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How to implement an online collaborative editor using WebSocket and JavaScript

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Dec 17, 2023 pm 01:37 PM

javascriptwebsocketCollaborative editor

How to implement an online collaborative editor using WebSocket and JavaScript

Real-time collaborative editor has become the standard for modern web development, especially in various team collaboration, online document editing and task management scenarios, real-time communication technology based on WebSocket can Improve communication efficiency and collaboration among team members. This article will introduce how to use WebSocket and JavaScript to build a simple online collaborative editor to help readers better understand the principles and usage of WebSocket.

Understand the basic principles of WebSocket

WebSocket is a two-way communication technology based on the TCP protocol that can create a persistent connection between a web browser and a server. And realize real-time message push and data transmission. Compared with the traditional HTTP protocol stateless request response mode, WebSocket has the following advantages:

Real-time two-way communication between the server and the client without polling or refreshing the page
Supports message exchange on a single TCP connection to reduce network overhead
Improve network throughput and reduce latency, and can efficiently transmit data between clients

WebSocket protocol and The HTTP protocol is similar, but the handshake process of the WebSocket protocol is a little different. The WebSocket handshake requires sending a special header information through the HTTP request to indicate the connection request. If the server is willing to accept the connection, status code 101 is returned, indicating that the connection has been established. After the client and server are successfully connected, the WebSocket connection will remain open until the client or server terminates the connection.

The WebSocket API provides WebSocket objects, which can be used in JavaScript code to create and manage WebSocket connections. The following is the basic usage of WebSocket:

// 创建WebSocket对象
let socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080');

// WebSocket事件处理函数
socket.onopen = function() {
  console.log('WebSocket连接已打开');
};
socket.onmessage = function(event) {
  console.log('WebSocket收到消息:', event.data);
};
socket.onclose = function() {
  console.log('WebSocket连接已关闭');
};

// 发送消息到服务器
socket.send('Hello, WebSocket!');

Implementing the basic functions of the online collaborative editor

In order to implement the online collaborative editor, we need to implement a simple server based on WebSocket The client program is used to accept and process text messages sent by clients, and at the same time send the processing results back to all clients. Here, we use Node.js and WebSocket library to implement the server-side program. First, execute the following command in a terminal window to create a new Node.js project:

mkdir websocket-editor
cd websocket-editor
npm init -y

Then, use the npm command to install the WebSocket library:

npm install ws

Next, create a project named server.js file, write the following code:

const WebSocket = require('ws');

const wss = new WebSocket.Server({ port: 8080 });

let sharedText = '';

wss.on('connection', (ws) => {
  console.log('Client connected');

  // 发送当前文本到客户端
  ws.send(sharedText);

  // 接收客户端的文本消息
  ws.on('message', (message) => {
    console.log('Received message:', message);
    sharedText = message;

    // 发送文本消息给所有客户端
    wss.clients.forEach((client) => {
      if (client.readyState === WebSocket.OPEN) {
        client.send(sharedText);
      }
    });
  });
});

The above code uses the WebSocket library to create a WebSocket server that will listen on port 8080. When the client connects to the server, the server sends the current text content to the client. At the same time, the server will also listen to text messages sent by clients, update the shared text and send the processing results to all clients.

The following is the HTML and JavaScript code of the client page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>WebSocket Editor</title>
  <style>
  textarea {
    width: 100%;
    height: 300px;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 1.4;
  }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1 id="WebSocket-Editor">WebSocket Editor</h1>
  <textarea id="editor"></textarea>
  <script>
    const socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080');
    const editor = document.getElementById('editor');

    socket.addEventListener('open', (event) => {
      console.log('WebSocket连接已打开');
    });

    socket.addEventListener('message', (event) => {
      console.log('WebSocket收到消息:', event.data);
      editor.value = event.data;
    });

    editor.addEventListener('input', (event) => {
      const text = event.target.value;
      socket.send(text);
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

The above code creates a text box and a WebSocket object. When the user enters text in the text box, the client will The text message is sent to the server and it listens for new text messages received, updating the contents of the text box. At the same time, the client will also receive the initialization text content sent by the server after the WebSocket connection is successful.

Now you can start the server program and open the client page in the browser.

node server.js

Open the browser and visit http://localhost:8080/ to see a simple online collaborative editor. When two or more users visit the web page at the same time, as any user types text in the editor, the other users can see the text updating in real time. This implements a simple online collaborative editor.

Summary

Through the introduction of this article, readers can learn how to use WebSocket and JavaScript to build a simple online collaborative editor. WebSocket provides a real-time two-way communication mechanism that can greatly improve the interaction effect and collaboration efficiency of Web applications. In actual development, WebSocket has been widely used in fields such as online collaboration, real-time message push, game development, and the Internet of Things. I hope this article can help readers better utilize WebSocket and JavaScript technology to achieve real-time communication.

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