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Migrate from Slate to Tiptap

Editor

Tiptap is a popular Slate alternative and migrating from Slate to Tiptap is straightforward. This guide will help you transition from Slate's JSON structure to Tiptap's extension system.

Content migration

HTML content compatibility

Slate uses a custom JSON structure that needs to be converted for Tiptap. You'll need to serialize your Slate content to HTML first:

// Convert Slate JSON to HTML using Slate's serialization
import { serialize } from 'slate-html-serializer'

const rules = [
  {
    serialize(obj, children) {
      if (obj.object === 'block') {
        switch (obj.type) {
          case 'paragraph':
            return <p>{children}</p>
          case 'heading-one':
            return <h1>{children}</h1>
          case 'heading-two':
            return <h2>{children}</h2>
          // Add more block types as needed
        }
      }
      if (obj.object === 'mark') {
        switch (obj.type) {
          case 'bold':
            return <strong>{children}</strong>
          case 'italic':
            return <em>{children}</em>
          // Add more mark types as needed
        }
      }
    },
  },
]

const htmlContent = serialize(slateValue, { rules })

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

For simpler Slate structures, you might be able to map directly to Tiptap's JSON format:

// Example Slate to Tiptap JSON conversion
function slateToTiptap(slateNodes) {
  return {
    type: 'doc',
    content: slateNodes.map((node) => {
      if (node.type === 'paragraph') {
        return {
          type: 'paragraph',
          content: node.children.map((child) => ({
            type: 'text',
            text: child.text,
            marks: child.bold ? [{ type: 'bold' }] : [],
          })),
        }
      }
      // Add more node type mappings
    }),
  }
}

const tiptapContent = slateToTiptap(slateValue.document.nodes)
const editor = new Editor({
  content: tiptapContent,
  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 Slate editor with Tiptap:

// Slate (before)
import { createEditor } from 'slate'
import { Slate, Editable, withReact } from 'slate-react'

const [editor] = useState(() => withReact(createEditor()))
const [value, setValue] = useState(initialValue)

return (
  <Slate editor={editor} value={value} onChange={setValue}>
    <Editable />
  </Slate>
)

// Tiptap (after)
import { Editor } from '@tiptap/core'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'

const editor = new Editor({
  element: document.querySelector('#editor'),
  extensions: [StarterKit],
  content: '<p>Hello World!</p>',
})

Extensions

Understanding Tiptap's extension system

Tiptap uses a modular extension system that resembles Slate's plugin system. Each feature is an independent extension with clear APIs and configuration options.

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 Slate plugin equivalents

Slate ConceptTiptap ExtensionNotes
Bold markBoldIncluded in StarterKit
Italic markItalicIncluded in StarterKit
Underline markUnderlineIncluded in StarterKit
Link markLinkIncluded in StarterKit
Image blockImageAvailable separately
List blocksBulletList, OrderedList, ListItemIncluded in StarterKit
Heading blocksHeadingIncluded in StarterKit
Blockquote blockBlockquoteIncluded in StarterKit
Code blockCodeBlockIncluded in StarterKit
Table blocksTableAvailable separately

Extension configuration 

import { Editor } from '@tiptap/core'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'
import Image from '@tiptap/extension-image'
import Table from '@tiptap/extension-table'
import TableRow from '@tiptap/extension-table-row'
import TableHeader from '@tiptap/extension-table-header'
import TableCell from '@tiptap/extension-table-cell'

const editor = new Editor({
  extensions: [
    StarterKit,
    Image.configure({
      inline: true,
      allowBase64: true,
    }),
    Table.configure({
      resizable: true,
    }),
    TableRow,
    TableHeader,
    TableCell,
  ],
})

Custom extensions

For Slate custom plugins, create custom Tiptap extensions. See our custom extensions guide for detailed instructions.

UI implementation

Toolbar implementation

Slate's custom toolbar components translate to Tiptap UI components:

// Slate toolbar (before)
const Toolbar = () => {
  const editor = useSlate()

  return (
    <div>
      <Button
        active={isMarkActive(editor, 'bold')}
        onMouseDown={(event) => {
          event.preventDefault()
          toggleMark(editor, 'bold')
        }}
      >
        Bold
      </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().toggleUnderline().run()}
        className={editor.isActive('underline') ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        Underline
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}

Pre-built UI components

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

Hovering toolbar

Replicate Slate's hovering toolbar using Tiptap's BubbleMenu:

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={() => {
            const url = window.prompt('URL')
            if (url) {
              editor.chain().focus().extendMarkRange('link').setLink({ href: url }).run()
            }
          }}
          className={editor.isActive('link') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Link
        </button>
      </BubbleMenu>
    </>
  )
}

Node views (custom elements)

Slate's custom elements can be replaced with Tiptap's Node Views. Learn more about Node Views in our official guide

// Slate custom element (before)
const ImageElement = ({ attributes, children, element }) => {
  return (
    <div {...attributes}>
      <img src={element.url} />
      {children}
    </div>
  )
}

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

const ImageComponent = ({ node }) => {
  return <img src={node.attrs.src} />
}

const CustomImage = Node.create({
  name: 'customImage',

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

Migration checklist

Next steps