Awesome
Etherpad: A real-time collaborative editor for the web
About
Etherpad is a real-time collaborative editor scalable to thousands of simultaneous real time users. It provides full data export capabilities, and runs on your server, under your control.
Try it out
Wikimedia provide a public Etherpad instance for you to Try Etherpad out. or use another public Etherpad instance to see other features
Project Status
We're looking for maintainers and have some funding available. Please contact John McLear if you can help.
Code Quality
Testing
Engagement
Installation
Docker-Compose
services:
app:
user: "0:0"
image: etherpad/etherpad:latest
tty: true
stdin_open: true
volumes:
- plugins:/opt/etherpad-lite/src/plugin_packages
- etherpad-var:/opt/etherpad-lite/var
depends_on:
- postgres
environment:
NODE_ENV: production
ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_ADMIN_PASSWORD:-admin}
DB_CHARSET: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_DB_CHARSET:-utf8mb4}
DB_HOST: postgres
DB_NAME: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_DATABASE:-etherpad}
DB_PASS: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_PASSWORD:-admin}
DB_PORT: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_PORT:-5432}
DB_TYPE: "postgres"
DB_USER: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_USER:-admin}
# For now, the env var DEFAULT_PAD_TEXT cannot be unset or empty; it seems to be mandatory in the latest version of etherpad
DEFAULT_PAD_TEXT: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_DEFAULT_PAD_TEXT:- }
DISABLE_IP_LOGGING: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_DISABLE_IP_LOGGING:-false}
SOFFICE: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_SOFFICE:-null}
TRUST_PROXY: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_TRUST_PROXY:-true}
restart: always
ports:
- "${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_PORT_PUBLISHED:-9001}:${DOCKER_COMPOSE_APP_PORT_TARGET:-9001}"
postgres:
image: postgres:15-alpine
environment:
POSTGRES_DB: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_DATABASE:-etherpad}
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_PASSWORD:-admin}
POSTGRES_PORT: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_PORT:-5432}
POSTGRES_USER: ${DOCKER_COMPOSE_POSTGRES_USER:-admin}
PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
restart: always
# Exposing the port is not needed unless you want to access this database instance from the host.
# Be careful when other postgres docker container are running on the same port
# ports:
# - "5432:5432"
volumes:
- postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
volumes:
postgres_data:
plugins:
etherpad-var:
Requirements
Node.js >= 18.18.2.
Windows, macOS, Linux
- Download the latest Node.js runtime from nodejs.org.
- Install pnpm:
npm install -g pnpm
(Administrator privileges may be required). - Clone the repository:
git clone -b master
- Run
pnpm i
- Run
pnpm run build:etherpad
- Run
pnpm run prod
- Visit
http://localhost:9001
in your browser.
Docker container
Find here information on running Etherpad in a container.
Plugins
Etherpad is very customizable through plugins.
Available Plugins
For a list of available plugins, see the plugins site.
Plugin Installation
You can install plugins from the admin web interface (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:9001/admin/plugins).
Alternatively, you can install plugins from the command line:
cd /path/to/etherpad-lite
pnpm run plugins i ep_${plugin_name}
Also see the plugin wiki article.
Suggested Plugins
Run the following command in your Etherpad folder to get all of the features visible in the above demo gif:
pnpm run plugins i \
ep_align \
ep_comments_page \
ep_embedded_hyperlinks2 \
ep_font_color \
ep_headings2 \
ep_markdown \
ep_webrtc
For user authentication, you are encouraged to run an OpenID Connect identity provider (OP) and install the following plugins:
- ep_openid_connect to authenticate against your OP.
- ep_guest to create a "guest" account that has limited access (e.g., read-only access).
- ep_user_displayname to automatically populate each user's displayed name from your OP.
- ep_stable_authorid so that each user's chosen color, display name, comment ownership, etc. is strongly linked to their account.
Next Steps
Tweak the settings
You can modify the settings in settings.json
. If you need to handle multiple
settings files, you can pass the path to a settings file to bin/run.sh
using the -s|--settings
option: this allows you to run multiple Etherpad
instances from the same installation. Similarly, --credentials
can be used to
give a settings override file, --apikey
to give a different APIKEY.txt file
and --sessionkey
to give a non-default SESSIONKEY.txt
. Each configuration
parameter can also be set via an environment variable, using the syntax
"${ENV_VAR}"
or "${ENV_VAR:default_value}"
. For details, refer to
settings.json.template
. Once you have access to your /admin
section,
settings can be modified through the web browser.
If you are planning to use Etherpad in a production environment, you should use
a dedicated database such as mysql
, since the dirtyDB
database driver is
only for testing and/or development purposes.
Secure your installation
If you have enabled authentication in users
section in settings.json
, it is
a good security practice to store hashes instead of plain text passwords in
that file. This is especially advised if you are running a production
installation.
Please install ep_hash_auth plugin
and configure it. If you prefer, ep_hash_auth
also gives you the option of
storing the users in a custom directory in the file system, without having to
edit settings.json
and restart Etherpad each time.
Customize the style with skin variants
Open http://127.0.0.1:9001/p/test#skinvariantsbuilder in your browser and start playing!
Helpful resources
The wiki is your one-stop resource for Tutorials and How-to's.
Documentation can be found in doc/
.
Development
Things you should know
You can debug Etherpad using bin/debugRun.sh
.
You can run Etherpad quickly launching bin/fastRun.sh
. It's convenient for
developers and advanced users. Be aware that it will skip the dependencies
update, so remember to run bin/installDeps.sh
after installing a new
dependency or upgrading version.
If you want to find out how Etherpad's Easysync
works (the library that makes
it really realtime), start with this
PDF
(complex, but worth reading).
Contributing
Read our Developer Guidelines
HTTP API
Etherpad is designed to be easily embeddable and provides a HTTP API that allows your web application to manage pads, users and groups. It is recommended to use the available client implementations in order to interact with this API.
OpenAPI (previously swagger) definitions for the API are exposed under
/api/openapi.json
.
jQuery plugin
There is a jQuery plugin that helps you to embed Pads into your website.
Plugin Framework
Etherpad offers a plugin framework, allowing you to easily add your own features. By default your Etherpad is extremely light-weight and it's up to you to customize your experience. Once you have Etherpad installed you should visit the plugin page and take control.
Translations / Localizations (i18n / l10n)
Etherpad comes with translations into all languages thanks to the team at TranslateWiki.
If you require translations in plugins please send pull request to each plugin individually.
FAQ
Visit the FAQ.
Get in touch
The official channel for contacting the development team is via the GitHub issues.
For responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities, please write a mail to the maintainers (a.mux@inwind.it and contact@etherpad.org).
Join the official Etherpad Discord Channel.