{"id":12827,"date":"2019-03-28T22:58:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T22:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=12827"},"modified":"2019-03-28T22:58:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T22:58:28","slug":"etherpad-a-real-time-web-based-online-collaborative-document-editor-for-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/03\/28\/etherpad-a-real-time-web-based-online-collaborative-document-editor-for-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"Etherpad \u2013 A Real Time Web Based Online Collaborative Document Editor for Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0is a web based free document editor tool which allows a group of users to work jointly on a document in a real time, like a multi player editor which runs on a web browser.\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0authors can edit and at the same time see each others edits in real time with a capability to display author\u2019s text in their own colours.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Install<\/a><\/p>\n

Install Etherpad in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This tool has a separate\u00a0chat box<\/strong>\u00a0in the sidebar allowing authors to communicate during editing.\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0is written in\u00a0JavaScript<\/strong>\u00a0both on server side and client side, so that it comes easy for developers to maintain and add new features.<\/p>\n

Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0is designed in such a way that you can have access to all data through a well-documented\u00a0HTTP API<\/strong>. This software also helps you to import\/export data to many exchange formats and comes with translations too where authors can deliver correct language for their local settings.<\/p>\n

For your reference, I\u2019ve attached a\u00a0Demo<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0Etherpad Lite<\/strong>\u00a0at below link.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Watch EtherPad Demo<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In this tutorial, I will describe how to install and configure\u00a0Etherpad Lite<\/strong>\u00a0a web-based real time collaborative document editing application on\u00a0RHEL<\/strong>,\u00a0CentOS<\/strong>,\u00a0Fedora<\/strong>,\u00a0Debian<\/strong>,\u00a0Ubuntu<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Linux Mint<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Installing Etherpad Lite on Linux<\/h3>\n

    First, we need to download and install few required libraries and development tools. Open the terminal and run the following command either as\u00a0root<\/strong>\u00a0or by adding\u00a0sudo<\/strong>\u00a0at the beginning of each command.<\/p>\n

    Step 1: Install Libraries and Development Packages<\/h4>\n

    You\u2019ll need gzip, git, curl, libssl python, develop libraries, python and gcc packages.<\/p>\n

    On RHEL \/ CentOS \/ Fedora<\/h5>\n
    # yum install gzip git-core curl python openssl-devel && yum groupinstall \"Development Tools\" For FreeBSD: portinstall node, npm, git<\/pre>\n
    On Debian \/ Ubuntu \/ Linux Mint<\/h5>\n
    $ sudo apt-get install gzip git-core curl python libssl-dev pkg-config build-essential<\/pre>\n
    Step 2: Install Node.js<\/h4>\n
    Additionally, you will also need to download and compile latest stable\u00a0Node.js<\/strong>\u00a0version from source packages using following commands.<\/p>\n
    $ wget http:\/\/nodejs.org\/dist\/node-latest.tar.gz\r\n$ tar xvfvz node-latest.tar.gz\r\n$ cd node-v0.10.23     [Replace a version with your own<\/strong>]\r\n$ .\/configure\r\n$ make\r\n$ sudo make install<\/pre>\n
    Once you have successfully installed, verify the\u00a0Node.js<\/strong>\u00a0version using the command as follows.<\/p>\n
    $ node --version\r\n\r\nv0.10.23<\/pre>\n
    Step 3: Download and Install Etherpad Lite<\/h4>\n
    We will create a separate user called \u201cetherpad<\/strong>\u201d to run\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0application independently. So, first create a user with its home directory.<\/p>\n
    # useradd --create-home etherpad<\/pre>\n
    Now switch to \u201cetherpad<\/strong>\u201d user and download the latest stable version of\u00a0Etherpad Lite<\/strong>\u00a0using\u00a0GIT repository<\/a>\u00a0as shown.<\/p>\n
    # su - etherpad\r\n$ cd \/home\/etherpad\r\n$ git clone http:\/\/github.com\/ether\/etherpad-lite.git<\/pre>\n
    Once you\u2019ve downloaded source files, change into the newly created directory containing the cloned source code.<\/p>\n
    $ cd etherpad-lite\/bin<\/pre>\n
    Now, execute run.sh script.<\/p>\n
    $ .\/run.sh<\/pre>\n
    Sample Output<\/h5>\n
    Copy the settings template to settings.json...\r\nEnsure that all dependencies are up to date...  If this is the first time you have run Etherpad please be patient.\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:23.604] [WARN] console - DirtyDB is used. This is fine for testing but not recommended for production.\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:24.256] [INFO] console - Installed plugins: ep_etherpad-lite\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:24.279] [INFO] console - Your Etherpad git version is 7d47d91\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:24.280] [INFO] console - Report bugs at https:\/\/github.com\/ether\/etherpad-lite\/issues\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:24.325] [INFO] console -    info  - 'socket.io started'\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:24.396] [INFO] console - You can access your Etherpad instance at http:\/\/0.0.0.0:9001\/\r\n[2013-12-17 05:52:24.397] [WARN] console - Admin username and password not set in settings.json.  To access admin please uncomment and edit 'users' in settings.json<\/pre>\n
    Step 4: Access and Create New Pad in Etherpad Lite<\/h4>\n
    Now you should able to browse the web interface of\u00a0Etherpad Lite<\/strong>\u00a0at\u00a0http:\/\/localhost:9001<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0http:\/\/your-ip-address:9001<\/strong>\u00a0in a web browser.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"Create<\/a><\/p>\n
    Create New Pad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Create a new document by giving a\u00a0Pad name<\/strong>. Please remember, enter new name when creating a new document or enter name of the previously edited document to access.<\/p>\n
    For example, I\u2019ve created a new document called \u201ctecmint<\/strong>\u201d. User\u2019s can create multiple new pads in separate windows, each user\u2019s document window appears on another window automatically in real-time. Each user\u2019s window is highlighted in two different colours and also user\u2019s can interact with each other using built-in\u00a0chat box<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"New<\/a><\/p>\n
    New Pad Chat Window<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Each newly created document has its own\u00a0URL<\/strong>\u00a0structure. For example, my new \u201ctecmint<\/strong>\u201d pad get\u2019s a\u00a0URL<\/strong>\u00a0as\u00a0http:\/\/your-ip-address:9001\/p\/tecmint<\/strong>. You can share this document\u00a0URL<\/strong>\u00a0with your friends and colleagues. You can even\u00a0embed<\/strong>\u00a0the editor window into another\u00a0HTML<\/strong>\u00a0web page as an iframe.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"Share<\/a><\/p>\n
    Share and Embed New Pad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    You can save the document while editing is in progress by clicking the\u00a0STAR<\/strong>\u00a0button, however they are created periodically. To access a saved revision of the document add the number of the saved revision. For example, if you would like to see the saved revision number (i.e. 2<\/strong>) in this case, replace the number\u00a06<\/strong>\u00a0with\u00a02<\/strong>\u00a0at the\u00a0http:\/\/your-ip-address:9001\/p\/tecmint\/6\/export\/text<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"Save<\/a><\/p>\n
    Save Revision<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0also comes with built-in feature called\u00a0import<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0export<\/strong>, where you can import any external document or export a current saved document to a separate file. The document can be downloaded in\u00a0HTML<\/strong>,\u00a0Open Document<\/strong>,\u00a0Microsoft Word<\/strong>,\u00a0PDF<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0Plain text<\/strong>\u00a0format.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"Import<\/a><\/p>\n
    Import and Export Documents<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    A \u201ctime slider<\/strong>\u201d feature enables anyone to explore the\u00a0history<\/strong>\u00a0of the pad.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"Time<\/a><\/p>\n
    Time Slider<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Step 5: Using Etherpad Lite with MySQL Backend<\/h4>\n
    By default\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0stores documents in a flat-file database. I suggest you to use\u00a0MySQL<\/strong>\u00a0as a backend to store created and edited documents. For this, you must have\u00a0MySQL<\/strong>\u00a0installed on your system. If you don\u2019t have, install it on the system, you can install it using following commands as\u00a0root<\/strong>\u00a0user or using\u00a0sudo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
    On RHEL \/ CentOS \/ Fedora<\/h5>\n
    # yum install mysql-server mysql\r\n# service mysqld start\r\n# chkconfig mysqld on<\/pre>\n
    On Debian \/ Ubuntu \/ Linux Mint<\/h5>\n
    # apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client\r\n# service mysqld start<\/pre>\n
    After\u00a0MySQL<\/strong>\u00a0has installed, connect to\u00a0mysql shell<\/strong>\u00a0by running a following command.<\/p>\n
    # mysql -u root -p<\/pre>\n
    Once you in\u00a0mysql shell<\/strong>, issue the following command to create the database.<\/p>\n
    create database etherpad_lite;<\/pre>\n
    Grant permissions to a newly created database account. Replace \u201cyour-password<\/strong>\u201d with your own password.<\/p>\n
    grant all privileges on etherpad_lite.* to 'etherpad'@'localhost' identified by 'your-password';<\/pre>\n
    Leave the mysql client.<\/p>\n
    exit;<\/pre>\n
    Now, switch to \u201cetherpad<\/strong>\u201d user and go into the\u00a0etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0directory and run the following commands:<\/p>\n
    # su - etherpad\r\n$ cd \/home\/etherpad\/etherpad-lite    \r\n$ cp settings.json.template settings.json<\/pre>\n
    \n
    Next, open\u00a0settings.json<\/strong>\u00a0with your choice of editor and change the settings as shown below.<\/p>\n
    # vi settings.json<\/pre>\n
    Find the following text.<\/p>\n
    \"sessionKey\" : \"\",<\/pre>\n
    Add the\u00a0SECURESTRING<\/strong>\u00a0with a minimum 10 alpha-numerical string.<\/p>\n
    \"sessionKey\" : \"Aate1mn160\",<\/pre>\n
    Then find:<\/p>\n
    \"dbType\" : \"dirty\",\r\n  \/\/the database specific settings\r\n  \"dbSettings\" : {\r\n                   \"filename\" : \"var\/dirty.db\"\r\n                 },<\/pre>\n
    And comment it out like so:<\/p>\n
    \/\/ \"dbType\" : \"dirty\", *\/\r\n  \/\/the database specific settings\r\n  \/\/ \"dbSettings\" : {\r\n  \/\/                   \"filename\" : \"var\/dirty.db\"\r\n  \/\/                 },<\/pre>\n
    Next set mysql and admin settings as shown below.<\/p>\n
      \/* An Example of MySQL Configuration\r\n   \"dbType\" : \"mysql\",\r\n   \"dbSettings\" : {\r\n                    \"user\"    : \"etherpad\",\r\n                    \"host\"    : \"localhost\",\r\n                    \"password\": \"your-password\",\r\n                    \"database\": \"etherpad_lite\"\r\n                  },\r\n\r\n  *\/\r\n  \"users\": {\r\n    \"admin\": {\r\n      \"password\": \"your-password\",\r\n      \"is_admin\": true\r\n    },<\/pre>\n
    Make sure to replace \u201cyour-password<\/strong>\u201d with the password you created above while setting up a new database account and an admin password with your own value. Now, we need to install some additional dependency packages with below command.<\/p>\n
    .\/bin\/installDeps.sh<\/pre>\n
    Once the script completes, we will need to run\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0script again. So, it can create the appropriate tables in the database.<\/p>\n
    .\/bin\/run.sh<\/pre>\n
    After\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0has loaded successfully, hit\u00a0Ctrl+C<\/strong>\u00a0to kill the process. Again login into mysql shell and alter the database to use correctly.<\/p>\n
    mysql -u root -p\r\nalter database etherpad_lite character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;\r\nuse etherpad_lite;\r\nalter table store convert to character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;\r\nexit;<\/pre>\n
    Finally, we\u2019ve successfully installed and configured\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0to use\u00a0MySQL<\/strong>\u00a0backend. Now run the\u00a0etherpad<\/strong>again to use\u00a0MySQL<\/strong>\u00a0as backend.<\/p>\n
    .\/bin\/run.sh<\/pre>\n
    The script will initialize\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0and then start the process. Please keep in mind that\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0application will terminate it\u2019s process when you close your terminal session window. Optionally, you can use the\u00a0screen command<\/a>\u00a0to place\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0into a screen session for easy access.<\/p>\n
    That\u2019s it for now, there are lots more other things to explore and improve your\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0installation, which are not covered here. For example, you can use\u00a0Etherpad<\/strong>\u00a0as service in a\u00a0Linux<\/strong>\u00a0system or provide secure access to your user\u2019s over\u00a0HTTPS<\/strong>\/SSL<\/strong>\u00a0connection. For more information on further configuration visit the official page at:<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. Etherpad Lite Wiki<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      Source<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      Etherpad\u00a0is a web based free document editor tool which allows a group of users to work jointly on a document in a real time, like a multi player editor which runs on a web browser.\u00a0Etherpad\u00a0authors can edit and at the same time see each others edits in real time with a capability to display author\u2019s … <\/p>\n
      Continue reading “Etherpad \u2013 A Real Time Web Based Online Collaborative Document Editor for Linux”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12829,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12827\/revisions\/12829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}