README.md

Yjs is a framework for optimistic concurrency control and automatic conflict resolution on arbitrary data types. The framework implements a new OT-like concurrency algorithm and provides similar functionality as ShareJs and OpenCoweb. Yjs was designed to handle concurrent actions on arbitrary complex data types like Text, Json, and XML. You can find some applications for this framework here.

You can create your own shared data types easily. Therefore, you can take matters into your own hand by defining the meaning of the shared types and ensure that it is valid, while Yjs ensures data consistency (everyone will eventually end up with the same data). You can use existing types in your custom data type as well. Learn in this wiki page how to craft your own custom data types. We already provide data types for

Name	Description
y-object	Add, update, and remove properties of an object. Circular references are supported. Included in Yjs
y-list	A shared linked list implementation. Circular references are supported
y-selections	Manages selections on types that use linear structures (e.g. the y-list type). You can select a range of elements and assign meaning to them.
y-xml	An implementation of the DOM. You can create a two way binding to Browser DOM objects
y-text	Collaborate on text. You can create a two way binding to textareas, input elements, or HTML elements (e.g. h1, or p)
y-richtext	Collaborate on rich text. You can create a two way binding to several editors

Unlike other frameworks, Yjs supports P2P message propagation and is not bound to a specific communication protocol. Therefore, Yjs is extremely scalable and can be used in a wide range of application scenarios.

We support several communication protocols as so called Connectors. You can create your own connector too - read this blog post. Currently, we support the following communication protocols:

Name	Description
y-xmpp	Propagate updates in a XMPP multi-user-chat room (XEP-0045)
y-webrtc	Propagate updates Browser2Browser via WebRTC
y-test	A Connector for testing purposes. It is designed to simulate delays that happen in worst case scenarios

You can use Yjs client-, and server- side. You can get it as via npm, and bower. We even provide polymer elements for Yjs!

The advantages over similar frameworks are support for

• .. P2P message propagation and arbitrary communication protocols
• .. arbitrary complex data types
• .. offline editing: Only relevant changes are propagated on rejoin (unimplemented)
• .. AnyUndo: Undo any action that was executed in constant time (unimplemented)
• .. Intention Preservation: When working on Text, the intention of your changes are preserved. This is particularily important when working offline. Every type has some notion on how we define Intention Preservation on it.

Use it!

You find a tutorial, examples, and documentation on the website.

Either clone this git repository, install it with bower, or install it with npm.

Bower

bower install y-js/yjs

Then you include the libraries directly from the installation folder.

<script src="./bower_components/yjs/y.js"></script>

Npm

npm install yjs --save

And use it like this with npm:

Y = require("yjs");

Y()

In order to create an instance of Y, you need to have a connection object (instance of a Connector). Then, you can create a shared data type like this:

var y = new Y(connector);

Y.Object

Yjs includes only one type by default - the Y.Object type. It mimics the behaviour of a JSON Object. You can create, update, and remove properies on the Y.Object type. Furthermore, you can observe changes on this type as you can observe changes on Javascript Objects with Object.observe - an ECMAScript 7 proposal which is likely to become accepted by the committee. Until then, we have our own implementation.

Reference

• Create

var y = new Y.Object();

• Create with existing Object

var y = new Y.Object({number: 73});

• Every instance of Y is an Y.Object

var y = new Y(connector);

• .val()
  • Retrieve all properties of this type as a JSON Object
• .val(name)
  • Retrieve the value of a property
• .val(name, value)
  • Set/update a property. Returns this Y.Object
• .delete(name)
  • Delete a property
• .observe(observer)
  • The observer is called whenever something on this object changes. Throws add, update, and delete events
• .unobserve(f)
  • Delete an observer

A note on intention preservation

When users create/update/delete the same property concurrently, only one change will prevail. Changes on different properties do not conflict with each other.

A note on time complexities

• .val()
  • O(|properties|)
• .val(name)
  • O(1)
• .val(name, value)
  • O(1)
• .delete(name)
  • O(1)
• Apply a delete operation from another user
  • O(1)
• Apply an update operation from another user (set/update a property)
  • Yjs does not transform against operations that do not conflict with each other.
  • An operation conflicts with another operation if it changes the same property.
  • Overall worst case complexety: O(|conflicts|!)

Status

Yjs is still in an early development phase. Don't expect that everything is working fine. But it would be really nice to get some feedback :)

Current Issues

• The History Buffer should be able to store operations in a database

Get help

Please report any issues to the Github issue page! I try to fix them very soon, if possible.

Contribution

I created this framework during my bachelor thesis at the chair of computer science 5 (i5), RWTH University. Since December 2014 I'm working on Yjs as a part of my student worker job at the i5.

License

Yjs is licensed under the MIT License.

kevin.jahns@rwth-aachen.de