RichText field doesn't return to null after clearing content

[Rot4tion]

I'm experiencing an issue with RichText fields in PayloadCMS. When a RichText field has never been edited, its value is null. However, after adding content and then completely removing it, instead of returning to null, it returns an empty structure:

{
    "root": {
        "type": "root",
        "format": "",
        "indent": 0,
        "version": 1,
        "children": [
            {
                "type": "paragraph",
                "format": "",
                "indent": 0,
                "version": 1,
                "children": [],
                "direction": null,
                "textStyle": "",
                "textFormat": 0
            }
        ],
        "direction": null
    }
}

This inconsistency causes problems when conditionally rendering content based on the field's value, as checking for null won't work for cleared fields.

Is there a way to configure the RichText field to return null when all content is removed, maintaining consistency with its initial state? Or is there a recommended approach to handle this situation?

[hades200082]

Same issue here. Bug raised #12633

[hades200082]

I've created this function for my own workaround in the meantime:

export function isLexicalRichTextEmpty(value:any) {
	if (!value) return true;

	// Defensive: root must exist
	const root = value.root;
	if (!root || !Array.isArray(root.children)) return true;

	// If root has no children, it's empty
	if (root.children.length === 0) return true;

	// If root has only EMPTY paragraph nodes as children, check them
	const isAllEmptyParagraphs:boolean = root.children.every((child:any) =>
		child.type === 'paragraph' &&
		Array.isArray(child.children) &&
		child.children.length === 0
	);

	return isAllEmptyParagraphs;
}

[Rot4tion]

@hades200082
u can use:

import { hasText } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical/shared'
hasText(richtextData)