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.