Tiptapex

Tiptap v3 rich-text editing for Phoenix LiveView (Phoenix ≥ 1.8, LiveView ≥ 1.1).

Tiptapex packages a production-grade editor integration as a single Hex package:

• <.tiptapex_editor> / <.tiptapex_viewer> — HEEx function components backed by JS hooks shipped inside this package.
• A full-featured editor — toolbar (marks, headings, alignment, lists, fonts, colors), resizable images and videos (file + YouTube embeds), tables with a floating context menu, task lists, drag-handle block reordering, placeholder, character count, invisible characters, editable HTML source view.
• Page layout & PDF — paper sizes (Letter, Legal, A4…), orientation, margins, running headers/footers with left/centre/right page numbering, forced page breaks, a live paginated canvas in the editor, and ready-made options for chromic_pdf and pdf_generator.
• Tiptapex.Renderer — converts the Tiptap/ProseMirror JSON document to safe, escaped HTML on the server. No raw/1, no trusting client-generated HTML, no stored-XSS surface.
• Uploads — a Tiptapex.Upload behaviour + controller macro with real server-side validation (size limits and magic-byte content-type sniffing).
• Realtime collaboration (optional) — Yjs over Phoenix Channels via use Tiptapex.Collab.Channel and a bundled provider; multiple users edit the same doc with live carets.

The canonical storage format is the JSON document (an Ecto :map / Postgres jsonb column). HTML is derived from it on the server whenever you need to display it.

Installation

1. Hex package

# mix.exs
def deps do
  [
    {:tiptapex, "~> 0.1.2"}
  ]
end

2. npm peer dependencies

The JS ships as raw ESM inside the Hex package; your app bundles it with its own copy of Tiptap (this guarantees a single @tiptap/core instance):

cd assets
npm install \
  @tiptap/core @tiptap/pm @tiptap/starter-kit \
  @tiptap/extension-bubble-menu @tiptap/extension-character-count \
  @tiptap/extension-color @tiptap/extension-drag-handle \
  @tiptap/extension-dropcursor @tiptap/extension-file-handler \
  @tiptap/extension-floating-menu @tiptap/extension-focus \
  @tiptap/extension-font-family @tiptap/extension-gapcursor \
  @tiptap/extension-highlight @tiptap/extension-image \
  @tiptap/extension-invisible-characters @tiptap/extension-link \
  @tiptap/extension-list @tiptap/extension-list-keymap \
  @tiptap/extension-placeholder @tiptap/extension-table \
  @tiptap/extension-table-of-contents @tiptap/extension-text-align \
  @tiptap/extension-text-style @tiptap/extension-typography \
  @tiptap/extension-unique-id

For collaboration, also:

npm install @tiptap/extension-collaboration @tiptap/extension-collaboration-caret \
  yjs y-prosemirror y-protocols lib0

3. esbuild NODE_PATH

Tell esbuild to resolve "tiptapex" from deps/ and the Tiptap packages from assets/node_modules (imports inside a dep don't reach your node_modules on their own):

# config/config.exs
config :esbuild,
  my_app: [
    args: ~w(js/app.js --bundle --target=es2022 --outdir=../priv/static/assets/js),
    cd: Path.expand("../assets", __DIR__),
    env: %{
      "NODE_PATH" =>
        Enum.join(
          [
            Path.expand("../deps", __DIR__),
            Path.expand("../assets/node_modules", __DIR__),
            Mix.Project.build_path()
          ],
          ":"
        )
    }
  ]

4. Register the hooks

// assets/js/app.js
import { hooks as tiptapex } from "tiptapex"

const liveSocket = new LiveSocket("/live", Socket, {
  params: { _csrf_token: csrfToken },
  hooks: { ...colocatedHooks, ...tiptapex },
})

5. Stylesheet

/* assets/css/app.css (Tailwind v4 CSS-first or plain CSS) */
@import "../../deps/tiptapex/priv/static/tiptapex.css";

The stylesheet is theme-aware: every color flows through --ttx-* custom properties that fall back to daisyUI tokens when present (and to neutral defaults otherwise). Override them to re-skin:

:root { --ttx-primary: #7c3aed; }

Usage

The editor

<.tiptapex_editor
  id="article-body"
  value={@body}
  placeholder="Start writing…"
  upload_url={~p"/admin/tiptapex/uploads"}
  upload_scope={@article.id}
  on_change="editor_update"
/>

def handle_event("editor_update", %{"json" => json, "characters" => chars}, socket) do
  {:noreply, socket |> assign(:body, json) |> assign(:characters, chars) |> assign(:dirty?, true)}
end

def handle_event("save", _params, socket) do
  Articles.update_article(socket.assigns.article, %{body: socket.assigns.body})
  # ...
end

Store body as :map (Postgres jsonb) — or use the bundled Ecto type:

schema "articles" do
  field :body, Tiptapex.Schema.Document
end

Form-based sync (no custom events)

For plain changeset forms, bind the editor to a hidden input instead:

<.form for={@form} phx-change="validate" phx-submit="save">
  <.tiptapex_editor id="body" sync={{:hidden_input, @form[:body]}} />
  <button>Save</button>
</.form>

The hook keeps the input in sync with the document JSON and triggers your form's phx-change. Tiptapex.Schema.Document casts the JSON string automatically.

Options worth knowing

Push content into a mounted editor from the server (multiple editors are namespaced by id):

{:noreply, Tiptapex.Components.set_content(socket, "article-body", restored.body)}

# or change only the page setup, leaving the content alone
{:noreply, Tiptapex.Components.set_page(socket, "article-body", %{orientation: :landscape})}

Displaying documents — the safe way

<%!-- server-rendered, escaped, allow-listed; no raw/1 anywhere --%>
<.tiptapex_viewer value={@article.body} hydrate={false} />

<%!-- or with client-side hydration (task-list checkboxes etc.) --%>
<.tiptapex_viewer id="article" value={@article.body} />

Or call the renderer directly:

Tiptapex.Renderer.to_html(doc)          # {:safe, iodata} — interpolate in HEEx
Tiptapex.Renderer.to_plain_text(doc)    # excerpts / search indexing
Tiptapex.Renderer.headings(doc)         # [%{level: 1, id: "…", text: "…"}] for a TOC

The renderer covers every node/mark the editor produces and enforces: URL scheme allow-lists (javascript:/data: stripped), iframes only for canonically rebuilt YouTube embed URLs, a strict CSS value grammar for inline styles, and per-node attribute allow-lists. Unknown nodes are dropped (configurable via on_unknown:). Custom nodes plug in via nodes:/marks: options — see Tiptapex.Renderer.

Page layout and PDF export

Give the editor a page setup and it stops being an infinite scroll: it renders a stack of real sheets, measured as you type, with the running header and footer drawn in the margins of every page.

<.tiptapex_editor
  id="contract"
  value={@doc}
  page={%{
    size: :letter,                                   # :letter :legal :a4 :a5 :tabloid :executive
    orientation: :portrait,                          # or :landscape
    margins: %{top: "1in", right: 20, bottom: 20, left: "1in"},
    header: %{left: "Acme S.A.", center: "", right: "{date}"},
    footer: %{left: "", center: "", right: ""},
    numbering: %{enabled: true, region: :footer, align: :center, format: "{page} of {pages}"}
  }}
/>

Lengths are millimetres; strings may carry a unit ("1in", "2cm", "72pt", "96px"). Header/footer slots accept the tokens {page}, {pages}, {date}, {time} and {title} — put {page} in whichever slot you want the number aligned to, or let numbering place it for you.

Logos in the header or footer

Any slot can carry an image next to (or instead of) its text:

header: %{
  left: %{image: %{src: "https://cdn.example.com/logo.png", height: 12}},
  center: "",
  right: "{date}"
}

:height is millimetres; the width follows the aspect ratio and the image is clamped to the margin it sits in. In the editor the page dialog gives every slot a logo field with an upload button that posts to the same upload_url as the rest of the editor and fills in the returned URL — so logos go through your existing Tiptapex.Upload handler, validation included. Without upload_url the field still accepts a pasted URL.

src must be http(s), a relative path, or a data: URI for an image; anything else is dropped, the same allow-list the document renderer applies.

Formatting the text

Slot text accepts a small HTML subset — <b>, <i>, <u>, <s>, <span style="…">, <h1>…<h6>, <p>, <div>, <a>, <img>, <br> and a few more:

footer: %{center: ~s(<span style="color: #6b7280">Page <b>{page}</b> of {pages}</span>)}

It is not raw HTML: Tiptapex.Renderer.Markup tokenises the string, checks every tag and attribute against a closed allow-list, and rebuilds the output — so nothing from the field is ever emitted verbatim. style declarations go through the same CSS grammar as document styles, href and src through the same URL allow-lists, and anything unrecognised (a <script>, an onclick, a malformed tag) comes out as visible text rather than markup. The editor renders the identical subset client-side with createElement, never innerHTML.

wkhtmltopdf's --header-left flags render literally, so a slot with markup takes the same --header-html route as a logo — with_pdf_generator/3 handles it.

The setup lives in the document (doc.attrs.page), so it travels with the JSON you already persist and the exporter needs nothing else. The toolbar's page button opens a setup dialog whose first control — Paginate this document — is what turns page layout on and off; page={...} on the component overrides whatever the document carries, and page={false} forces the classic continuous editor.

Users insert a forced break with the toolbar or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

Exporting

Tiptapex.Export.PDF builds the print-ready HTML and the exact options each engine needs. It shells out to nothing and adds no dependency — you call the engine.

# ChromicPDF
{source, opts} = Tiptapex.Export.PDF.chromic_pdf(article.body)
ChromicPDF.print_to_pdf(source, opts ++ [output: "article.pdf"])

# pdf_generator (wkhtmltopdf)
{html, opts} = Tiptapex.Export.PDF.pdf_generator(article.body)
{:ok, path} = PdfGenerator.generate(html, opts)

# anything else — browser print, WeasyPrint, Gotenberg…
html = Tiptapex.Export.PDF.to_html(article.body)

Both engines draw the running header/footer themselves — the only way to get a correct {pages} total — and the three slots map straight onto their native features:

Pass tokens: %{"date" => "24/07/2026"} to substitute one yourself.

Two things to know about logos when exporting:

• Chrome resolves no relative URLs in a running header, so give the logo an absolute URL or pass asset_url: &absolutise/1 to rewrite it (inlining it as a data: URI works well).

• wkhtmltopdf cannot put an image in --header-left. A region with a logo needs --header-html, so use with_pdf_generator/3, which writes those files and cleans them up:

  Tiptapex.Export.PDF.with_pdf_generator(doc, [], &PdfGenerator.generate/2)

  Plain pdf_generator/2 still works — it exports the text and logs that it dropped the logo.

The exported HTML inlines this package's stylesheet and repeats the paged editor's margin model, so what you see in the editor is what the engine paginates. A read-only preview works too:

<.tiptapex_viewer id="preview" value={@doc} />

Uploads

Implement the behaviour with your storage:

defmodule MyApp.EditorUploads do
  @behaviour Tiptapex.Upload

  @impl true
  def store(%Plug.Upload{} = upload, %{scope: article_id}) do
    # S3, local disk, your Attachments context…
    {:ok, %{url: url, content_type: type, filename: name}}
  end
end

Mount the controller in an authenticated pipeline:

defmodule MyAppWeb.EditorUploadController do
  use MyAppWeb, :controller
  use Tiptapex.Upload.Controller, handler: MyApp.EditorUploads
end

# router.ex
post "/admin/tiptapex/uploads", EditorUploadController, :create

Size limits and magic-byte content-type verification run before your handler is called. Tiptapex.Upload.LocalDisk is included for demos/simple apps.

Realtime collaboration

Server — mount a channel:

# user_socket.ex
channel "doc:*", MyAppWeb.DocChannel

defmodule MyAppWeb.DocChannel do
  use Tiptapex.Collab.Channel

  @impl true
  def authorize("doc:" <> slug, _params, socket) do
    case MyApp.Docs.get_by_slug(slug) do
      nil -> {:error, %{reason: "not_found"}}
      _doc -> {:ok, socket}
    end
  end
end

Client — build the hook with the collab plugin (separate import so yjs stays out of non-collab bundles):

import { makeEditorHook, TiptapexViewerHook } from "tiptapex"
import { CollabPlugin } from "tiptapex/collaboration"

const hooks = {
  TiptapexEditor: makeEditorHook({ collab: CollabPlugin }),
  TiptapexViewer: TiptapexViewerHook,
}

Component:

<.tiptapex_editor
  id="body"
  value={@doc}
  collab={%{
    topic: "doc:" <> @slug,
    socket_path: "/socket",
    user: Tiptapex.Collab.user(%{id: @current_user.id, name: @current_user.name})
  }}
/>

The server relays binary Yjs sync/awareness messages between peers; your save flow remains the source of truth. Optional load_state/2 / persist_update/3 callbacks support snapshotting — see Tiptapex.Collab.Channel.

HTML source view with CodeMirror

The toolbar's </> button swaps the WYSIWYG surface for an editable HTML source view. Out of the box it is a plain <textarea>; upgrade it to a full code editor (syntax highlighting, line numbers, autocompletion for HTML/CSS) by installing the optional CodeMirror peers and building your hook with it:

npm install codemirror @codemirror/lang-html @codemirror/view @codemirror/commands

import { makeEditorHook } from "tiptapex"
import { CodeMirrorHtmlEditor } from "tiptapex/html-editor"

const TiptapexEditor = makeEditorHook({ htmlEditor: CodeMirrorHtmlEditor })

Like collaboration, this is a separate entry point so CodeMirror stays out of bundles that don't use it. Any object implementing the same surface contract (create/getValue/setValue/focus/destroy) can be passed instead — see assets/js/tiptapex/html-view.js.

Custom Tiptap extensions

import { makeEditorHook } from "tiptapex"
import { MyCallout } from "./extensions/callout"

const TiptapexEditor = makeEditorHook({
  extend: (extensions) => [...extensions, MyCallout],
  toolbar: { custom: [{ icon: () => myIcon(), title: "Callout", run: (e) => e.commands.toggleCallout() }] },
})

Teach the server renderer about the node:

Tiptapex.Renderer.to_html(doc, nodes: %{"callout" => MyApp.CalloutRenderer})

Upload wire contract

The hook POSTs multipart/form-data with a file part (plus scope when configured) and the x-csrf-token header. The endpoint must reply:

{ "url": "/uploads/abc.png", "content_type": "image/png", "filename": "abc.png" }

image/* inserts an image, video/* a video node, anything else a download link. Tiptapex.Upload.Controller implements this contract for you.

Working on tiptapex itself

mix deps.get
mix test

# demo app
cd dev/assets && npm install && cd ../..
mix dev.assets            # bundle the demo JS
mix js.test               # pure-logic JS checks (page maths, pagination)
iex -S mix dev            # http://localhost:4400 (two tabs → collaboration)

The demo exports real PDFs through both engines, which is how the option builders above get exercised end to end:

Both engines are only: :dev dependencies of this repo, never of the package. The demo boots without either; the route reports what is missing.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.