WebRTC

Preston So

August 31, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: Offline shared editing in practice and in the wild - part 7

Are offline collaborative applications truly feasible in this day and age? After all, consistent connectivity can be quite the luxury when it comes to less-than-ideal environments like Amtrak trains and commercial flights. Luckily, Yjs, the open-source real-time collaboration framework, is here to save the day, in conjunction with emerging web technologies that run the gamut from Service Workers (okay, not that old) to IndexedDB, a browser-based local database that is optimized for offline use cases.

Preston So

August 24, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: Garbage collection and content revisioning - part 6

You board a flight only to hear the flight crew announce to groans all around that Wi-Fi is unavailable. How will you deliver that document in time that your colleagues were supposed to review later today? Fortunately, with the help of emerging web technologies like Yjs, an open-source real-time collaboration framework, and IndexedDB, a local database that houses offline content, any developer can successfully architect an offline-first architecture that also functions well for peer-to-peer collaboration...

Preston So

August 19, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: How to best leverage y-webrtc and garbage collection - part 5

Fortunately, with the support of the real-time collaboration framework Yjs and the local database available to browsers known as IndexedDB, you too can implement robust offline-first applications that not only enable peer-to-peer collaborative editing but also represent a wholesale revolution in the ways in which we interact with not only content management systems (CMS) but also web applications at large.

Preston So

August 17, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: Conflict resolution with IndexedDB and Yjs - part 4

For many developers, the concept of offline-enabled applications leads to anxiety and panic. But the pain is over thanks to the multiplicity of benefits provided by the pairing of emerging web technologies like the open-source real-time collaboration framework known as Yjs and the local database technology ideal for offline solutions known as IndexedDB.

Preston So

August 10, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: Offline documents with y-indexeddb and Web Workers - part 3

Slow or intermittent connections are an all-too-common case that many users face when attempting to work with applications. Offline-enabled applications are a particularly challenging use case because they require synchronization and a local understanding of data.

Preston So

August 03, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: How Yjs supports offline editing - part 2

How many times have you embarked on a journey only to be presented with the obstacles of intermittent connectivity? Offline-enabled functionality has long been a hot topic in the web development industry, but only recently have compelling solutions truly emerged that resolve many of the issues associated with building offline applications that provide for a variety of use cases.

Preston So

July 27, 2020

Building offline-first applications with Yjs: Getting started with offline apps in Yjs - part 1

In recent years, one of the most exciting emerging areas of web development has come in the form of offline-enabled and offline-first functionality. Thanks to frameworks like Yjs, an open-source framework for real-time collaboration, offline-first applications are now a reality.

Preston So

April 08, 2020

Decentralized collaboration with Yjs and WebRTC: Potential applications for y-webrtc and how to get involved - part 5

What does the future of peer-to-peer real-time collaboration look like? Thanks to the spread of emerging web technologies like WebRTC, a protocol for communication between browsers on discrete systems, Yjs, an open-source real-time collaboration framework, and y-webrtc, the Yjs connector for WebRTC, a new range of use cases is entering the picture. While there are limitations, such as certain ceilings on the number of simultaneous collaborators, developments like y-webrtc are sure to reshape the landscape...

Preston So

March 30, 2020

Decentralized collaboration with Yjs and WebRTC: Handling many connections and applications for Yjs - part 4

Real-time collaboration is now more reality than ambition, but several obstacles remain, particularly in the form of peer-to-peer collaboration when many collaborators are involved. While Yjs, an open-source framework for real-time collaboration, and WebRTC, a new protocol for peer-to-peer communication now seeing wide browser support, permit editorial collaboration between peers in a graceful way, things get more complicated when many users enter the picture. Nonetheless, thanks to y-webrtc, the Yjs integration with WebRTC, we can...

Preston So

March 19, 2020

Decentralized collaboration with Yjs and WebRTC: How y-webrtc enables many connected peers - part 3

While collaboration between users has been a fixture of content management systems and web applications in general for many years, the prospect of true real-time, peer-to-peer collaboration remains relatively elusive despite the proliferation of new technologies over the past several years. Luckily, this may soon change thanks to the evolution of real-time collaboration frameworks like Yjs and the availability and level of browser support enjoyed by the new WebRTC protocol. With both Yjs and WebRTC...