Trix $3 Compose beautifully formatted text in your web application. Trix is a WYSIWYG editor for writing messages, comments, articles, and lists—the simple documents most web apps are made of. It features a sophisticated document model, support for embedded attachments, and outputs terse and consistent HTML.
Trix is an open-source project from 37signals , the creators of Ruby on Rails . Millions of people trust their text to us, and we built Trix to give them the best possible editing experience. See Trix in action in Basecamp 3 .
$3 When Trix was designed in 2014, most WYSIWYG editors were wrappers around HTML’s contenteditable and execCommand APIs, designed by Microsoft to support live editing of web pages in Internet Explorer 5.5, and eventually reverse-engineered and copied by other browsers.
Because these APIs were not fully specified or documented, and because WYSIWYG HTML editors are enormous in scope, each browser’s implementation has its own set of bugs and quirks, and JavaScript developers are left to resolve the inconsistencies.
Trix sidestepped these inconsistencies by treating contenteditable as an I/O device: when input makes its way to the editor, Trix converts that input into an editing operation on its internal document model, then re-renders that document back into the editor. This gives Trix complete control over what happens after every keystroke, and avoids the need to use execCommand at all.
This is the approach that all modern, production ready, WYSIWYG editors now take.
$3 Trix supports all evergreen, self-updating desktop and mobile browsers.
Trix is built with established web standards, notably Custom Elements , Element Internals , Mutation Observer , and Promises .
Getting Started Trix comes bundled in ESM and UMD formats and works with any asset packaging system.
The easiest way to start with Trix is including it from an npm CDN in the of your page:
``html … `
trix.css includes default styles for the Trix toolbar, editor, and attachments. Skip this file if you prefer to define these styles yourself.
Alternatively, you can install the npm package and import it in your application:
`js import Trix from "trix"
document.addEventListener("trix-before-initialize", () => { // Change Trix.config if you need }) `
Creating an Editor Place an empty tag on the page. Trix will automatically insert a separate before the editor.
Like an HTML
Creating a Toolbar Trix automatically will create a toolbar for you and attach it right before the element. If you'd like to place the toolbar in a different place you can use the toolbar attribute:
`html
`
To change the toolbar without modifying Trix, you can overwrite the Trix.config.toolbar.getDefaultHTML() function. The default toolbar HTML is in config/toolbar.js. Trix uses data attributes to determine how to respond to a toolbar button click.
Toggle Attribute
With data-trix-attribute="", you can add an attribute to the current selection. For example, to apply bold styling to the selected text the button is:
` html`
Trix will determine that a range of text is selected and will apply the formatting defined in Trix.config.textAttributes (found in config/text_attributes.js).
data-trix-key="b" tells Trix that this attribute should be applied when you use meta +b.
If the attribute is defined in Trix.config.blockAttributes, Trix will apply the attribute to the current block of text.
` html`
Clicking the quote button toggles whether the block should be rendered with
.
Integrating with Element Internals Trix will integrate
elements with forms depending on the browser's support for Element Internals . If there is a need to disable support for ElementInternals, set Trix.elements.TrixEditorElement.formAssociated = false:
`js import Trix from "trix"Trix.elements.TrixEditorElement.formAssociated = false
`When Trix is configured to be compatible with
ElementInternals, it is also capable of functioning without an element. To configure a element to skip creating its , set the element's willCreateInput = false:
`js addEventListener("before-trix-initialize", (event) => { const trixEditor = event.target trixEditor.willCreateInput = false })
`> [!NOTE] > Trix will always use an associated
element when the > [input] attribute is set. To migrate to -free support, set > willCreateInput = false, then render the without the > [input] attribute.> [!WARNING] > In the absence of an
element, the > element's value will not be included in element submissions unless it > is rendered with a [name] attribute. Set the [name] attribute to the same > value that the element would have.
Invoking Internal Trix Actions Internal actions are defined in
controllers/editor_controller.js and consist of:* undo * redo * link * increaseBlockLevel * decreaseBlockLevel
` html`
Invoking External Custom Actions If you want to add a button to the toolbar and have it invoke an external action, you can prefix your action name with
x-. For example, if I want to print a log statement any time my new button is clicked, I would set by button's data attribute to be data-trix-action="x-log"
` html`To respond to the action, listen for
trix-action-invoke. The event's target property returns a reference to the element, its invokingElement property returns a reference to the element, and its actionName property returns the value of the [data-trix-action] attribute. Use the value of the actionName property to detect which external action was invoked.
`javascript document.addEventListener("trix-action-invoke", function(event) { const { target, invokingElement, actionName } = event if (actionName === "x-log") { console.log(
Custom ${actionName} invoked from ${invokingElement.id} button on ${target.id} trix-editor) } })`
Integrating With Forms To submit the contents of a
with a form, first define a hidden input field in the form and assign it an id. Then reference that id in the editor’s input attribute.
`html `Trix will automatically update the value of the hidden input field with each change to the editor.
Populating With Stored Content To populate a
with stored content, include that content in the associated input element’s value attribute.
`html `Use an associated input element to initially populate an editor. When an associated input element is absent, Trix will safely sanitize then load any HTML content inside a
… tag.
`html Editor content goes here `> [!WARNING] > When a
element initially connects with both HTML content and > an associated input element, Trix will always disregard the HTML content and > load its initial content from the associated input element.
Validating the Editor Out of the box,
elements support browsers' built-in [Constraint validation][]. When rendered with the [required][] attribute, editors will be invalid when they're completely empty. For example, consider the following HTML:
`html`Since the
element is [required], it is invalid when its value is empty:
`js const editor = document.querySelector("trix-editor")editor.validity.valid // => false editor.validity.valueMissing // => true editor.matches(":valid") // => false editor.matches(":invalid") // => true
editor.value = "A value that isn't empty"
editor.validity.valid // => true editor.validity.valueMissing // => false editor.matches(":valid") // => true editor.matches(":invalid") // => false
`In addition to the built-in
[required] attribute, elements support custom validation through their [setCustomValidity][] method. For example, consider the following HTML:
`js`Custom validation can occur at any time. For example, validation can occur after a
trix-change event fired after the editor's contents change:
`js addEventListener("trix-change", (event) => { const editorElement = event.target const trixDocument = editorElement.editor.getDocument() const isValid = (trixDocument) => { // determine the validity based on your custom criteria return true } if (isValid(trixDocument)) { editorElement.setCustomValidity("") } else { editorElement.setCustomValidity("The document is not valid.") } }
`[Constraint validation]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Constraint_validation [required]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Attributes/required [setCustomValidity]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLObjectElement/setCustomValidity
Disabling the Editor To disable the
, render it with the [disabled] attribute:
`html`Disabled editors are not editable, cannot receive focus, and their values will be ignored when their related
element is submitted.To change whether or not an editor is disabled, either toggle the
[disabled] attribute or assign a boolean to the .disabled property:
`html
`When disabled, the editor will match the [:disabled CSS pseudo-class][:disabled].
[:disabled]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:disabled
Providing an Accessible Name Like other form controls,
elements should have an accessible name. The element integrates with elements. It supports two styles of integrating with elements:1. render the
element with an [id] attribute that the element references through its [for] attribute:
`htmlEditor `2. render the
element as a child of the element:
`html Editor
`> [!WARNING] > When rendering the
element as a child of the element, explicitly render the corresponding element outside of the element.In addition to integrating with
elements, elements support [aria-label] and [aria-labelledby] attributes.
Styling Formatted Content To ensure what you see when you edit is what you see when you save, use a CSS class name to scope styles for Trix formatted content. Apply this class name to your
element, and to a containing element when you render stored Trix content for display in your application.
`html`
`htmlStored content here
`The default
trix.css file includes styles for basic formatted content—including bulleted and numbered lists, code blocks, and block quotes—under the class name trix-content. We encourage you to use these styles as a starting point by copying them into your application’s CSS with a different class name.
Storing Attached Files Trix automatically accepts files dragged or pasted into an editor and inserts them as attachments in the document. Each attachment is considered _pending_ until you store it remotely and provide Trix with a permanent URL.
To store attachments, listen for the
trix-attachment-add event. Upload the attached files with XMLHttpRequest yourself and set the attachment’s URL attribute upon completion. See the attachment example for detailed information.If you don’t want to accept dropped or pasted files, call
preventDefault() on the trix-file-accept event, which Trix dispatches just before the trix-attachment-add event.
Previewing Attached Files Trix automatically previews attached image files. To determine whether or not to preview an attached file, Trix compares the file's content type against the Trix.Attachment.previewablePattern . By default, Trix will preview the following content types:
*
image/gif * image/png * image/webp * image/jpg * image/jpegTo customize an attachment's preview, listen for the
trix-attachment-add event. When handling the event, set the attachment's previewable attribute, then change its preview URL by calling setPreviewURL:
`js addEventListener("trix-attachment-add", (event) => { if (event.attachment.file instanceof File) { event.attachment.setAttribute("previewable", true) event.attachment.setPreviewURL("...") } })`
Editing Text Programmatically You can manipulate a Trix editor programmatically through the
Trix.Editor interface, available on each element through its editor property.
`js var element = document.querySelector("trix-editor") element.editor // is a Trix.Editor instance`
Understanding the Document Model The formatted content of a Trix editor is known as a _document_, and is represented as an instance of the
Trix.Document class. To get the editor’s current document, use the editor.getDocument method.
`js element.editor.getDocument() // is a Trix.Document instance`You can convert a document to an unformatted JavaScript string with the
document.toString method.
`js var document = element.editor.getDocument() document.toString() // is a JavaScript string`
$3 Documents are immutable values. Each change you make in an editor replaces the previous document with a new document. Capturing a snapshot of the editor’s content is as simple as keeping a reference to its document, since that document will never change over time. (This is how Trix implements undo.)
To compare two documents for equality, use the
document.isEqualTo method.
`js var document = element.editor.getDocument() document.isEqualTo(element.editor.getDocument()) // true`
Getting and Setting the Selection Trix documents are structured as sequences of individually addressable characters. The index of one character in a document is called a _position_, and a start and end position together make up a _range_.
To get the editor’s current selection, use the
editor.getSelectedRange method, which returns a two-element array containing the start and end positions.
`js element.editor.getSelectedRange() // [0, 0]`You can set the editor’s current selection by passing a range array to the
editor.setSelectedRange method.
`js // Select the first character in the document element.editor.setSelectedRange([0, 1])`
$3 When the start and end positions of a range are equal, the range is said to be _collapsed_. In the editor, a collapsed selection appears as a blinking cursor rather than a highlighted span of text.
For convenience, the following calls to
setSelectedRange are equivalent when working with collapsed selections:
`js element.editor.setSelectedRange(1) element.editor.setSelectedRange([1]) element.editor.setSelectedRange([1, 1])`
$3 To programmatically move the cursor or selection through the document, call the
editor.moveCursorInDirection or editor.expandSelectionInDirection methods with a _direction_ argument. The direction can be either "forward" or "backward".
`js // Move the cursor backward one character element.editor.moveCursorInDirection("backward")// Expand the end of the selection forward by one character element.editor.expandSelectionInDirection("forward")
`
$3 Sometimes you need to know the _x_ and _y_ coordinates of a character at a given position in the editor. For example, you might want to absolutely position a pop-up menu element below the editor’s cursor.
Call the
editor.getClientRectAtPosition method with a position argument to get a DOMRect instance representing the left and top offsets, width, and height of the character at the given position.
`js var rect = element.editor.getClientRectAtPosition(0) [rect.left, rect.top] // [17, 49]`
Inserting and Deleting Text The editor interface provides methods for inserting, replacing, and deleting text at the current selection.
To insert or replace text, begin by setting the selected range, then call one of the insertion methods below. Trix will first remove any selected text, then insert the new text at the start position of the selected range.
$3 To insert unformatted text into the document, call the
editor.insertString method.
`js // Insert “Hello” at the beginning of the document element.editor.setSelectedRange([0, 0]) element.editor.insertString("Hello")`
$3 To insert HTML into the document, call the
editor.insertHTML method. Trix will first convert the HTML into its internal document model. During this conversion, any formatting that cannot be represented in a Trix document will be lost.
`js // Insert a bold “Hello” at the beginning of the document element.editor.setSelectedRange([0, 0]) element.editor.insertHTML("Hello ")`
$3 To insert a DOM
File object into the document, call the editor.insertFile method. Trix will insert a pending attachment for the file as if you had dragged and dropped it onto the editor.
`js // Insert the selected file from the first file input element var file = document.querySelector("input[type=file]").file element.editor.insertFile(file)`
$3 Content attachments are self-contained units of HTML that behave like files in the editor. They can be moved or removed, but not edited directly, and are represented by a single character position in the document model.
To insert HTML as an attachment, create a
Trix.Attachment with a content attribute and call the editor.insertAttachment method. The HTML inside a content attachment is not subject to Trix’s document conversion rules and will be rendered as-is.
`js var attachment = new Trix.Attachment({ content: '@trix ' }) element.editor.insertAttachment(attachment)`
$3 To insert a line break, call the
editor.insertLineBreak method, which is functionally equivalent to pressing the return key.
`js // Insert “Hello\n” element.editor.insertString("Hello") element.editor.insertLineBreak()`
$3 If the current selection is collapsed, you can simulate deleting text before or after the cursor with the
editor.deleteInDirection method.
`js // “Backspace” the first character in the document element.editor.setSelectedRange([1, 1]) element.editor.deleteInDirection("backward")// Delete the second character in the document element.editor.setSelectedRange([1, 1]) element.editor.deleteInDirection("forward")
`To delete a range of text, first set the selected range, then call
editor.deleteInDirection with either direction as the argument.
`js // Delete the first five characters element.editor.setSelectedRange([0, 4]) element.editor.deleteInDirection("forward")`
Working With Attributes and Nesting Trix represents formatting as sets of _attributes_ applied across ranges of a document.
By default, Trix supports the inline attributes
bold, italic, href, and strike, and the block-level attributes heading1, quote, code, bullet, and number.
$3 To apply formatting to the current selection, use the
editor.activateAttribute method.
`js element.editor.insertString("Hello") element.editor.setSelectedRange([0, 5]) element.editor.activateAttribute("bold")`To set the
href attribute, pass a URL as the second argument to editor.activateAttribute.
`js element.editor.insertString("Trix") element.editor.setSelectedRange([0, 4]) element.editor.activateAttribute("href", "https://trix-editor.org/")`
$3 Use the
editor.deactivateAttribute method to remove formatting from a selection.
`js element.editor.setSelectedRange([2, 4]) element.editor.deactivateAttribute("bold")`
$3 If you activate or deactivate attributes when the selection is collapsed, your formatting changes will apply to the text inserted by any subsequent calls to
editor.insertString.
`js element.editor.activateAttribute("italic") element.editor.insertString("This is italic")`
$3 To adjust the nesting level of quotes, bulleted lists, or numbered lists, call the
editor.increaseNestingLevel and editor.decreaseNestingLevel methods.
`js element.editor.activateAttribute("quote") element.editor.increaseNestingLevel() element.editor.decreaseNestingLevel()`
Using Undo and Redo Trix editors support unlimited undo and redo. Successive typing and formatting changes are consolidated together at five-second intervals; all other input changes are recorded individually in undo history.
Call the
editor.undo and editor.redo methods to perform an undo or redo operation.
`js element.editor.undo() element.editor.redo()`Changes you make through the editor interface will not automatically record undo entries. You can save your own undo entries by calling the
editor.recordUndoEntry method with a description argument.
`js element.editor.recordUndoEntry("Insert Text") element.editor.insertString("Hello")`
Loading and Saving Editor State Serialize an editor’s state with
JSON.stringify and restore saved state with the editor.loadJSON method. The serialized state includes the document and current selection, but does not include undo history.
`js // Save editor state to local storage localStorage["editorState"] = JSON.stringify(element.editor)// Restore editor state from local storage element.editor.loadJSON(JSON.parse(localStorage["editorState"]))
`
HTML Sanitization Trix uses DOMPurify to sanitize the editor content. You can set the DOMPurify config via
Trix.config.dompurify.For example if you want to keep a custom tag, you can access do that with:
`js Trix.config.dompurify.ADD_TAGS = [ "my-custom-tag" ]`
HTML Rendering Trix renders changes to editor content by replacing existing nodes with new nodes.
To customize how Trix renders changes, set the
element'srender property to a function that accepts a instance and a [DocumentFragment][]:
`js document.addEventListener("trix-before-render", (event) => { const defaultRender = event.render event.render = function(editorElement, documentFragment) { // modify the documentFragment… customize(documentFragment)
// render it with the default rendering function defaultRender(editorElement, documentFragment) } })
`> [!CAUTION] > By the time that
render(editorElement, documentFragment) is > invoked, Trix will have finalized modifications to the HTML content (like HTML > sanitization, for example). If you make further modifications to the content, > be sure that they are safe.[DocumentFragment]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/DocumentFragment
Observing Editor Changes The
element emits several events which you can use to observe and respond to changes in editor state.*
trix-before-initialize fires when the element is attached to the DOM just before Trix installs its editor object. If you need to use a custom Trix configuration you can change Trix.config here.*
trix-initialize fires when the element is attached to the DOM and its editor object is ready for use.*
trix-change fires whenever the editor’s contents have changed.*
trix-before-render fires before the editor’s new contents are rendered. You can override the function used to render the content through the render property on the event. The render function expects two positional arguments: the element that will render and a DocumentFragment instance that contains the new content. Read HTML Rendering to learn more.*
trix-before-paste fires just before text is pasted into the editor. You can use this to modify the content being pasted or prevent the paste event from happening at all. The paste property on the event contains the pasted string or html, and the range of the inserted text.*
trix-paste fires whenever text is pasted into the editor. The paste property on the event contains the pasted string or html, and the range of the inserted text.*
trix-selection-change fires any time the selected range changes in the editor.*
trix-focus and trix-blur fire when the editor gains or loses focus, respectively.*
trix-file-accept fires when a file is dropped or inserted into the editor. You can access the DOM File object through the file property on the event. Call preventDefault on the event to prevent attaching the file to the document.*
trix-attachment-add fires after an attachment is added to the document. You can access the Trix attachment object through the attachment property on the event. If the attachment object has a file property, you should store this file remotely and set the attachment’s URL attribute. See the attachment example for detailed information.*
trix-attachment-edit fires after an attachment is edited in the document. You can access the Trix attachment object through the attachment property on the event.*
trix-attachment-remove fires when an attachment is removed from the document. You can access the Trix attachment object through the attachment property on the event. You may wish to use this event to clean up remotely stored files.*
trix-action-invoke fires when a Trix action is invoked. You can access the element through the event's target property, the element responsible for invoking the action through the invokingElement property, and the action's name through the actionName property. The trix-action-invoke event will only fire for custom actions and not for built-in .
Contributing to Trix Trix is open-source software, freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license . The source code is hosted on GitHub .
We welcome contributions in the form of bug reports, pull requests, or thoughtful discussions in the GitHub issue tracker . Please see the Code of Conduct for our pledge to contributors.
Trix was created by Javan Makhmali and Sam Stephenson , with development sponsored by 37signals .
$3 Trix uses Yarn to manage dependencies and Rollup to bundle its source.
Install development dependencies with:
` $ yarn install`To generate distribution files run:
` $ yarn build`
$3 You can run a watch process to automatically generate distribution files when your source file change:
` $ yarn watch`When the watch process is running you can run a web server to serve the compiled assets:
` $ yarn dev`With the development server running, you can visit
/index.html to see a Trix debugger inspector, or /test.html to run the tests on a browser.For easier development, you can watch for changes to the JavaScript and style files, and serve the results in a browser, with a single command:
` $ yarn start`
$3 You can also run the test in a headless mode with:
` $ yarn test``---
© 37signals, LLC.