I’ve recently been delving into the Google Drive API and I am curious whether it’s feasible to develop a text editor that allows two users to work together on the same document at the same time.
The aim is to design a demo where two developers can make changes to code files in real-time, similar to Google Docs’ functionality. This could serve as a replacement for version control options like Subversion or other teamwork tools.
I’ve been searching the Google Drive resources but haven’t come across any clear examples or insights on how to implement such collaborative features. Has anyone successfully utilized the Drive API for creating collaborative editors? I’m particularly looking for:
Ways to manage concurrent edits from different users
How to resolve conflicts when multiple users change the same lines
Techniques for real-time updates of modifications
Any code examples, guides, or personal insights would be extremely valuable. I believe that since platforms like WeVideo have created collaborative editing tools, this capability should be possible.
Yeah, the Drive API docs still mention Real-time API, but Google killed it in 2017. That’s why you can’t find decent examples anywhere. I built something similar for internal code reviews and went with a hybrid setup. Basically, use Drive for storage and handle the real-time stuff with a separate service. I built middleware that catches document changes, runs operational transforms locally, then pushes batched updates to Drive every few seconds. For conflicts, I went with last-writer-wins plus character-level diffs - though that might not work great for complex code editing. The hardest part was dealing with network drops and keeping docs consistent when people reconnect. You might check out Google’s Workspace Add-ons framework - better integration hooks, but you’ll still need custom logic for real-time features. Honestly, I’d start simple with periodic syncing before jumping into full real-time collaboration.
Drive API alone won’t cut it for real-time collaboration. I spent months trying to build something similar and learned this the hard way - Drive API is just for file storage and basic operations, not live collaborative editing. You need operational transformation algorithms or conflict-free replicated data types to handle concurrent edits properly. Drive API doesn’t have these built-in. What worked for me was pairing Firebase Realtime Database with Drive API - Firebase handled real-time sync while Drive managed file storage. You could also build your own websocket server using libraries like ShareJS or Yjs for the collaborative logic. These handle the tricky stuff like conflict resolution and keeping documents consistent across multiple users. Drive API just becomes your storage layer. Don’t rely on Drive’s revision history for real-time scenarios either. You need character-level or operation-level synchronization so users don’t overwrite each other’s changes. This requires way more backend infrastructure than Drive API provides.
google drive api just isnt built for real-time collab. you’d have better luck with socket.io plus operational transforms for live editing, then sync to drive as backup. i tried building something similar last year - drives api calls are way too slow for real-time stuff.