Tiptap Editor 3.0 Beta is out. Start here
Tiptap Docs

Migrate from Draft.js to Tiptap

Editor

Tiptap is a popular alternative to Draft.js and migrating from Draft.js to Tiptap is straightforward. This guide will help you transition from Draft.js's immutable state model to Tiptap's extension system.

Content migration

HTML content compatibility

Draft.js uses ContentState which needs to be converted to HTML for Tiptap:

// Convert Draft.js ContentState to HTML
import { convertFromRaw } from 'draft-js'
import { stateToHTML } from 'draft-js-export-html'

// If you have ContentState
const htmlContent = stateToHTML(contentState)

// If you have raw state (JSON)
const contentState = convertFromRaw(rawContentState)
const htmlContent = stateToHTML(contentState)

// Use HTML content in Tiptap
const editor = new Editor({
  content: htmlContent,
  extensions: [StarterKit],
})

If you already have HTML output from Draft.js, you can use it directly:

// Your existing Draft.js HTML content
const existingContent = '<p>Hello <strong>world</strong>!</p>'

// Use directly in Tiptap
const editor = new Editor({
  content: existingContent,
  extensions: [StarterKit],
})

While HTML works perfectly, we recommend converting it to Tiptap's JSON format for better performance and readability. For batch conversion of existing content, use the HTML utility to convert HTML to JSON programmatically.

Editor setup

Installation

First, install Tiptap and its dependencies:

npm install @tiptap/core @tiptap/starter-kit

Tiptap supports all modern frontend UI frameworks like React and Vue. Follow the framework-specific installation instructions in our installation guides.

Basic editor setup

Replace your Draft.js editor with Tiptap:

// Draft.js (before)
import React, { useState } from 'react'
import { Editor, EditorState, RichUtils } from 'draft-js'

function MyDraftEditor() {
  const [editorState, setEditorState] = useState(EditorState.createEmpty())

  const handleKeyCommand = (command) => {
    const newState = RichUtils.handleKeyCommand(editorState, command)
    if (newState) {
      setEditorState(newState)
      return 'handled'
    }
    return 'not-handled'
  }

  return (
    <Editor
      editorState={editorState}
      onChange={setEditorState}
      handleKeyCommand={handleKeyCommand}
    />
  )
}

// Tiptap (after)
import { useEditor, EditorContent } from '@tiptap/react'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'

function MyTiptapEditor() {
  const editor = useEditor({
    extensions: [StarterKit],
    content: '<p>Hello World!</p>',
  })

  return <EditorContent editor={editor} />
}

Extensions

Understanding Tiptap's extension system

Tiptap uses a modular extension system that resembles Draft.js's entity and decorator system. Each feature is an independent extension with clear APIs.

The StarterKit is a bundle of all the basic extensions, and you can add or remove other extensions as needed.

Explore all available extensions in our extensions guide, or create your own to support custom functionality and HTML elements.

Common Draft.js feature equivalents

Draft.js FeatureTiptap ExtensionNotes
Bold inline styleBoldIncluded in StarterKit
Italic inline styleItalicIncluded in StarterKit
Underline inline styleUnderlineIncluded in StarterKit
Code inline styleCodeIncluded in StarterKit
Link entityLinkIncluded in StarterKit
Image entityImageAvailable separately
Header blockHeadingIncluded in StarterKit
Blockquote blockBlockquoteIncluded in StarterKit
Code blockCodeBlockIncluded in StarterKit
Unordered listBulletList, ListItemIncluded in StarterKit
Ordered listOrderedList, ListItemIncluded in StarterKit

Extension configuration 

import { useEditor } from '@tiptap/react'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'
import Image from '@tiptap/extension-image'
import { Color } from '@tiptap/extension-color'
import TextStyle from '@tiptap/extension-text-style'
import Highlight from '@tiptap/extension-highlight'

const editor = useEditor({
  extensions: [
    StarterKit,
    Image.configure({
      inline: true,
      allowBase64: true,
    }),
    TextStyle,
    Color.configure({
      types: [TextStyle.name],
    }),
    Highlight.configure({
      multicolor: true,
    }),
  ],
})

Custom extensions

For Draft.js custom entities or decorators, create custom Tiptap extensions. See our custom extensions guide for detailed instructions.

UI implementation

Toolbar implementation

Draft.js's RichUtils-based toolbar translates to Tiptap UI components:

// Draft.js toolbar (before)
import { RichUtils } from 'draft-js'

function DraftToolbar({ editorState, onChange }) {
  const toggleInlineStyle = (style) => {
    onChange(RichUtils.toggleInlineStyle(editorState, style))
  }

  const toggleBlockType = (blockType) => {
    onChange(RichUtils.toggleBlockType(editorState, blockType))
  }

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => toggleInlineStyle('BOLD')}>Bold</button>
      <button onClick={() => toggleInlineStyle('ITALIC')}>Italic</button>
      <button onClick={() => toggleBlockType('header-one')}>H1</button>
    </div>
  )
}

// Tiptap equivalent (React example)
function Toolbar({ editor }) {
  if (!editor) return null

  return (
    <div className="toolbar">
      <button
        onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleBold().run()}
        className={editor.isActive('bold') ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        Bold
      </button>
      <button
        onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleItalic().run()}
        className={editor.isActive('italic') ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        Italic
      </button>
      <button
        onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleHeading({ level: 1 }).run()}
        className={editor.isActive('heading', { level: 1 }) ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        H1
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}

Pre-built UI components

For faster development, use Tiptap's pre-built UI components:

Inline toolbar

Create an inline toolbar similar to Draft.js's inline styling:

import { BubbleMenu } from '@tiptap/react'

function MyEditor() {
  const editor = useEditor({
    extensions: [StarterKit],
  })

  return (
    <>
      <EditorContent editor={editor} />
      <BubbleMenu editor={editor}>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleBold().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('bold') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Bold
        </button>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleItalic().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('italic') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Italic
        </button>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleUnderline().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('underline') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Underline
        </button>
      </BubbleMenu>
    </>
  )
}

Entity replacement (node views)

Draft.js entities can be replaced with Tiptap's Node Views:

// Draft.js entity (before)
const LinkEntity = (props) => {
  const { url } = props.contentState.getEntity(props.entityKey).getData()
  return <a href={url}>{props.children}</a>
}

// Tiptap Node View (after)
import { Node } from '@tiptap/core'
import { ReactNodeViewRenderer } from '@tiptap/react'

const LinkComponent = ({ node }) => {
  return <a href={node.attrs.href}>{node.textContent}</a>
}

const CustomLink = Node.create({
  name: 'customLink',

  addNodeView() {
    return ReactNodeViewRenderer(LinkComponent)
  },
})

Migration checklist

Next steps