Getting started

This is a little server (& client library) to allow concurrent editing of any kind of content. The server runs on NodeJS and the client works in NodeJS or a web browser.

At the moment only plain-text is supported, but JSON and rich text should be supported soon.

Check out some cool demos

Installing and running

npm install share

Run the examples with:

# ./node_modules/share/bin/exampleserver

From source

# git clone git://github.com/josephg/ShareJS.git
# cd ShareJS

Run the tests:

# cake test

Build the coffeescript into .js:

# cake build
# cake webclient

Run the example server:

# bin/exampleserver

Running a server

There are two ways to run a sharejs server:

1. Run from a node.js app:

   1. # npm install share

   2. apply these changes to the two files in node_modules/share/src/...

   3. # npm install connect@"<2.0.0"

   4. Create a folder named public. That's where the client side stuff goes, e.g. an index.html file with the contents described further down in Putting Share.js on your website

   5. put the following code in a file called app.js

        var connect = require('connect'),
            sharejs = require('share').server;
      
        var server = connect(
        	  connect.logger(),
        	  connect.static(__dirname + '/public')
        	);
        var options = {db: {type: 'none'}}; // See docs for options. {type: 'redis'} to enable persistance.
      
        // Attach the sharejs REST and Socket.io interfaces to the server
        sharejs.attach(server, options);
      
        server.listen(8000, function(){
        	console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/');
        });
      

   6. run it with # node app.js

2. From the command line:

    # sharejs
   

Configuration is pulled from a configuration file that can't be easily edited at the moment. For now, I recommend method #1 above.

3. If you are just mucking around, run:

    # ./node_modules/share/bin/exampleserver
   

This will run a simple server on port 8000, and host all the example code there. Run it and check out http://localhost:8000/. The server will just store everything in ram, so don't get too attached to your data.

Putting Share.js on your website

If you want to get a simple editor working in your webpage with sharejs, here's what you need to do:

First, get an ace editor on your page:

<div id="editor"></div>

Your web app will need access to the following JS files:

• Ace (http://ace.ajax.org/)
• SocketIO (http://socket.io/).
• ShareJS client and ace bindings.

Add these script tags:

<script src="http://ajaxorg.github.com/ace/build/src/ace.js"></script>
<script src="/socket.io/socket.io.js"></script>
<script src="/share/share.js"></script>
<script src="/share/ace.js"></script>

And add this code:

<script>
    var editor = ace.edit("editor");

    sharejs.open('hello', 'text', {host: 'localhost', port: 8000}, function(doc, error) {
        doc.attach_ace(editor);
    });
</script>

Thats about it :)

The hostname and port are not needed if you're hosting your webpage from the same host & port as sharejs.

Have a look at the examples in the repository for demos. If you want to see this examples running, run # sharejs-exampleserver and browse to http://localhost:8000/ .

Writing a client using node.js

The client API is the same whether you're using the web or nodejs.

Here's an example application which opens a document and inserts some text in it. Every time an op is applied to the document, it'll print out the document's version.

Run this from a couple terminal windows when sharejs is running to see it go.

var client = require('share').client;

// Open the 'hello' document, which should have type 'text':
client.open('hello', 'text', {host: 'localhost', port: 8000}, function(doc, error) {
    // Insert some text at the start of the document (position 0):
    doc.submitOp({i:"Hi there!\n", p:0});

    // Get the contents of the document for some reason:
    console.log(doc.snapshot);

    doc.on('change', function(op) {
        console.log('Version: ' + doc.version);
    });

    // Close the doc if you want your node app to exit cleanly
    // doc.close();
});

See Client API for full API documentation, and examples/node* for some more example apps.