I’m building a website for our school’s robotics club using Google App Engine (GAE). We need a way for members to work on documents together online. I was hoping to use Google Docs somehow, but without requiring Google accounts or their website. Is this even possible?
If not, what’s the best way to make our own document editor right on our site? I’m thinking about using a JavaScript editor like TinyMCE with Ajax and the GAE Datastore. But I’m wondering if there’s anything out there that can do more, like changing fonts, spacing, and text alignment – kind of like what you get in Google Docs or Microsoft Office.
Does anyone have experience with this? What would you recommend for a project like this? I want to make sure our club members have a good way to work on documents together without leaving our site. Thanks for any advice!
As someone who’s worked on similar projects, I can tell you that building a custom document editor is no small task. Have you considered using Quill.js? It’s a powerful, open-source rich text editor that’s easier to implement than building from scratch.
I integrated Quill into a GAE project for my college’s student government site. It offers real-time collaboration features and a clean, customizable interface. Plus, it plays nice with GAE’s Datastore for saving documents.
One thing to keep in mind: while Quill handles the editing interface, you’ll still need to implement user authentication and document access controls. This can be tricky, especially if you want to avoid using Google accounts.
If you’re set on a more Google Docs-like experience, you might want to look into the Google Drive API. It’s more complex, but it could allow you to embed Google Docs-style editors without requiring users to leave your site.
Whatever route you choose, make sure to plan for scalability. As your robotics club grows, you’ll want a solution that can handle increased usage without breaking the bank.
hey Hermione_Book, sounds like a cool project! have u looked into etherpad? it’s open-source and can be integrated with GAE. gives u real-time collaboration without needing google accounts. might be easier than building from scratch. good luck with ur robotics club site!
I’ve actually faced a similar challenge when developing a collaborative platform for my university’s research team. While Etherpad is a solid option, we found that CKEditor worked exceptionally well for our needs. It’s highly customizable, supports real-time collaboration, and integrates smoothly with GAE.
For document storage, we utilized GAE’s Datastore, which proved to be quite robust. To handle concurrent edits, we implemented Operational Transformation (OT) algorithms. This ensured that multiple users could edit simultaneously without conflicts.
One word of caution: developing a full-fledged document editor is a significant undertaking. If time is a constraint, you might want to consider a more lightweight solution or explore existing open-source options that can be adapted to your specific requirements.