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mobwrite

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mobwrite

node port of google-mobwrite

0.0.2
latest
npm

Version published: 12 years ago

Maintainers: 1

Created: 12 years ago

Source

node-mobwrite

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

Getting Started

Ensure you have the system requirements:
- node 0.6+
- Python 2.5+
Install via npm: npm install mobwrite
Start up a demo server: node node_modules/mobwrite/examples/form-editor/server.js
Visit http://localhost:8000 in two browser windows
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:

express web framework (see below)
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)

FAQs

What is mobwrite?

Is mobwrite well maintained?

Package last updated on 01 Sep 2012

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