Rich Text Laravel Laravel Package

Getting Started

Install and scaffold (about 5 minutes).

composer require tonysm/rich-text-laravel
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="rich-text-laravel-config"
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="rich-text-laravel-migrations"
php artisan migrate

• Look at the migration first. Rich text is stored in a polymorphic rich_texts table (record_type, record_id, name, body), not in a column on your model. That single fact drives everything else: eager loading, cleanup on delete, querying, and why adding another rich text field needs no schema change.
• Look at the config next. config/rich-text-laravel.php controls the attachment disk, model/table overrides, and any URL-signing or sanitation options.
• Add the trait to the model. use Tonysm\RichTextLaravel\RichText; on Post, Page, Comment, etc.
• Include Trix in your layout. Either the package's Blade asset directives/components or the package's JS entry imported in resources/js/app.js (whichever the current README specifies). Trix must be available as window.Trix before the input initializes.
• php artisan storage:link if you're using the local/public disk for attachments.

First use case: a Post with a content field.

Form:

<x-trix-input id="content" name="content" :value="old('content', $post->richText('content'))" />

Controller:

$post = Post::create($validated);
$post->richText('content')->update(['body' => $request->input('content')]);

Show page:

<div class="trix-content">
    {!! $post->richText('content')->toHtml() !!}
</div>

The .trix-content wrapper is not optional styling vanity — it's where Trix's own CSS (and your prose overrides) apply, and it's the class the package's styles target.

Implementation Patterns

• Form round-trip. Trix keeps a hidden input in sync with the editor; whatever is in name is what lands in $request->input(). Validate it as an ordinary string, then persist to the rich text body. On validation errors, re-render the component with :value="old('content', $post->richText('content'))".
• Multiple fields per model. richText('content'), richText('summary'), richText('notes') are separate rows keyed by name. Adding a field is a form change, not a migration.
• Rendering safely. toHtml() outputs stored HTML. Treat it as untrusted: Trix lets users paste arbitrary markup. Confirm whether your version sanitizes on storage or render, and if not, add mews/purifier or Symfony's HtmlSanitizer before {!! !!}.
• Plain text for excerpts. For cards, search indexes, and meta descriptions, strip the tags or use a plain-text accessor rather than rendering HTML into a <meta> tag.
• Attachments pipeline. Point the config disk at real storage (public locally, S3 in production). The Trix component posts files to the package's attachment endpoint, which stores the file, creates a backing record, and returns a signed URL that gets rehydrated inside the body at render time. Keep that upload route behind auth, and make sure your layout has <meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}"> — Trix's XHR uploads need it.
• Empty editor semantics. Trix submits "" for empty content, not null. required works, but min:/max: rules behave oddly because of wrapper <div>s and <br>s in the HTML. Normalize (strip tags, trim) before measuring length.
• Livewire. Wrap the editor in wire:ignore, bind the hidden input with wire:model, and relay trix-change into Livewire. Without wire:ignore, Livewire's DOM diffing will detach Trix from its element.
• Inertia / Vue / React. The Blade component won't help you; mount Trix directly and point its attachment callback at the same upload route the package exposes so attachments still work.
• Backfilling an existing column. Write a one-off command: read posts.body, write it via richText('content'), keep the old column for one release as a fallback, then drop it.
• Testing. Use RefreshDatabase. Assert rows in rich_texts with assertDatabaseHas, and assert on visible fragments of HTML (assertSee('...', false)) rather than exact markup — Trix normalizes whitespace and wrappers.
• Cleanup. Add a deleting observer on models that own rich text to delete rich_texts rows and their files. Morph relations can't use DB-level cascadeOnDelete, so this is on you.

Gotchas and Tips

• XSS is your responsibility. A WYSIWYG is a form field, not a trust boundary. Sanitize on output (or at least on save), and never skip it because "only admins use the editor."
• Signed attachment URLs expire. Page caching, emailed HTML, and generated PDFs will show broken inline images after the URL TTL. Lengthen the TTL, re-sign at render time, or keep those specific attachments on a public disk.
• Cached config is the #1 "it's broken" cause. After editing rich-text-laravel.php run php artisan config:clear. A missing storage:link produces the same 404 symptom on a different layer.
• Trix reads value only at init. Setting input.value later won't update the editor — call trix.loadHTML() or re-render the component. This is the usual cause of "old input doesn't repopulate."
• Duplicate IDs break multi-field forms. Each <x-trix-input> needs a unique id; duplicates confuse Trix's toolbar and input element association.
• N+1 on index pages. Rendering richText('content') in a loop queries per row. Eager load the rich text relation (or select a precomputed excerpt column) when listing.
• Upgrades need manual diffing. Config and migrations are published copies, not vendor-managed. Re-publish, diff against your edited versions, and read the changelog — the trait name, directive names, and method names have evolved across releases.
• Extension points. If your version resolves the rich text model through config/container, subclass Tonysm\RichTextLaravel\Models\RichText and register it — that's the clean place for custom sanitization, observers, or attachment handling.
• Don't assert on HTML strings in tests. Trix emits <div> vs <p> vs <br> differences that vary by paste path. Assert visible text and DB state.