Getting Started

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Getting Started

A quick tutorial to get you up and running with Plate.

Create project

Using Plate components? Check out the installation guide.

Add dependencies

Install the core and the plugins you need. You need at least:

npm install @udecode/plate-common slate slate-react slate-history slate-hyperscript react react-dom

Alternatively you can install @udecode/plate that contains all the packages excluding the ones with additional dependencies (e.g. @udecode/plate-dnd).

npm install @udecode/plate slate slate-react slate-history slate-hyperscript react react-dom

Basic Editor

Let's start with a minimal editor setup leveraging Plate and editableProps.

import { Plate } from '@udecode/plate-common';
 
const editableProps = {
  placeholder: 'Type...',
};
 
export default function BasicEditor() {
  return <Plate editableProps={editableProps} />;
}

Simple and straightforward. Try it out:

﻿

Note: The following examples are using these global styles:

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;
 
@layer base {
  :root {
    --background: 0 0% 100%;
    --foreground: 240 10% 3.9%;
 
    --muted: 240 4.8% 95.9%;
    --muted-foreground: 240 3.8% 46.1%;
 
    --popover: 0 0% 100%;
    --popover-foreground: 240 10% 3.9%;
 
    --card: 0 0% 100%;
    --card-foreground: 240 10% 3.9%;
 
    --border: 240 5.9% 90%;
    --input: 240 5.9% 90%;
 
    --primary: 240 5.9% 10%;
    --primary-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --secondary: 240 4.8% 95.9%;
    --secondary-foreground: 240 5.9% 10%;
 
    --accent: 240 4.8% 95.9%;
    --accent-foreground: 240 5.9% 10%;
 
    --destructive: 0 84.2% 60.2%;
    --destructive-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --ring: 240 5% 64.9%;
 
    --radius: 0.5rem;
  }
 
  .dark {
    --background: 240 10% 3.9%;
    --foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --muted: 240 3.7% 15.9%;
    --muted-foreground: 240 5% 64.9%;
 
    --popover: 240 10% 3.9%;
    --popover-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --card: 240 10% 3.9%;
    --card-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --border: 240 3.7% 25%;
    --input: 240 3.7% 25%;
 
    --primary: 0 0% 98%;
    --primary-foreground: 240 5.9% 10%;
 
    --secondary: 240 3.7% 15.9%;
    --secondary-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --accent: 240 3.7% 15.9%;
    --accent-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
 
    --destructive: 0 62.8% 30.6%;
    --destructive-foreground: 0 85.7% 97.3%;
 
    --ring: 240 3.7% 25%;
  }
}
 
@layer base {
  * {
    @apply border-border;
  }
  body {
    @apply bg-background text-foreground;
    font-feature-settings: 'rlig' 1, 'calt' 1;
  }
 
  kbd {
    font-size: inherit;
  }
 
  [data-slate-editor] {
    font-family: Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system,
      BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Noto Sans,
      sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', Segoe UI Symbol,
      'Noto Color Emoji';
  }
 
  .slate-selection-area {
    background: #4f90f22d;
    border: 1000px solid #4f90f2;
  }
}
 
@layer utilities {
  .step {
    counter-increment: step;
  }
 
  .step:before {
    @apply absolute inline-flex h-9 w-9 items-center justify-center rounded-full border-4 border-background bg-muted text-center -indent-px font-mono text-base font-medium;
    @apply ml-[-50px] mt-[-4px];
    content: counter(step);
  }
}
 
@media (max-width: 640px) {
  .container {
    @apply px-4;
  }
}

Initializing Editor's Value

Let's specify the initial content of the editor: a single paragraph.

// ...
 
const initialValue = [
  {
    type: 'p',
    children: [
      {
        text: 'This is editable plain text with react and history plugins, just like a <textarea>!',
      },
    ],
  },
];
 
export default function BasicEditor() {
  return <Plate editableProps={editableProps} initialValue={initialValue} />;
}

Note: Plate uses the type property to enable plugins to render nodes by type.

This is editable plain text with react and history plugins, just like a <textarea>!

Implementing Change Handler

At this stage, it's crucial to monitor editor modifications in order to store the values appropriately. The onChange prop will serve this purpose.

// ...
 
export default function BasicEditor() {
  return (
    <Plate
      editableProps={editableProps}
      initialValue={initialValue}
      onChange={(newValue) => {
        // save newValue...
      }}
    />
  );
}

This is editable plain text with react and history plugins, just like a textarea!

debug value:
null

Plugins

Let's use the basic plugins for a rich-text editor.

🌳 Blocks
Easily create headings of various levels, from H1 to H6, to structure your content and make it more organized.
Create blockquotes to emphasize important information or highlight quotes from external sources.
// Use code blocks to showcase code snippets
function greet() {
  console.info('Hello World!');
}
🌱 Marks
Add style and emphasis to your text using the mark plugins, which offers a variety of formatting options.
Make text bold, italic, underlined, or apply a combination of these styles for a visually striking effect.
Add strikethrough to indicate deleted or outdated content.
Write code snippets with inline code formatting for easy readability.
Press ⌘+B to apply bold mark or ⌘+I for italic mark.

debug value:
null

The debug value indicates everything works as expected. However, we haven't provided any components for rendering, hence it's utilizing the default (unstyled) ones. The default element component is a div and the default leaf component is a span.

Note: You don't need to add core plugins such as react and history as Plate already does it.

Components

Note: Plate plugins are packaged unstyled, implying that you have complete control over markup and styling, hence you can integrate your own design system or Plate UI.

To simultaneously plug-in all the components, createPlugins can be used:

use the first parameter for the plugins
use the second parameter for the components. In the following example, we'll call createPlateUI(), which returns all Plate components by plugin key.

// ...
import {
  createBoldPlugin,
  createCodePlugin,
  createItalicPlugin,
  createStrikethroughPlugin,
  createUnderlinePlugin,
} from '@udecode/plate-basic-marks';
import { createBlockquotePlugin } from '@udecode/plate-block-quote';
import { Plate, createPlugins } from '@udecode/plate-common';
import { createHeadingPlugin } from '@udecode/plate-heading';
import { createParagraphPlugin } from '@udecode/plate-paragraph';
 
import { createPlateUI } from '@/lib/create-plate-ui';
 
const plugins = createPlugins(
  [
    createParagraphPlugin(),
    createBlockquotePlugin(),
    createHeadingPlugin(),
 
    createBoldPlugin(),
    createItalicPlugin(),
    createUnderlinePlugin(),
    createStrikethroughPlugin(),
    createCodePlugin(),
  ],
  {
    components: createPlateUI(),
  }
);
 
export default function BasicEditor() {
  return (
    <Plate
      plugins={plugins}
      // ...
    />
  );
}

import {
  MARK_BOLD,
  MARK_CODE,
  MARK_ITALIC,
  MARK_STRIKETHROUGH,
  MARK_SUBSCRIPT,
  MARK_SUPERSCRIPT,
  MARK_UNDERLINE,
} from '@udecode/plate-basic-marks';
import { ELEMENT_BLOCKQUOTE } from '@udecode/plate-block-quote';
import {
  ELEMENT_CODE_BLOCK,
  ELEMENT_CODE_LINE,
  ELEMENT_CODE_SYNTAX,
} from '@udecode/plate-code-block';
import { MARK_COMMENT } from '@udecode/plate-comments';
import {
  PlateElement,
  PlateLeaf,
  PlatePluginComponent,
  withProps,
} from '@udecode/plate-common';
import { ELEMENT_EXCALIDRAW } from '@udecode/plate-excalidraw';
import { MARK_SEARCH_HIGHLIGHT } from '@udecode/plate-find-replace';
import {
  ELEMENT_H1,
  ELEMENT_H2,
  ELEMENT_H3,
  ELEMENT_H4,
  ELEMENT_H5,
  ELEMENT_H6,
} from '@udecode/plate-heading';
import { MARK_HIGHLIGHT } from '@udecode/plate-highlight';
import { ELEMENT_HR } from '@udecode/plate-horizontal-rule';
import { MARK_KBD } from '@udecode/plate-kbd';
import { ELEMENT_LINK } from '@udecode/plate-link';
import {
  ELEMENT_LI,
  ELEMENT_OL,
  ELEMENT_TODO_LI,
  ELEMENT_UL,
} from '@udecode/plate-list';
import { ELEMENT_IMAGE, ELEMENT_MEDIA_EMBED } from '@udecode/plate-media';
import { ELEMENT_MENTION, ELEMENT_MENTION_INPUT } from '@udecode/plate-mention';
import { ELEMENT_PARAGRAPH } from '@udecode/plate-paragraph';
import {
  ELEMENT_TABLE,
  ELEMENT_TD,
  ELEMENT_TH,
  ELEMENT_TR,
} from '@udecode/plate-table';
 
import { BlockquoteElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/blockquote-element';
import { CodeBlockElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/code-block-element';
import { CodeLeaf } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/code-leaf';
import { CodeLineElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/code-line-element';
import { CodeSyntaxLeaf } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/code-syntax-leaf';
import { CommentLeaf } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/comment-leaf';
import { ExcalidrawElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/excalidraw-element';
import { HeadingElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/heading-element';
import { HighlightLeaf } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/highlight-leaf';
import { HrElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/hr-element';
import { ImageElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/image-element';
import { KbdLeaf } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/kbd-leaf';
import { LinkElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/link-element';
import { ListElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/list-element';
import { MediaEmbedElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/media-embed-element';
import { MentionElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/mention-element';
import { MentionInputElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/mention-input-element';
import { ParagraphElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/paragraph-element';
import { withPlaceholders } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/placeholder';
import { SearchHighlightLeaf } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/search-highlight-leaf';
import {
  TableCellElement,
  TableCellHeaderElement,
} from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/table-cell-element';
import { TableElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/table-element';
import { TableRowElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/table-row-element';
import { TodoListElement } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/todo-list-element';
import { withDraggables } from '@/registry/default/plate-ui/with-draggables';
 
export const createPlateUI = (
  overrideByKey?: Partial<Record<string, PlatePluginComponent>>,
  {
    draggable,
    placeholder,
  }: { placeholder?: boolean; draggable?: boolean } = {}
) => {
  let components: Record<string, PlatePluginComponent> = {
    [ELEMENT_BLOCKQUOTE]: BlockquoteElement,
    [ELEMENT_CODE_BLOCK]: CodeBlockElement,
    [ELEMENT_CODE_LINE]: CodeLineElement,
    [ELEMENT_CODE_SYNTAX]: CodeSyntaxLeaf,
    [ELEMENT_HR]: HrElement,
    [ELEMENT_H1]: withProps(HeadingElement, { variant: 'h1' }),
    [ELEMENT_H2]: withProps(HeadingElement, { variant: 'h2' }),
    [ELEMENT_H3]: withProps(HeadingElement, { variant: 'h3' }),
    [ELEMENT_H4]: withProps(HeadingElement, { variant: 'h4' }),
    [ELEMENT_H5]: withProps(HeadingElement, { variant: 'h5' }),
    [ELEMENT_H6]: withProps(HeadingElement, { variant: 'h6' }),
    [ELEMENT_IMAGE]: ImageElement,
    [ELEMENT_LI]: withProps(PlateElement, { as: 'li' }),
    [ELEMENT_LINK]: LinkElement,
    [ELEMENT_MEDIA_EMBED]: MediaEmbedElement,
    [ELEMENT_MENTION]: MentionElement,
    [ELEMENT_MENTION_INPUT]: MentionInputElement,
    [ELEMENT_UL]: withProps(ListElement, { variant: 'ul' }),
    [ELEMENT_OL]: withProps(ListElement, { variant: 'ol' }),
    [ELEMENT_PARAGRAPH]: ParagraphElement,
    [ELEMENT_TABLE]: TableElement,
    [ELEMENT_TD]: TableCellElement,
    [ELEMENT_TH]: TableCellHeaderElement,
    [ELEMENT_TODO_LI]: TodoListElement,
    [ELEMENT_TR]: TableRowElement,
    [ELEMENT_EXCALIDRAW]: ExcalidrawElement,
    [MARK_BOLD]: withProps(PlateLeaf, { as: 'strong' }),
    [MARK_CODE]: CodeLeaf,
    [MARK_HIGHLIGHT]: HighlightLeaf,
    [MARK_ITALIC]: withProps(PlateLeaf, { as: 'em' }),
    [MARK_KBD]: KbdLeaf,
    [MARK_SEARCH_HIGHLIGHT]: SearchHighlightLeaf,
    [MARK_STRIKETHROUGH]: withProps(PlateLeaf, { as: 's' }),
    [MARK_SUBSCRIPT]: withProps(PlateLeaf, { as: 'sub' }),
    [MARK_SUPERSCRIPT]: withProps(PlateLeaf, { as: 'sup' }),
    [MARK_UNDERLINE]: withProps(PlateLeaf, { as: 'u' }),
    [MARK_COMMENT]: CommentLeaf,
  };
 
  if (overrideByKey) {
    Object.keys(overrideByKey).forEach((key) => {
      (components as any)[key] = (overrideByKey as any)[key];
    });
  }
 
  if (placeholder) {
    components = withPlaceholders(components);
  }
  if (draggable) {
    components = withDraggables(components);
  }
 
  return components;
};

🌳 BlocksEasily create headings of various levels, from H1 to H6, to structure your content and make it more organized.
Create blockquotes to emphasize important information or highlight quotes from external sources.// Use code blocks to showcase code snippets
function greet() {
  console.info('Hello World!');
}
🌱 MarksAdd style and emphasis to your text using the mark plugins, which offers a variety of formatting options.
Make text bold, italic, underlined, or apply a combination of these styles for a visually striking effect.
Add strikethrough to indicate deleted or outdated content.
Write code snippets with inline code formatting for easy readability.
Press ⌘+B to apply bold mark or ⌘+I for italic mark.

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