Google Drive lets users create Docs,
Sheets, and Slides, collaborate on them in real time, and have their changes saved
automatically. With the new Google Drive Realtime API,
you can now easily add some of the same real-time collaboration that powers Google Drive to
your own apps. This new API handles network communication, storage, presence, conflict
resolution, and other collaborative details so you can focus on building great apps.
Developing for the Drive Realtime API is almost as simple as working with local objects. The
API provides collaborative versions of familiar data objects such as maps, lists, strings, and
JSON values and automatically synchronizes and stores modifications to these objects. Your
application reads from and writes to these objects like any other local object. Change event
handlers can be added to collaborative objects so that your app can react to changes from
other collaborators.
Because the Drive Realtime API is based on operational
transformation (OT), local changes are reflected instantly, even on high-latency
networks. The Drive Realtime API automatically transforms changes to the data model so that
every collaborator stays in sync.
If basic collections aren't enough for your application, the Drive Realtime API supports
custom objects and references, including trees and arbitrary graph structures. As with other
collaborative objects, the Drive Realtime API automatically synchronizes these objects with
other collaborators and stores them in Drive.
Because presence is important in collaborative applications, the Drive Realtime API also keeps
track of who is connected to your application and provides your app with events for
when collaborators join, leave, or make changes.
Widget using the Drive Realtime API and showing the
collaborators on a document
Neutron Drive, Gantter and draw.io have enabled realtime collaboration in their
apps using the Google Drive Realtime API. Check out these apps to see the Drive Realtime API
in action.
Collaborative code editing with Neutron Drive
Neutron Drive is an online
editor for text and source code files stored in Google Drive. You can now collaboratively edit
any text or source code files stored in Drive and get a realtime collaboration
experience—shared typing, a view of active collaborators, cursor positioning, and selected
text. This all comes in addition to the syntax highlighting and other advanced features
offered by Neutron Drive. To learn more, watch the video:
Collaborative project scheduling with Gantter
Gantter is a free online project scheduling tool
and Gantt diagram editor. It now allows you to collaboratively—and in real time— work on your
project schedules. It even features an embedded chat powered by the Drive Realtime API. Watch
the video below to see Gantter’s new realtime collaboration features in action.
Collaborative diagraming with draw.io
draw.io is a diagraming application that enables
you to draw a wide variety of diagrams such as flowcharts, UML diagrams and even electronic
circuits. You can now see updates from other collaborators instantaneously, with colored
visual cues indicating who has changed the diagram and where that change occurred. Try the new
draw.io collaborative beta at rt.draw.io and
watch the video below.
By Brian Cairns,
Software Engineer