that the defineSchema and useEditor APIs showcased here are still experimental APIs tagged with @alpha and cannot be considered stable yet. At the same time, the examples below showcase usages of legacy static methods on the PortableTextEditor (for example, PortableTextEditor.isMarkActive(...) and PortableTextEditor.toggleMark(...)) that will soon be discouraged and deprecrated.

Check /examples/basic/src/App.tsx for a basic example of how to set up the edior. Most of the source code from this example app can also be found in the instructions below.

Define the Schema

The first thing to do is to define the editor schema definition. The schema definition is later passed into the editor where it's compiled and used in various callbacks and render functions.

// All options are optional
// Only the `name` property is required, but you can define a `title` and an `icon` as well
// You can use this schema definition later to build your toolbar
const schemaDefinition = defineSchema({
  // Decorators are simple marks that don't hold any data
  decorators: [{name: 'strong'}, {name: 'em'}, {name: 'underline'}],
  // Annotations are more complex marks that can hold data
  annotations: [{name: 'link'}],
  // Styles apply to entire text blocks
  // There's always a 'normal' style that can be considered the paragraph style
  styles: [
    {name: 'normal'},
    {name: 'h1'},
    {name: 'h2'},
    {name: 'h3'},
    {name: 'blockqoute'},
  ],
  // Lists apply to entire text blocks as well
  lists: [{name: 'bullet'}, {name: 'number'}],
  // Inline objects hold arbitrary data that can be inserted into the text
  inlineObjects: [{name: 'stock-ticker'}],
  // Block objects hold arbitrary data that live side-by-side with text blocks
  blockObjects: [{name: 'image'}],
})

Render the Editor Component

Use useEditor to create an editor and pass that into PortableTextEditor. Use the editor.on method to listen for mutation changes inside the editor so you can use and store the value produced.

function App() {
  const [value, setValue] = useState<Array<PortableTextBlock> | undefined>(
    // Initial value
    () => [
      {
        _type: 'block',
        _key: keyGenerator(),
        children: [
          {_type: 'span', _key: keyGenerator(), text: 'Hello, '},
          {
            _type: 'span',
            _key: keyGenerator(),
            text: 'world!',
            marks: ['strong'],
          },
        ],
      },
    ],
  )

  // Create an editor
  const editor = useEditor({
    schemaDefinition,
    // With an optional initial value
    initialValue: value,
  })

  // Subscribe to editor changes
  useEffect(() => {
    const subscription = editor.on('mutation', (mutation) => {
      setValue(mutation.snapshot)
    })

    return () => {
      subscription.unsubscribe()
    }
  }, [editor])

  return (
    <>
      <PortableTextEditor
        // Pass in the `editor` you created earlier
        editor={editor}
      >
        {/* Toolbar needs to be rendered inside the `PortableTextEditor` component */}
        <Toolbar />
        {/* Component that controls the actual rendering of the editor */}
        <PortableTextEditable
          style={{border: '1px solid black', padding: '0.5em'}}
          // Control how decorators are rendered
          renderDecorator={renderDecorator}
          // Control how annotations are rendered
          renderAnnotation={renderAnnotation}
          // Required to render block objects but also to make `renderStyle` take effect
          renderBlock={renderBlock}
          // Control how styles are rendered
          renderStyle={renderStyle}
          // Control how inline objects are rendered
          renderChild={renderChild}
          // Rendering lists is harder and most likely requires a fair amount of CSS
          // However, we still need to return and render the list item's children to ensure proper rendering
          renderListItem={(props) => <>{props.children}</>}
        />
      </PortableTextEditor>
      <pre style={{border: '1px dashed black', padding: '0.5em'}}>
        {JSON.stringify(value, null, 2)}
      </pre>
    </>
  )
}

Render Marks, Blocks and Objects

All the different render functions passed to PortableTextEditable can be defined as stand-alone React components. Most of these are fairly straightforward to render because everything you need is provided via props. However, lists are a little special. Since Portable Text has no concept of block nesting, the easiest way get something looking like lists is with pure CSS. Head over to /examples/basic/src/editor.css for a full example.

const renderDecorator: RenderDecoratorFunction = (props) => {
  if (props.value === 'strong') {
    return <strong>{props.children}</strong>
  }
  if (props.value === 'em') {
    return <em>{props.children}</em>
  }
  if (props.value === 'underline') {
    return <u>{props.children}</u>
  }
  return <>{props.children}</>
}

const renderAnnotation: RenderAnnotationFunction = (props) => {
  if (props.schemaType.name === 'link') {
    return <span style={{textDecoration: 'underline'}}>{props.children}</span>
  }

  return <>{props.children}</>
}

const renderBlock: RenderBlockFunction = (props) => {
  if (props.schemaType.name === 'image' && isImage(props.value)) {
    return (
      <div
        style={{
          border: '1px dotted grey',
          padding: '0.25em',
          marginBlockEnd: '0.25em',
        }}
      >
        IMG: {props.value.src}
      </div>
    )
  }

  return <div style={{marginBlockEnd: '0.25em'}}>{props.children}</div>
}

function isImage(
  props: PortableTextBlock,
): props is PortableTextBlock & {src: string} {
  return 'src' in props
}

const renderStyle: RenderStyleFunction = (props) => {
  if (props.schemaType.value === 'h1') {
    return <h1>{props.children}</h1>
  }
  if (props.schemaType.value === 'h2') {
    return <h2>{props.children}</h2>
  }
  if (props.schemaType.value === 'h3') {
    return <h3>{props.children}</h3>
  }
  if (props.schemaType.value === 'blockquote') {
    return <blockquote>{props.children}</blockquote>
  }
  return <>{props.children}</>
}

const renderChild: RenderChildFunction = (props) => {
  if (props.schemaType.name === 'stock-ticker' && isStockTicker(props.value)) {
    return (
      <span
        style={{
          border: '1px dotted grey',
          padding: '0.15em',
        }}
      >
        {props.value.symbol}
      </span>
    )
  }

  return <>{props.children}</>
}

function isStockTicker(
  props: PortableTextChild,
): props is PortableTextChild & {symbol: string} {
  return 'symbol' in props
}

Render the Toolbar

Your toolbar needs to be rendered within PortableTextEditor because it requires a reference to the editorInstance that it produces. To toggle marks and styles and to insert objects, you'll have to use this editorInstance together with static methods on the PortableTextEditor class.

function Toolbar() {
  // Obtain the editor instance provided from the `PortableTextEditor` component
  const editorInstance = usePortableTextEditor()
  // Rerender the toolbar whenever the selection changes
  usePortableTextEditorSelection()

  const decoratorButtons = schemaDefinition.decorators.map((decorator) => {
    return (
      <button
        key={decorator.name}
        style={{
          textDecoration: PortableTextEditor.isMarkActive(
            editorInstance,
            decorator.name,
          )
            ? 'underline'
            : 'unset',
        }}
        onClick={() => {
          // Toggle the decorator by name
          PortableTextEditor.toggleMark(editorInstance, decorator.name)
          // Pressing this button steals focus so let's focus the editor again
          PortableTextEditor.focus(editorInstance)
        }}
      >
        {decorator.name}
      </button>
    )
  })

  const linkButton = (
    <button
      style={{
        textDecoration: PortableTextEditor.isAnnotationActive(
          editorInstance,
          schemaDefinition.annotations[0].name,
        )
          ? 'underline'
          : 'unset',
      }}
      onClick={() => {
        if (
          PortableTextEditor.isAnnotationActive(
            editorInstance,
            schemaDefinition.annotations[0].name,
          )
        ) {
          PortableTextEditor.removeAnnotation(
            editorInstance,
            schemaDefinition.annotations[0],
          )
        } else {
          PortableTextEditor.addAnnotation(
            editorInstance,
            schemaDefinition.annotations[0],
            {href: 'https://example.com'},
          )
        }
        PortableTextEditor.focus(editorInstance)
      }}
    >
      link
    </button>
  )

  const styleButtons = schemaDefinition.styles.map((style) => (
    <button
      key={style.name}
      style={{
        textDecoration: PortableTextEditor.hasBlockStyle(
          editorInstance,
          style.name,
        )
          ? 'underline'
          : 'unset',
      }}
      onClick={() => {
        PortableTextEditor.toggleBlockStyle(editorInstance, style.name)
        PortableTextEditor.focus(editorInstance)
      }}
    >
      {style.name}
    </button>
  ))

  const listButtons = schemaDefinition.lists.map((list) => (
    <button
      key={list.name}
      style={{
        textDecoration: PortableTextEditor.hasListStyle(
          editorInstance,
          list.name,
        )
          ? 'underline'
          : 'unset',
      }}
      onClick={() => {
        PortableTextEditor.toggleList(editorInstance, list.name)
        PortableTextEditor.focus(editorInstance)
      }}
    >
      {list.name}
    </button>
  ))

  const imageButton = (
    <button
      onClick={() => {
        PortableTextEditor.insertBlock(
          editorInstance,
          schemaDefinition.blockObjects[0],
          {src: 'https://example.com/image.jpg'},
        )
        PortableTextEditor.focus(editorInstance)
      }}
    >
      {schemaDefinition.blockObjects[0].name}
    </button>
  )

  const stockTickerButton = (
    <button
      onClick={() => {
        PortableTextEditor.insertChild(
          editorInstance,
          schemaDefinition.inlineObjects[0],
          {symbol: 'AAPL'},
        )
        PortableTextEditor.focus(editorInstance)
      }}
    >
      {schemaDefinition.inlineObjects[0].name}
    </button>
  )

  return (
    <>
      <div>{decoratorButtons}</div>
      <div>{linkButton}</div>
      <div>{styleButtons}</div>
      <div>{listButtons}</div>
      <div>{imageButton}</div>
      <div>{stockTickerButton}</div>
    </>
  )
}