How to best handle updating the initial editor state from a string or prior state?

[charklewis]

I have written a plugin that can handle updating the initial state of an editor (if the value is just a string, or a legitimate prior state). Are you able to advise if I am on the right track, or potential areas of data loss I have missed?

const InitialStatePlugin = ({ initialState, onError }: { initialState?: string; onError: (error: Error) => void }) => {
  const [editor] = useLexicalComposerContext()
  const [stateHasBeenApplied, setStateHasBeenApplied] = useState(false)

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!initialState || stateHasBeenApplied) return

    const current = editor.getEditorState().toJSON()
    if (JSON.stringify(current) === initialState) return

    const applyPriorState = () => {
      try {
        const state = editor.parseEditorState("initialState")
        editor.setEditorState(state)
      } catch {
        const message = "some error message"
        onError(new Error(message)
      }
    }

    const createTextNodeFromString = () => {
      editor.update(() => {
        const root = $getRoot()
        const paragraphNode = $createParagraphNode()
        const textNode = $createTextNode(initialState)
        paragraphNode.append(textNode)
        root.append(paragraphNode)
      })
    }

    if (isValidJSON(initialState)) {
      applyPriorState()
    } else {
      createTextNodeFromString()
    }

    setStateHasBeenApplied(true)
  }, [initialState, editor, stateHasBeenApplied])

  return null
}

const isValidJSON = (value: string) => {
  try {
    const json = JSON.parse(value)
    if (json && typeof json === "object") {
      return true
    }
  } catch {}
  return false
}

[zurfyx]

Is this discussion relevant to you? #1937

The idea behind your code is correct but you may want to reuse what we offer out of the box already!

[ZelCloud]

That's a hacky workaround, why doesn't lexical provide a way to set initial state out of the box in a react context?