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mobwrite

0.0.2 • Public • Published

node-mobwrite

This is a node port of google-mobwrite, which enables live collaborative editing of text (e.g. in forms).

Getting Started

  1. Ensure you have the system requirements:
    • node 0.6+
    • Python 2.5+
  2. Install via npm: npm install mobwrite
  3. Start up a demo server: node node_modules/mobwrite/examples/form-editor/server.js
  4. Visit http://localhost:8000 in two browser windows
  5. Type text in one browser window, and see it show up in the other window :)

Building Your Own App

To start, create a demo page like demo.html:

<html>
<head>
  <script src="/mobwrite/mobwrite-client.js"></script> 
</head>
<body>
  <strong>
    Open this page in multiple browser windows, edits will sync between them :)
  </strong>
  <form>
    <textarea rows="20" cols="60" id="my-notes"></textarea>
  </form>
  <script>
    mobwrite.share("my-notes")
  </script> 
</body>
</html>

This will share a document with a filename of "my-notes".

Next, connect your demo to a webserver with the mobwrite middleware. You have a couple options:

  1. express web framework (see below)
  2. the builtin http module in node (see below)

You can also take a look at the examples for more ideas.

Option 1: mobwrite + express web framework

If you are using express as your webserver, you can easily use() mobwrite functionality as middleware.

First, make sure that you have the express module installed:

npm install express

Next, create an app.js in the same directory as your demo.html:

var mobwrite = require("mobwrite")
var express = require("express")
 
var app = express()
app.use(express.static(__dirname))
 
app.use(mobwrite())
 
app.listen(8000)
console.log("visit http://localhost:8000/demo.html in your browser")

Then, start the server from the commandline:

node app.js

You can visit your demo at http://localhost:8000/demo.html.

Option 2: mobwrite + builtin node HTTP server

Create an app.js in the same directory as your demo.html:

var fs = require("fs")
var path = require("path")
var http = require("http")
var mobwrite = require("mobwrite")
 
var mob = mobwrite()
var server = http.createServer(function(req, res) {
  mob(req, res, function next() {
    res.end(fs.readFileSync(path.resolve(__dirname, "demo.html")).toString())
  })
})
 
server.listen(8000)
console.log("visit http://localhost:8000/demo.html in your browser")

Then, start the server from the commandline:

node app.js

You can visit your demo at http://localhost:8000/demo.html.

Using Advanced Features

There are a few configuration options you can use to customize the behavior of mobwrite:

var mobwrite = require("mobwrite")
var mob = mobwrite({
 
  // View server logs in your terminal.
  logger: console,
 
  // Show debug logs in the browser, and use an uncompressed copy of Javascript.
  // This also increases the verbosity of server-side logs.
  debug: true,
 
  // Set the root path for the middleware.  This is "mobwrite" by default,
  // which is why you load the Javascript from "/mobwrite/mobwrite-client.js".
  // Change this if you already have something else using the "/mobwrite" path.
  root: "mobwrite",
 
  // Tell mobwrite how to load custom documents (e.g. from your database).
  // Otherwise, mobwrite just creates a new in-memory copy of each document.
  loadDocument: function(filename, callback) {
    try {
      var doc = mydatabase.getDoc(filename)
      callback(null, doc)
    } catch(err) {
      callback(err)
    }
  }
 
})

You can also keep up-to-date on the current contents of a document:

  • on("document:change", callback) triggers when a document changes inside of mobwrite
  • readDocument(callback) reads the document from mobwrite

For example, you could set up auto-saving to your database:

var mobwrite = require("mobwrite")
var mob = mobwrite()
 
// This event handler gets called anytime a browser client makes a change
// to a document in mobwrite.
mob.on("document:change", function(filename) {
 
  // Save the document to your database.
  mob.readDocument(filename, function(data) {
    mydatabase.saveDoc(filename, data)
  })
 
})

Developing

If google-mobwrite changes, you can update the internal copy by re-exporting the SVN repository:

rm -rf ext/google-mobwrite
svn export http://google-mobwrite.googlecode.com/svn/trunk ext/google-mobwrite

Contributing

Improvements and additions are welcome! Here's a list of ideas:

  • socket.io gateway (faster, cleaner, less polling)
  • configuration handling for mobwrite daemon (right now it uses baked-in configs)
  • memcache-based document loading (rather than transferring via XMLRPC)
  • browser-side event for merge conflicts (e.g. so the browser could warn the user)
  • ability to connect middleware to an existing mobwrite daemon or AppEngine instance
  • reconnect behavior for clients (when the server is restarted)

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npm i mobwrite

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Version

0.0.2

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  • mjpizz
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