I’m working on a web project where I need users to be able to edit documents directly in the browser. What I want to do is load a document file from my own server, let users edit it using something like Google Docs editor interface, and then save the changes back to my server instead of Google’s servers.
Is there a way to implement this kind of functionality? I’ve been looking into different options but I’m not sure if Google provides an embeddable editor that can work with external file storage. The main requirement is that the files should stay on my server throughout the entire process.
Has anyone successfully implemented something similar? What would be the best approach to achieve this kind of document editing feature?
unfortunately, google docs api dont work that way - their editors locked to google drive. check out onlyoffice document server tho, its exactly what ur lookin for! runs on your own infrastructure and handles office files really well. i’ve deployed it before and users get the familiar editing experience while everything stays on your servers.
Nope, Google doesn’t let you embed their Docs editor with external storage. It’s locked into their infrastructure and can’t work without Google Drive. You’ll need a third-party rich text editor instead. I’ve used CKEditor 5 in production and it works great - handles collaborative editing and saves directly to your backend. Pretty straightforward to set up and you control where files go. Monaco Editor is another option (it’s what VS Code uses), but that’s better for code than documents. For your use case, I’d go with CKEditor or another WYSIWYG that handles collaboration without needing Google’s services.