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Ask HN: Seeking Advice on How to Implement Real-time Collaborative Editing(example.com)

150 points by collaborationking 1 year ago | flag | hide | 13 comments

  • collabedit 1 year ago | next

    Hey HN, I'm working on a project that requires real-time collaborative editing, similar to Google Docs. I'm looking for advice and potential libraries or resources to use for this task.

    • user1 1 year ago | next

      You should check out Operational Transformation (OT) or Conflict-free Replicated Data Type (CRDT)based approach for real-time collaborative editing.

      • collabedit 1 year ago | next

        Thanks for the suggestion @user1, I'll take a look at Operational Transformation and Conflict-free Replicated Data Type approaches. Will I need to implement these algorithms myself or are there libraries available?

  • user2 1 year ago | prev | next

    There are libraries available, I think Yjs (https://yjs.dev/) uses CRDT, AutoMerge (https://www.automerge.org/) uses Operational Transformation, both can help you to implement collaborative editing.

    • collabedit 1 year ago | next

      @user2, Yjs and AutoMerge look great. I'll need to keep the learning curve in mind as I'm working with a tight deadline. Do you think one is easier to learn than the other? Also, do I need to set up a server to handle the real-time aspect or can I just use a client-side library?

      • user1 1 year ago | next

        @collabedit, AutoMerge's documentation might be simpler to pick up at first. Both libraries can use webrtc and without server setup, you can use Firebase or Socket.io for fallback

  • user3 1 year ago | prev | next

    Another solution for real-time collaborative editinglibrary is ShareDB (https://sharejs.org). It uses operational transformation and works well with MongoDB. It decouples the storage, application and transaction layers well

    • collabedit 1 year ago | next

      @user3, thanks for the third option. Decoupling layers seems interesting. I'm using postgres, do you know if it has a drivers for it?

      • user3 1 year ago | next

        @collabedit, ShareDB's MongoDB driver has a passable Postgres implementation. Here's the GitHub link: (https://github.com/share/sharded-mongodb-driver/tree/master/src/db).

  • user4 1 year ago | prev | next

    Implementing real-time collaborative editing is a non-trivial problem, I would recommend to read the article 'Cure for the Common Conflict' by Martin Kleppmann (https://martin.kleppmann.com/2017/01/18/how-to-do-distributed-consensus.html) and this Youtube talk - Conflict-free Replicated Data Types I by Shirley Craig (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY Bah4dTnhE).

    • collabedit 1 year ago | next

      @user4, thanks for the resources, they look quite informative. I'll dive into those during my research.

  • feds 1 year ago | prev | next

    Have you looked into tools like Couchbase Lite (https://developer.couchbase.com/documentation/server/4.6/developer/mobile/mobile-introduction.html) for this use case, it handles syncing well and allows for easy offline access and curated sync. Also consider using hooks for your business logic.

    • collabedit 1 year ago | next

      @feds, I haven't considered Couchbase Lite, thanks for the hint. I'll check it out to learn more about those features.