Etherpad lite is a really-real time collaborative editor spawned from the Hell fire of Etherpad. We're reusing the well tested Etherpad easysync library to make it really realtime. Etherpad Lite is based on node.js ergo is much lighter and more stable than the original Etherpad. Our hope is that this will encourage more users to use and install a realtime collaborative editor. A smaller, manageable and well documented codebase makes it easier for developers to improve the code and contribute towards the project.
Etherpad Lite is optimized to be easy embeddable. It provides a HTTP API that allows your web application to manage pads, users and groups. There are several clients in for this API:
- PHP, thx to TomNomNom
- .Net, thx to ja-jo
- Node.js, thx to tomassedovic
- Ruby, thx to jhollinger
- Python, thx to devjones
There is also a jQuery plugin that helps you to embed Pads into your website
Online demo
Visit http://beta.etherpad.org to test it live
Here is the FAQ
| Etherpad | Etherpad Lite | |
| Size of the folder (without git history) | 30 MB | 1.5 MB |
| Languages used server side | Javascript (Rhino), Java, Scala | Javascript (node.js) |
| Lines of server side Javascript code | ~101k | ~9k |
| RAM Usage immediately after start | 257 MB (grows to ~1GB) | 16 MB (grows to ~30MB) |
- Download http://etherpad.org/etherpad-lite-win.zip
- Extract the file
- Open the extracted folder and double click
start.bat - Open your web browser and browse to http://localhost:9001. You like it? Look at the 'Next Steps' section below
As root:
- Install the dependencies. We need gzip, git, curl, libssl develop libraries, python and gcc.
For Debian/Ubuntuapt-get install gzip git-core curl python libssl-dev build-essential
For Fedora/CentOSyum install gzip git-core curl python openssl-devel && yum groupinstall "Development Tools" - Install node.js
- Download the latest 0.6.x node.js release from http://nodejs.org/#download
- Extract it with
tar xf node-v0.6* - Move into the node folder
cd node-v0.6*and build node with./configure && make && make install
As any user (we recommend creating a separate user called etherpad-lite):
- Move to a folder where you want to install Etherpad Lite. Clone the git repository
git clone 'git://github.com/Pita/etherpad-lite.git'
- Install the dependencies with
bin/installDeps.sh
- Start it with
bin/run.sh
- Open your web browser and visit http://localhost:9001. You like it? Look at the 'Next Steps' section below
You can modify the settings in the file settings.json
If you have multiple settings files, you may pass one to bin/run.sh using the -s|--settings option. This allows you to run multiple Etherpad Lite instances from the same installation.
You should use a dedicated database such as "mysql" if you are planning on using etherpad-lite in a production environment, the "dirty" database driver is only for testing and/or development purposes.
You can update to the latest version with git pull origin. The next start with bin/run.sh will update the dependencies
Look at this wiki pages:
- How to deploy Etherpad Lite as a service
- How to put Etherpad Lite behind a reverse Proxy
- How to customize your Etherpad Lite installation
- How to use Etherpad-Lite with jQuery
- How to use Etherpad Lite with MySQL
- Sites that run Etherpad Lite
- How to migrate the database from Etherpad to Etherpad Lite
You can find more information in the wiki. Feel free to improve these wiki pages
If you're new to git and github, start by watching this video then read this git guide.
If you're new to node.js, start with this video http://youtu.be/jo_B4LTHi3I.
You can debug with bin/debugRun.sh
If you want to find out how Etherpads Easysync works (the library that makes it really realtime), start with this PDF (complex, but worth reading).
You know all this and just want to know how you can help? Look at the TODO list. You can join the mailinglist or go to the freenode irc channel #etherpad-lite-dev
You also help the project, if you only host a Etherpad Lite instance and share your experience with us.
Please consider using jshint if you plan to contribute to Etherpad Lite.
- ueberDB "transforms every database into a object key value store" - manages all database access
- channels "Event channels in node.js" - ensures that ueberDB operations are atomic and in series for each key
- async-stacktrace "Improves node.js stacktraces and makes it easier to handle errors"