createReactBlockSpec weird behaviour for placeholder and cursor for custom blocks

[kanishk619]

Description

When creating a custom block using createReactBlockSpec, I encountered several rendering issues that make it impractical for use in certain scenarios.

❌ Problems Encountered

• Placeholders do not appear when the block is empty
• Cursor disappears if the context text is entirely removed

---

✅ Workaround

Switching to createStronglyTypedTiptapNode resolves the issues.

💡 Example (Working)

import {
  createStronglyTypedTiptapNode,
  createBlockSpecFromStronglyTypedTiptapNode,
  propsToAttributes,
  createDefaultBlockDOMOutputSpec,
  defaultProps,
} from "@blocknote/core";

const sectionPropSchema = {
  ...defaultProps,
};

const SectionBlockContent = createStronglyTypedTiptapNode({
  name: "section",
  content: "inline*",
  group: "blockContent",

  addAttributes() {
    return propsToAttributes(sectionPropSchema);
  },

  parseHTML() {
    return [
      {
        tag: "div[data-content-type=section]",
        contentElement: ".bn-inline-content",
      },
      {
        tag: "section",
        getAttrs: (element) => {
          if (typeof element === "string" || !element.textContent?.trim()) {
            return false;
          }
          return {};
        },
        node: "section",
      },
    ];
  },

  renderHTML({ HTMLAttributes }) {
    return createDefaultBlockDOMOutputSpec(
      this.name,
      "section",
      {
        ...HTMLAttributes,
      }
    );
  },
});

export const Section = createBlockSpecFromStronglyTypedTiptapNode(
  SectionBlockContent,
  sectionPropSchema
);

Not sure if I am missing something with createReactBlockSpec

[YousefED]

Thanks for reporting. We're planning a refactor that streamlines these two methods of creating blocks that should resolve this issue as well