Writewrl

## Writeurl - an online collaborative editor ### Writeurl is a collaborative editor Writeurl is a client server system. The frontend code is written in pure javascript using no frameworks. The backend is a node.js application. The client and server communicate through a WebSocket connection. The client stores local changes in the browser's local storage. The editor can be used in offline mode. Changes are always uploaded to the server when a connection is available. Writeurl documents are identified by their (write)url: www.writeurl.com/text/id/read-password/write-password There is a read only version with a (read)url of the form www.writeurl.com/text/id/read-password This url structure makes it easy to share documents. No user registration is needed. #### Writeurl as an online service Writeurl is available as an online service at www.writeurl.com The code running the online service is the same as in this git repo. ###Local installation Writeurl can be installed and run locally as an alternative to using the online service. #### Installation instructions ##### Dependencies The only required dependeny is node.js and the modules in package.json. It is recommended to use node.js version 8. ##### Clone the repo ``` git clone https://github.com/morten-krogh/writeurl.git ``` ##### Install the node js modules ``` npm install ``` ##### Build the browser code Go to the writeurl directory. Use the build script. ``` bash build.sh browser ``` Now the browser code is available in the directory `build/release/browser/` ##### Configuring the server The node.js server code is located in the directory `server-nodejs-express` The server needs a configuration file in the YAML format. An example file is ```server-nodejs-express/config.yaml``` ``` port: 9000 release: public: /Users/mkrogh/writeurl/build/release/browser debug: host: debug.writeurl.localhost public: /Users/mkrogh/writeurl/build/debug/browser documents: path: /Users/mkrogh/writeurl-test-dir/doc_dir publish: public: /Users/mkrogh/writeurl-test-dir/publish_dir # Pino logger # Output goes to stdout. logger: # levels: silent, fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace level: trace ``` `port` is the port at which the server listens. `release` and `debug` are the directories built above containing the browser code. `documents` is the directory where all the writeurl documents will be stored. The server uses files to store the documents (one subdirectory per document). `publish` is the directory where the published (html) versions of the documents will be stored. `logger.level` is the logging level. Logging goes to standard output. ##### Starting the server In the directory `server-nodejs-express` type ```node writeurl-server.js config.yaml ``` ##### Start typing Go to localhost:9000 in the browser and start typing. ### Example production installation For production, it is recommended to use a reverse proxy with TLS, and to daemonize the Writeurl server. For daemonization, one can use a node.js process manager or a system daemon such as systemd on Linux. The online Writeurl service uses nginx as a reverse proxy and systemd under Linux for daemonization. ##### Example nginx configuration An example nginx.conf file is located at https://github.com/morten-krogh/writeurl/blob/master/documentation/nginx.conf ##### Example systemd unit file ``` [Unit] Description = writeurl server After = network.target [Service] Type = simple User = www ExecStart = /home/www/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.4/bin/node /home/www/writeurl/server-nodejs-express/writeurl-server.js /home/www/writeurl/server-nodejs-express/config-debian.yaml Restart = on-failure [Install] WantedBy = multi-user.target ``` ### Backup The server can be backed up by just backing up the files in the `documents` and `publish` directories specified in the config.yaml file. Any type of file backup can be used, e.g. periodic rsync. The backup script can be used while the server is running as long as the backup script does not change any files. The server can be restarted from a backup by just placing the backup directories in the place pointed to by `documents` and `publish` in the config file. ### Embedding Writeurl can be embedded as described in https://github.com/morten-krogh/writeurl/blob/master/html/embed/index.html This page is available on the online service as well https://www.writeurl.com/embed ### Contributions and issues Bugs and feature requests are appreciated and can be opened as Github issues. We also welcome code contributions as pull requests.