Lexxy

field :body, as: :lexxy

The Lexxy field renders Lexxy, Basecamp's modern rich text editor for Action Text, built on Meta's Lexical framework. It produces clean HTML semantics, supports Markdown shortcuts, code syntax highlighting, and rich attachment previews.

It supports Action Text attributes and plain string/text columns storing HTML, with file attachments uploaded through Active Storage direct uploads.

Lexxy field is hidden from the Index view.

Requirements

• Rails >= 8.0.2 (required by the lexxy gem)

Add this field to the Gemfile

# Gemfile
gem "avo-lexxy_field"

Lexxy takes over Action Text

The lexxy gem replaces Trix as the default form.rich_text_area editor across your whole app. If you only want Lexxy inside Avo, opt out in the host app:

# config/application.rb (Rails 8.0/8.1)
config.lexxy.override_action_text_defaults = false

Options

-> always_show

By default, the content of the field is not visible on the Show view; instead, it's hidden under a Show Content link that, when clicked, displays the content. You can set it to display the content by setting always_show to true.

Default value

false

Possible values

true, false

-> attachments_disabled

Disables file attachments (toolbar button, paste, and drag & drop).

Default value

false on Action Text attributes, true on plain columns.

Lexxy uploads files through Active Storage direct uploads and relies on Action Text to attach the blobs to the record on save. On plain columns the uploads would remain orphaned blobs, so attachments are disabled there by default. Pass attachments_disabled: false to enable them anyway.

Action Text

Lexxy is built for Action Text and works with it out of the box, including file attachments.

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  has_rich_text :body
end

field :body, as: :lexxy

Media Library

When the Media Library is enabled, the editor's toolbar gets a button that opens the library in a modal. Picking an asset inserts it into the content — images as Action Text attachments, other files as links.

The button is hidden when the field has attachments disabled (which is the default on plain string/text columns), since there is nothing to attach the blob to.

Editor configuration

Lexxy's element attributes (markdown, rich-text, headings, permitted-attachment-types, etc.) are documented in the Lexxy docs and can be configured globally through Lexxy.configure presets in your JavaScript, or per field through the field's html option.