---
title: Converting HTML
label: Converting HTML
order: 22
desc: Converting between lexical richtext and HTML
keywords: lexical, richtext, html
---

## Rich Text to HTML

There are two main approaches to convert your Lexical-based rich text to HTML:

1. **Generate HTML on-demand (Recommended)**: Convert JSON to HTML wherever you need it, on-demand.
2. **Generate HTML within your Collection**: Create a new field that automatically converts your saved JSON content to HTML. This is not recommended because it adds overhead to the Payload API and may not work well with live preview.

### On-demand

To convert JSON to HTML on-demand, use the `convertLexicalToHTML` function from `@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html`. Here's an example of how to use it in a React component in your frontend:

```tsx
'use client'

import type { SerializedEditorState } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/lexical'
import { convertLexicalToHTML } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html'

import React from 'react'

export const MyComponent = ({ data }: { data: SerializedEditorState }) => {
  const html = convertLexicalToHTML({ data })

  return <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: html }} />
}
```

#### Dynamic Population (Advanced)

By default, `convertLexicalToHTML` expects fully populated data (e.g. uploads, links, etc.). If you need to dynamically fetch and populate those nodes, use the async variant, `convertLexicalToHTMLAsync`, from `@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html-async`. You must provide a `populate` function:

```tsx
'use client'

import type { SerializedEditorState } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/lexical'

import { getRestPopulateFn } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/client'
import { convertLexicalToHTMLAsync } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html-async'
import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react'

export const MyComponent = ({ data }: { data: SerializedEditorState }) => {
  const [html, setHTML] = useState<null | string>(null)
  useEffect(() => {
    async function convert() {
      const html = await convertLexicalToHTMLAsync({
        data,
        populate: getRestPopulateFn({
          apiURL: `http://localhost:3000/api`,
        }),
      })
      setHTML(html)
    }

    void convert()
  }, [data])

  return html && <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: html }} />
}
```

Using the REST populate function will send a separate request for each node. If you need to populate a large number of nodes, this may be slow. For improved performance on the server, you can use the `getPayloadPopulateFn` function:

```tsx
import type { SerializedEditorState } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/lexical'

import { getPayloadPopulateFn } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'
import { convertLexicalToHTMLAsync } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html-async'
import { getPayload } from 'payload'
import React from 'react'

import config from '../../config.js'

export const MyRSCComponent = async ({
  data,
}: {
  data: SerializedEditorState
}) => {
  const payload = await getPayload({
    config,
  })

  const html = await convertLexicalToHTMLAsync({
    data,
    populate: await getPayloadPopulateFn({
      currentDepth: 0,
      depth: 1,
      payload,
    }),
  })

  return html && <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: html }} />
}
```

### HTML field

The `lexicalHTMLField()` helper converts JSON to HTML and saves it in a field that is updated every time you read it via an `afterRead` hook. It's generally not recommended for two reasons:

1. It creates a column with duplicate content in another format.
2. In [client-side live preview](/docs/live-preview/client), it makes it not "live".

Consider using the [on-demand HTML converter above](/docs/rich-text/converting-html#on-demand-recommended) or the [JSX converter](/docs/rich-text/converting-jsx) unless you have a good reason.

```ts
import type { HTMLConvertersFunction } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html'
import type { MyTextBlock } from '@/payload-types.js'
import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'

import {
  BlocksFeature,
  type DefaultNodeTypes,
  lexicalEditor,
  lexicalHTMLField,
  type SerializedBlockNode,
} from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'

const Pages: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'pages',
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'nameOfYourRichTextField',
      type: 'richText',
      editor: lexicalEditor(),
    },
    lexicalHTMLField({
      htmlFieldName: 'nameOfYourRichTextField_html',
      lexicalFieldName: 'nameOfYourRichTextField',
    }),
    {
      name: 'customRichText',
      type: 'richText',
      editor: lexicalEditor({
        features: ({ defaultFeatures }) => [
          ...defaultFeatures,
          BlocksFeature({
            blocks: [
              {
                interfaceName: 'MyTextBlock',
                slug: 'myTextBlock',
                fields: [
                  {
                    name: 'text',
                    type: 'text',
                  },
                ],
              },
            ],
          }),
        ],
      }),
    },
    lexicalHTMLField({
      htmlFieldName: 'customRichText_html',
      lexicalFieldName: 'customRichText',
      // can pass in additional converters or override default ones
      converters: (({ defaultConverters }) => ({
        ...defaultConverters,
        blocks: {
          myTextBlock: ({ node, providedCSSString }) =>
            `<div style="background-color: red;${providedCSSString}">${node.fields.text}</div>`,
        },
      })) as HTMLConvertersFunction<
        DefaultNodeTypes | SerializedBlockNode<MyTextBlock>
      >,
    }),
  ],
}
```

## Blocks to HTML

If your rich text includes Lexical blocks, you need to provide a way to convert them to HTML. For example:

```tsx
'use client'

import type { MyInlineBlock, MyTextBlock } from '@/payload-types'
import type {
  DefaultNodeTypes,
  SerializedBlockNode,
  SerializedInlineBlockNode,
} from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'
import type { SerializedEditorState } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/lexical'

import {
  convertLexicalToHTML,
  type HTMLConvertersFunction,
} from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/html'
import React from 'react'

type NodeTypes =
  | DefaultNodeTypes
  | SerializedBlockNode<MyTextBlock>
  | SerializedInlineBlockNode<MyInlineBlock>

const htmlConverters: HTMLConvertersFunction<NodeTypes> = ({
  defaultConverters,
}) => ({
  ...defaultConverters,
  blocks: {
    // Each key should match your block's slug
    myTextBlock: ({ node, providedCSSString }) =>
      `<div style="background-color: red;${providedCSSString}">${node.fields.text}</div>`,
  },
  inlineBlocks: {
    // Each key should match your inline block's slug
    myInlineBlock: ({ node, providedStyleTag }) =>
      `<span${providedStyleTag}>${node.fields.text}</span$>`,
  },
})

export const MyComponent = ({ data }: { data: SerializedEditorState }) => {
  const html = convertLexicalToHTML({
    converters: htmlConverters,
    data,
  })

  return <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: html }} />
}
```

## HTML to Richtext

If you need to convert raw HTML into a Lexical editor state, use `convertHTMLToLexical` from `@payloadcms/richtext-lexical`, along with the [editorConfigFactory to retrieve the editor config](/docs/rich-text/converters#retrieving-the-editor-config):

```ts
import {
  convertHTMLToLexical,
  editorConfigFactory,
} from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'
// Make sure you have jsdom and @types/jsdom installed
import { JSDOM } from 'jsdom'

const html = convertHTMLToLexical({
  editorConfig: await editorConfigFactory.default({
    config, // Your Payload Config
  }),
  html: '<p>text</p>',
  JSDOM, // Pass in the JSDOM import; it's not bundled to keep package size small
})
```