Rich Text field

The RichText field type is an advanced String field that returns your content in 4 different formats by default: raw, HTML, markdown, and text. JSON is also available when embeds are enabled.

The Rich Text field renders an advanced textarea with tools to add headings, links, tables, images, lists, etc.

When a Rich Text field is added to your model, it will automatically generate the following types:

type RichText {
  raw: RichTextAST!
  html: String!
  markdown String!
  text: String!
  json: RichTextAST!
}

Rich Text dataAnchor

Let's talk about Rich Text data in more detail.

Raw: raw AST (Slate Nodes) offers complete control over how nodes are presented to the user.
JSON: JSON representations of RTE allows as much control as raw does, but offers the possibility of creating embeds.

RichText will include the field JSON in addition to raw only if Rich Text Embeds are enabled. Both JSON and raw are aliases, but if you have embeds enabled you should ideally use JSON.
HTML: HTML can be used with a Rich Text renderer for customization purposes. While rendering the HTML of your rich text is simple, it doesn't offer great customization.
Markdown: Markdown - like HTML - can be used for customization. While markdown is easier to read and write - specially for users without a technical background - it's not as expressive as HTML. To present markdown on a page, you'll need a markdown parser that will convert markdown to HTML.
Text: text is mostly used for excerpts, as links, images, and even line breaks are removed.

Use CasesAnchor

Raw: Use raw when you want to control the rendered output using our render libraries.
JSON: Use JSON for the same as raw but when you also need embeds.
HTML / Markdown: Use these when you need to make customizations and want to insert pre-built HTML or markdown into an app.
Text: Use text when you want to provide the text as data to a script, such as making full-text search.

ExamplesAnchor

This section takes a simple Rich Text piece with a title, a paragraph, a link, and bold text, and offers its JSON, HTML, Markdown, and Text representations.

"json": {
          "children": [
            {
              "type": "heading-one",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "Example Rich Text Copy"
                }
              ]
            },
            {
              "type": "paragraph",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "This is a regular paragraph, including a "
                },
                {
                  "href": "https://hygraph.com/docs",
                  "type": "link",
                  "children": [
                    {
                      "text": "hyperlink"
                    }
                  ]
                },
                {
                  "text": " and "
                },
                {
                  "bold": true,
                  "text": "bold text"
                },
                {
                  "text": "."
                }
              ]
            }
          ]
        }

"html": "<h1>Example Rich Text Copy</h1><p>This is a regular paragraph, including a <a title=\"https://hygraph.com/docs\" href=\"https://hygraph.com/docs\">hyperlink</a> and <strong>bold text</strong>.</p>"

"markdown": "# Example Rich Text Copy\n\nThis is a regular paragraph, including a [hyperlink](https://hygraph.com/docs \"https://hygraph.com/docs\") and **bold text**.\n"

"text": "Example Rich Text Copy\\nThis is a regular paragraph, including a \\nhyperlink\\n and \\nbold text\\n."

Rich Text embedsAnchor

If Rich Text Embeds are enabled, RichText will include the field JSON in addition to raw.

For example, we can query all of those on our RichText field type content:

{
  posts {
    content {
      raw
      html
      markdown
      text
    }
  }
}

{
  "data": {
    "posts": [
      {
        "content": {
          "raw": {
            "children": [
              {
                "type": "paragraph",
                "children": [
                  {
                    "text": "GraphQL CMS"
                  }
                ]
              }
            ]
          },
          "html": "<p>GraphQL CMS</p>",
          "markdown": "GraphQL CMS\n",
          "text": "GraphQL CMS"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Embed assetsAnchor

You can also embed Assets and other models inside Rich Text as block, inline or link embeds.

You can find out how to enable Rich Text embeds in our field configuration docs.

Rich Text embeds & API typesAnchor

With Rich Text Embeds enabled, your API will have some new types added. The name of your field will be now a type appended by RichText, and RichTextEmbeddedTypes inside your schema.

For example, if you had the model Post and field content, the types generates would be PostContentRichText, and PostContentRichTextEmbeddedTypes respectively.

The PostContentRichText type will look like the following:

type RichText {
  json: RichTextAST!
  html: String!
  markdown String!
  text: String!
  references: [PostContentRichTextEmbeddedTypes!]!
}

The references field will be a union relation to the types you embedded, for example Asset.

You should use the references field when querying JSON to get the URL (with any transformations, handle, or any of the Asset fields.

{
  posts {
    content {
      json
      html
      markdown
      text
      references {
        __typename
        ... on Asset {
          url
          handle
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "data": {
    "posts": [
      {
        "content": {
          "json": {
            "children": [
              {
                "type": "paragraph",
                "children": [
                  {
                    "text": "Hygraph Rich Text Embeds"
                  }
                ]
              },
              {
                "type": "embed",
                "nodeId": "cko2lq2u0031r0844xnvurz05",
                "children": [
                  {
                    "text": ""
                  }
                ],
                "nodeType": "Asset"
              },
              {
                "type": "paragraph",
                "children": [
                  {
                    "text": ""
                  }
                ]
              }
            ]
          },
          "html": "<p>Hygraph Rich Text Embeds</p><div data-gcms-embed-type=\"Asset\" data-gcms-embed-id=\"cko2lq2u0031r0844xnvurz05\"></div><p></p>",
          "markdown": "Hygraph Rich Text Embeds\n\n\n",
          "text": "Hygraph Rich Text Embeds\\n\\n",
          "references": [
            {
              "__typename": "Asset",
              "url": "https://media.graphassets.com/xSIoGkATQybd8S2SgA5Q",
              "handle": "xSIoGkATQybd8S2SgA5Q"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

The HTML response will return gcms-embed-type and gcms-embed-id data attributes for the embedded types. A block embed is returned as div and an inline embed as span with a data-gcms-embed-inline attribute. A link embed is returned as an a-tag with a data-gcms-embed-id and data-gcms-embed-type attribute.

<div
  data-gcms-embed-type="Asset"
  data-gcms-embed-id="cko2lq2u0031r0844xnvurz05"
></div>

<span
  data-gcms-embed-type="Author"
  data-gcms-embed-id="ckwyytv5k003s0791zitq6alu"
  data-gcms-embed-inline
></span>

<a
  data-gcms-embed-id="cl0sa2kc50sb80axsu0kcaeaa"
  data-gcms-embed-type="Post"
>
  link text
</a>

Hygraph uses Slate 0.5 for RichTextAST.

If you are programmatically creating content entries with Rich Text, you should use the @graphcms/html-to-slate-ast package.

Use JSON representation of RTE for customizationAnchor

You can work with the Rich Text field to take the data that the editors put in Hygraph, and manipulate it for display in the front end.

The following example shows data available on a blog post, with the Rich Text content in HTML and markdown:

query MyQuery($id: ID, $slug: String) {
  values: post(where: { id: $id, slug: $slug }) {
    title
    slug
    id
    content {
      html
      markdown
    }
  }
}

{
  "id": "clbdn2fjithnl0amxwm8wtell"
}

{
  "data": {
    "values": {
      "title": "Test",
      "slug": "test",
      "id": "clbdn2fjithnl0amxwm8wtell",
      "content": {
        "html": "<h1>Lorem Ipsum</h1><h4>&quot;Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit...&quot;</h4><h5>&quot;There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain...&quot;</h5><p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc interdum mauris libero. Aliquam in iaculis nibh. Duis sagittis, orci sit amet hendrerit pellentesque, velit felis lobortis purus, vitae finibus libero risus quis ipsum. Curabitur in malesuada odio. Quisque quis metus quis augue lacinia euismod vel quis orci. Fusce condimentum ultricies mollis. Morbi et ultricies augue. Integer massa libero, elementum nec ante at, blandit auctor risus. Nulla et dignissim turpis. Vivamus pharetra turpis eu sem maximus egestas. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. In a pulvinar dui. Etiam varius justo quis purus hendrerit, sed tristique ex pulvinar. Integer vel lobortis magna. Suspendisse potenti. Morbi faucibus sem eget enim posuere, vitae vestibulum felis sodales.</p><p>Fusce suscipit sed dolor eu convallis. Nulla et velit ut lacus ullamcorper varius vel sit amet justo. Nullam condimentum dolor a ligula placerat, vitae sagittis elit efficitur. Donec ac elit fermentum, vehicula dui eget, condimentum ante. Aenean in nisl faucibus neque feugiat suscipit. Aenean sit amet facilisis ante, sed semper ipsum. Proin id nulla odio. Maecenas condimentum placerat laoreet. Aliquam at sodales tortor. Nam tortor dui, maximus nec imperdiet ut, bibendum vel felis. Duis hendrerit vulputate finibus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Pellentesque sed posuere ex. Nullam metus erat, finibus nec ultricies nec, egestas sed ipsum.</p><p>Nulla varius mauris sed justo egestas, eu dictum urna dictum. Aenean varius dui convallis vehicula suscipit. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam euismod vel dui ac blandit. Suspendisse potenti. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed vitae lorem lacinia, mollis risus volutpat, malesuada risus. Maecenas lacinia sem in odio vestibulum, at dictum metus finibus. Morbi turpis tellus, egestas eu molestie nec, sagittis ac enim. Morbi facilisis finibus odio, eget consequat ipsum porttitor non. Nunc risus ipsum, congue blandit lacus eu, lacinia hendrerit nulla. Donec congue suscipit velit, a aliquet dolor venenatis nec. In eget ullamcorper massa. Ut efficitur felis vel rhoncus sollicitudin.</p>",
        "markdown": "# Lorem Ipsum\n\n#### \"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit...\"\n\n##### \"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain...\"\n\nLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc interdum mauris libero. Aliquam in iaculis nibh. Duis sagittis, orci sit amet hendrerit pellentesque, velit felis lobortis purus, vitae finibus libero risus quis ipsum. Curabitur in malesuada odio. Quisque quis metus quis augue lacinia euismod vel quis orci. Fusce condimentum ultricies mollis. Morbi et ultricies augue. Integer massa libero, elementum nec ante at, blandit auctor risus. Nulla et dignissim turpis. Vivamus pharetra turpis eu sem maximus egestas. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. In a pulvinar dui. Etiam varius justo quis purus hendrerit, sed tristique ex pulvinar. Integer vel lobortis magna. Suspendisse potenti. Morbi faucibus sem eget enim posuere, vitae vestibulum felis sodales.\n\nFusce suscipit sed dolor eu convallis. Nulla et velit ut lacus ullamcorper varius vel sit amet justo. Nullam condimentum dolor a ligula placerat, vitae sagittis elit efficitur. Donec ac elit fermentum, vehicula dui eget, condimentum ante. Aenean in nisl faucibus neque feugiat suscipit. Aenean sit amet facilisis ante, sed semper ipsum. Proin id nulla odio. Maecenas condimentum placerat laoreet. Aliquam at sodales tortor. Nam tortor dui, maximus nec imperdiet ut, bibendum vel felis. Duis hendrerit vulputate finibus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Pellentesque sed posuere ex. Nullam metus erat, finibus nec ultricies nec, egestas sed ipsum.\n\nNulla varius mauris sed justo egestas, eu dictum urna dictum. Aenean varius dui convallis vehicula suscipit. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam euismod vel dui ac blandit. Suspendisse potenti. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed vitae lorem lacinia, mollis risus volutpat, malesuada risus. Maecenas lacinia sem in odio vestibulum, at dictum metus finibus. Morbi turpis tellus, egestas eu molestie nec, sagittis ac enim. Morbi facilisis finibus odio, eget consequat ipsum porttitor non. Nunc risus ipsum, congue blandit lacus eu, lacinia hendrerit nulla. Donec congue suscipit velit, a aliquet dolor venenatis nec. In eget ullamcorper massa. Ut efficitur felis vel rhoncus sollicitudin.\n"
      }
    }
  }
}

Hygraph automatically serializes the content into HTML and/or markdown that the front end can simply display. This does not allow customization.

Instead of these two things, you can get the JSON representation, which will display as JSON AST in a tree with nested levels.

query MyQuery($id: ID, $slug: String) {
  values: post(where: { id: $id, slug: $slug }) {
    title
    slug
    id
    content {
      json
    }
  }
}

{
  "id": "clbdn2fjithnl0amxwm8wtell"
}

{
  "data": {
    "values": {
      "title": "Test",
      "slug": "test",
      "id": "clbdn2fjithnl0amxwm8wtell",
      "content": {
        "json": {
          "children": [
            {
              "type": "heading-one",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "Lorem Ipsum"
                }
              ]
            },
            {
              "type": "heading-four",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "\"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit...\""
                }
              ]
            },
            {
              "type": "heading-five",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "\"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain...\""
                }
              ]
            },
            {
              "type": "paragraph",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc interdum mauris libero. Aliquam in iaculis nibh. Duis sagittis, orci sit amet hendrerit pellentesque, velit felis lobortis purus, vitae finibus libero risus quis ipsum. Curabitur in malesuada odio. Quisque quis metus quis augue lacinia euismod vel quis orci. Fusce condimentum ultricies mollis. Morbi et ultricies augue. Integer massa libero, elementum nec ante at, blandit auctor risus. Nulla et dignissim turpis. Vivamus pharetra turpis eu sem maximus egestas. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. In a pulvinar dui. Etiam varius justo quis purus hendrerit, sed tristique ex pulvinar. Integer vel lobortis magna. Suspendisse potenti. Morbi faucibus sem eget enim posuere, vitae vestibulum felis sodales."
                }
              ]
            },
            {
              "type": "paragraph",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "Fusce suscipit sed dolor eu convallis. Nulla et velit ut lacus ullamcorper varius vel sit amet justo. Nullam condimentum dolor a ligula placerat, vitae sagittis elit efficitur. Donec ac elit fermentum, vehicula dui eget, condimentum ante. Aenean in nisl faucibus neque feugiat suscipit. Aenean sit amet facilisis ante, sed semper ipsum. Proin id nulla odio. Maecenas condimentum placerat laoreet. Aliquam at sodales tortor. Nam tortor dui, maximus nec imperdiet ut, bibendum vel felis. Duis hendrerit vulputate finibus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Pellentesque sed posuere ex. Nullam metus erat, finibus nec ultricies nec, egestas sed ipsum."
                }
              ]
            },
            {
              "type": "paragraph",
              "children": [
                {
                  "text": "Nulla varius mauris sed justo egestas, eu dictum urna dictum. Aenean varius dui convallis vehicula suscipit. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam euismod vel dui ac blandit. Suspendisse potenti. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed vitae lorem lacinia, mollis risus volutpat, malesuada risus. Maecenas lacinia sem in odio vestibulum, at dictum metus finibus. Morbi turpis tellus, egestas eu molestie nec, sagittis ac enim. Morbi facilisis finibus odio, eget consequat ipsum porttitor non. Nunc risus ipsum, congue blandit lacus eu, lacinia hendrerit nulla. Donec congue suscipit velit, a aliquet dolor venenatis nec. In eget ullamcorper massa. Ut efficitur felis vel rhoncus sollicitudin."
                }
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Remember that Richtext will only include the field JSON if Rich Text embeds are enabled for the model you're using.

As you can see in the results tab of the above query, this breaks up the initial data into a JSON representation that a renderer can understand.

This allows you to take that data and manipulate it in order to override any default renderer or add renderers for custom elements, creating a custom display logic for your front end.

You will do this by creating an HTML element containing the manipulated data, which will then be rendered via the astToHtmlString method that's available on our Rich Text HTML renderer. We also have a React version of this.

Click here to access a detailed example on how to style Rich Text using TailwindCSS.

By styling your Rich Text fields, you can either customize how your Rich Text will display throughout your website, or even have multiple types of Rich Text fields that do different things.

ResourcesAnchor

Hygraph's Rich Text editor: Hygraph's UI Rich Text field feature walkthrough.
Styling Rich Text with TailwindCSS: Detailed tutorial on how to use the JSON representation from the RTE to create custom elements for each text-based element of Rich Text.
Introducing the Hygraph React Rich Text Renderer: Blog post on how to render Hygraph documents using Rich Text in your application easily using our available packages.
Rich Text editor UI guide: Guide on how to use Hygraph's Rich Text editor in the content editor of your project.