What is the Lexical Editor?
Introduction Hi! I'm kouta222 I had the opportunity to use the Lexical Editor during my internship, so I wrote this article to share what I learned. What is the Lexical Editor? The Lexical Editor is a framework developed by Meta for building text editors. It's suitable for implementing: Plain text editors with more advanced functionality than Rich text editors for blogs, social media, and messaging apps WYSIWYG editors used in content management systems (CMS) Editors with real-time collaboration features Unlike other rich text editor libraries, Lexical provides only the core functionalities of a text editor. Features like toolbars, styling, or custom blocks are implemented as separate plugins. This minimal, modular design gives developers maximum flexibility to customize the editor as needed. Lexical also focuses on performance, accessibility, and framework independence (although official React bindings are provided). Features of Lexical Lexical's architecture revolves around three main concepts: EditorState An immutable model that holds the editor's state. Editor The core API of Lexical, representing the editor instance. DOM (contentEditable) The DOM element that reflects the user's input. When a user interacts with the DOM, the EditorState is updated, and the Editor reconciles changes back to the DOM, following a unidirectional data flow. Lexical also uses a reconciliation loop (similar to React) to batch updates efficiently and avoid unnecessary re-renders. Structure of EditorState EditorState contains two key components: Node tree Represents the document structure, including both content and formatting. For example, adding a heading block creates a HeadingNode that contains a TextNode for its text. Selection Represents the current user selection — it can be collapsed (a caret) or a range selection. Commands All user operations and editor actions are handled through command dispatching. You can register commands with the editor and define the logic (usually EditorState updates) to execute when those commands are dispatched. Key APIs: createCommand() → Create a new command. LexicalEditor.registerCommand() → Register a command handler. LexicalEditor.dispatchCommand() → Dispatch a command to the editor. Commands are often used for: Keyboard shortcuts Toolbar actions Custom editor behaviors Processing Flow of Lexical [Note: A diagram would be inserted here showing how user input updates the EditorState, which then updates the DOM.] The diagram shows how user input updates the EditorState, which then updates the DOM. Commands and event listeners fit into this loop, ensuring a smooth and consistent editor experience. How to Use Lexical Here's an example of implementing a rich text editor with Lexical: import { LexicalComposer } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer'; import { RichTextPlugin } from '@lexical/react/RichTextPlugin'; import { OnChangePlugin } from '@lexical/react/OnChangePlugin'; import { ContentEditable } from '@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable'; import { HistoryPlugin } from '@lexical/react/HistoryPlugin'; const initialConfig = { namespace: 'my-rich-text-editor', onError: (error) => console.error(error), }; function App() { return ( {/* Add custom plugins and toolbar here */} ); } function handleChange(editorState) { console.log('Editor state changed:', editorState); } Plugin Overview LexicalComposer → Provider component that sets up the editor. RichTextPlugin → Provides rich text editing features. OnChangePlugin → Registers a callback to track editor state changes. HistoryPlugin → Enables undo/redo functionality. You can also extend initialConfig with: Custom nodes Editor themes Initial EditorState Final Thoughts Lexical is a powerful, lightweight, and highly customizable framework for building text editors. If you want full control over the editor experience — with great performance, accessibility, and extensibility — Lexical is an excellent choice over heavier, prebuilt solutions.
Introduction
Hi! I'm kouta222
I had the opportunity to use the Lexical Editor during my internship, so I wrote this article to share what I learned.
What is the Lexical Editor?
The Lexical Editor is a framework developed by Meta for building text editors.
It's suitable for implementing:
- Plain text editors with more advanced functionality than
