[lexical-website][lexical-react] Documentation Update: Clarify editorState null vs undefined and empty-state pitfall#8429
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etrepum merged 1 commit intoApr 30, 2026
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…State null vs undefined and empty-state pitfall Closes facebook#5079. `LexicalComposer`'s `initialConfig.editorState` accepts `null` and `undefined` with intentionally different semantics — `null` skips default initialization (used by the collaboration plugin), while `undefined` seeds the root with an empty paragraph. The distinction wasn't documented anywhere, and the related failure mode (`setEditorState` throws on a state whose root has only the root node and no selection) wasn't mentioned either, so users hit the cryptic "the editor state is empty..." error after persisting and reloading a never-modified editor. This change adds TSDoc to `InitialEditorStateType` and the `editorState` field of `InitialConfigType`, expands the existing "used only once" note in the editor-state concept doc into an enumeration of accepted shapes with the null vs undefined distinction, and adds a `:::warning` admonition next to the `setEditorState` example explaining when it throws and how to avoid the empty-state pitfall.
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Description
Closes #5079.
LexicalComposer'sinitialConfig.editorStateacceptsnullandundefinedwith intentionally different semantics —nullskips default initialization (used by the collaboration plugin), whileundefinedseeds the root with an empty paragraph. The distinction wasn't documented anywhere, and the related failure mode (setEditorStatethrows on a state whose root is the only node and there is no selection) wasn't mentioned either, so users hit the cryptic"the editor state is empty..."error after persisting and reloading a never-modified editor.This PR:
InitialEditorStateTypeand theeditorStatefield ofInitialConfigType. These flow into the generated TypeDoc API page and IDE hover tips.initialConfig.editorStatenote in the editor-state concept doc to enumerate the accepted shapes and call out thenullvsundefineddistinction, including the recommended?? undefinedcoalesce pattern when a loader can returnnullfor new documents.Test plan
Before
The bug at #5079 (and the maintainer reply: "null means to not initialize the editor at all, whereas an undefined value gives the default. The former is used for collaborative editing scenarios.") — none of this was reflected in the docs or the type definition.
After