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The Science of Etherpad
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Tim Cameron Ryan
May 14, 2012
Programming
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The Science of Etherpad
How does Operational Transform work?
Tim Cameron Ryan
May 14, 2012
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Transcript
THE SCIENCE OF ETHERPAD MAKING ANY DOCUMENT COLLABORATIVE, ANYWHERE
Operations
app
apple
“app” + ”le”
app Operation 1 1. insertCharacter “a” 2. insertCharacter “p” 3.
insertCharacter “p“
apple Operation 2 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” 5. insertCharacter “e“
applecore Operation 2 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. retain (skip character) 5. retain (skip character) 6. insertCharacter “c” 7. insertCharacter “o“ 8. insertCharacter “r“ 9. insertCharacter “e“
Composition
appl Operation 1 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” apple Operation 2 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. retain (skip character) 5. insertCharacter “e”
Operation 1+2 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character)
3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” 5. insertCharacter “e“ appl apple
Concurrency
app app CLIENT A CLIENT B
appl appe CLIENT A CLIENT B
appl Operation A 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” appe Operation B 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “e” CLIENT A CLIENT B
appl Operation B 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “e” appe Operation A 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” CLIENT A CLIENT B
appel Operation B 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “e” apple Operation A 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” CLIENT A CLIENT B
appel apple CLIENT A CLIENT B
Operational Transform
“A theoretical framework of concurrency control” that “provides a mechanism
for sanely resolving [editing] conflicts so that neither user intervention or locking become necessary.” A mechanism to “transform” two operations in conflict, resulting in two new operations which bring both clients into a common state.
app app CLIENT A CLIENT B SERVER
appl Operation A 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” CLIENT A SERVER 1 appe Operation B 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “e” CLIENT B 2
Operation A 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character)
3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” SERVER TRANSFORM Operation B 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “e” Operation B` 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. retain (skip character) 5. insertCharacter “e” Operation A` 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” 5. retain (skip character)
appl Operation B` 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. retain (skip character) 5. insertCharacter “e” CLIENT A SERVER appe Operation A` 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” 5. retain (skip character) CLIENT B B` A`
apple Operation B` 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip
character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. retain (skip character) 5. insertCharacter “e” CLIENT A SERVER apple Operation A` 1. retain (skip character) 2. retain (skip character) 3. retain (skip character) 4. insertCharacter “l” 5. retain (skip character) CLIENT B B` A`
apple apple CLIENT A CLIENT B
CLIENT A CLIENT B A1: retain 3, insert “l” Broadcast
A1 Apply A1` SERVER
CLIENT A CLIENT B SERVER A1: retain 3, insert “l”
B1: retain 3, insert “e” Transform A1 x B1 Apply A1` Apply B1`
CLIENT A CLIENT B SERVER A1: retain 3, insert “l”
B1: retain 3, insert “e” A2: retain 4, insert “core” Transform A1 x B1 Apply A1` Transform A2 x B1` Apply B1`` Broadcast A2 Apply A2`
CLIENT A CLIENT B SERVER A1: retain 3, insert “l”
B1: retain 3, insert “e” A2: retain 4, insert “core” Transform A1 x B1 B2: retain 4, insert “sauce” Transform B2 x A1` Apply A1`` Transform A2 x B1` Apply B1`` Transform A2` x B2` Apply A2`` Apply B2``
CLIENT A CLIENT B SERVER A1: retain 3, insert “l”
B1: retain 3, insert “e” A2: retain 4, insert “core” Transform A1 x B1 B2: retain 4, insert “sauce” Transform B2 x A1` Apply A1`` Transform A2 x B1` Apply B1`` Transform A2` x B2` Apply A2`` Apply B2``
Markup
big apple
big apple
<i>big</i> <b>apple</b>
<i>big</i> <b>apple</b>
<i>big</i> <b>apple</b> Operation 1. insertStartTag “i” 2. insertCharacter “b” 3.
insertCharacter “i” 4. insertCharacter “g” 5. insertEndTag “i” 6. insertCharacter “ ” 7. insertStartTag “b” 8. insertCharacter “a” 9. insertCharacter “p” 10. insertCharacter “p” 11. insertCharacter “l” 12. insertCharacter “e” 13. insertEndTag “b”
a big word a big word CLIENT A CLIENT B
a <b>big</b> word Operation A 1. retain 2 2. insertStartTag
“b” 3. retain 3 4. insertEndTag “b” a biiiiig word Operation B 1. retain 3 2. insertCharacters “iiii” CLIENT A CLIENT B
a <b>big</b> word Operation B` 1. retain 4 2. insertCharacters
“iiii” a biiiiig word Operation A` 1. retain 2 2. insertStartTag “b” 3. retain 5 4. insertEndTag “b” CLIENT A CLIENT B
a <b>biiiiig</b> word Operation B` 1. retain 4 2. insertCharacters
“iiii” a <b>biiiiig</b> word Operation A` 1. retain 2 2. insertStartTag “b” 3. retain 5 4. insertEndTag “b” CLIENT A CLIENT B
Preserving Intent
CLIENT A CLIENT B Desired Word1 Word2 Word3 <ol> <li>
Word4 Word5 Word6 </li> </ol> <ol> <li> Word1 Word2 Word3 Word4 </li> </ol> Word5 Word6 <ol> <li> Word1 Word2 Word3 Word4 Word5 Word6 </li> </ol>
CLIENT A CLIENT B Desired Word1 Word2 <p> Word3 Word4
Word5 Word6 </p> <h1> Word1 Word2 Word3 Word4 </h1> Word5 Word6 <h1> Word1 Word2 </h1> <p> Word3 Word4 </p> <p> Word5 Word6 </p>
CLIENT A CLIENT B Desired Word1 Word2 Word3 <i> Word4
Word5 Word6 Word7 Word8 </i> <b> Word1 Word2 Word3 Word4 Word5 </b> Word6 Word7 Word8 <b> Word1 Word2 Word3 </b> <bi> Word4 Word5 </bi> <i> Word6 Word7 Word8 </i>
• retain • deleteCharacter • deleteStartTag(tag, attrs) • deleteEndTag() •
deleteEmptyTag() • insertCharacter • insertStartTag(tag, attrs) • insertEndTag() • insertEmptyTag() • modifyAttrs(attrs) Deletion Phase Insertion Phase OPERATION ATOMS
Containers like: preserve unlike: priority Blocks like: priority unlike: priority
Styles like: preserve unlike: merge Inline <ul> <li> <ol> <blockquote> <p> <div> <h1> <h2> <h3> <pre> <b> <i> <span> <u> <s> “text” <br> DOCUMENT SCHEMA