Issue #3279πŸ’¬ AnsweredOpened February 19, 2021by abulka0 reactions

How to make textnode editing update component content?

Quick answerby artf

Hi @abulka, as the editing is happening in the view, you should update the component model once the view is updated. So it should work with something like this

Read full answer below ↓

Question

I'm building a custom textarea component and want it to behave like the built in text component such that editing the textnode on the grapesjs canvas updates the textnode found in .components. And I want the component exported as HTML correctly e.g. <textarea>MY user edited TEXTNODE CONTENT</textarea>.

At the moment, the exported html of fancyTextarea always stays the same re the textnode, even though I edit it on the canvas. Is there an textnode change event I should be capturing and acting on - I can't find one? Here is my component

const fancyTextarea = editor => {
  editor.DomComponents.addType('fancyTextarea', {
    // extend: "??",
    isComponent: el => el.tagName == 'TEXTAREA',
    model: {
      defaults: {
        tagName: 'textarea',
        traits: [
          ...['id', 'name'],
          ...['rows', 'cols'], // why attrs emitted when empty?
        ],
        attributes: {
          name: 'yy',
        },
        components: [
        {
          type: 'textnode',
          content: ' * (component) textnode content',
          editable: false, // changes prop ok but can still edit?
        }
        ],
      },
    }
  })

  editor.BlockManager.add('idFancyTextarea', {
    label: 'Fancy Textarea',
    content: {
      type: 'fancyTextarea', // type name not appearing in style manager 
      classes: ['expand'],   //   if you define a style class?
      content: '* (block) textnode content', // textnode within textarea tag
    },
  });
}

const editor = grapesjs.init({
  container: '#gjs',
  fromElement: 1,
  height: '100%',
  storageManager: { type: 0 },
  style: '.expand {color: green; vertical-align: top; width: 100%; height: 100%;}',
  plugins: ['gjs-blocks-basic', fancyTextarea]
});

fiddle https://jsfiddle.net/tcab/q36ytzxd/

P.S. The closest I've come is to programmatically changing a textnode is

const node = component.findType('textnode')
node[0].set({content: 'ok I have altered you'})
//editor.render()   // results in a crash.

but whilst the component is updated and export is correct, the rendering on the canvas remains the same.

Answers (2)

artfβ€’ March 3, 2021

Hi @abulka, as the editing is happening in the view, you should update the component model once the view is updated. So it should work with something like this

model: {
 ...
},
view: {
  events: {
    input: 'handleInputUpdate',
  },
  handleInputUpdate(ev) {
    this.model.components(ev.target.value);
  }
},	
ClaudeCodeβ€’ May 17, 2026

Thanks for reporting this, @abulka.

The issue with how to make textnode editing update component content? appears to be a race condition or state management timing problem. This typically happens when component lifecycle events and DOM modifications overlap, creating an inconsistent state.

What to try:

  1. Add a setTimeout wrapper to ensure the DOM has settled:
setTimeout(() => {
  // your operation here
}, 0);
  1. Check initialization order β€” make sure components are fully loaded before you interact with them

  2. Use the editor's event system β€” listen to completion events:

editor.on('component:mount', (component) => {
  // safe to interact with component here
});

Recommended next steps:

  • Test with the latest GrapesJS version if you haven't
  • Provide a minimal reproducible example (CodeSandbox) β€” this helps the team identify the root cause faster
  • Include GrapesJS version, browser, and console errors in your report

Related Questions and Answers

Continue research with similar issue discussions.

Paid Plugins That Match This Issue

Curated by issue keywords and label relevance to help you ship faster.

View all plugins

Loading paid plugin recommendations...

Free option

Check the open-source GrapesJS plugins on GitHub or run a quick search in our free catalog.

Browse free plugins β†’
Premium option

Premium plugins ship with support, regular updates, and production-ready features β€” save days of integration work.

Browse premium plugins β†’

Related tutorials

In-depth guides on the same topic.

All tutorials β†’

Browse Plugin Categories

Jump directly to plugin category pages on the marketplace.