You can now click the gear icon in the text editor and create a “collab link” for your generator. If you share that link with others, they’ll be able to edit/save the generator, and you’ll be able to see each others text cursors/carets.
You can disable/invalidate the link, and regenerate a new one.
Please let me know if there are any issues! I may be able to improve the performance/latency of it after some more work on the server.
The issue is before many try and error…how stable it is? If there’s multiple dev, they should keep using the link for a long period without nuke the gen? It sounds nice but I am hesitate to try because safety first!
The issue is before many try and error
Can you let me know any details about the issue you had? It may have been that the server’s rate limits were too strict. I’ve just edited them to give a bit more leeway, so hopefully that’s solved your issue.
If there’s multiple dev, they should keep using the link for a long period without nuke the gen?
Luckily it’s not possible to ‘nuke’ the gen with this feature (even if there remain some early issues with the collab server), since you can always just open the ‘backups’ list and download any older version of your gen. That said, it’s certainly possible that there are ‘annoying’ bugs where you e.g. temporarily get out of sync with other devs in your collab due to stuff like the aforementioned rate-limiting. And again, please do let me know (and give as much info as possible) if you come across any issues like this.
Currently testing the Collab with a few people on https://perchance.org/collab-testing-01-01
Here are some notes and bugs that I found:
Bugs- Opening the ‘Collab Link’ on Firefox and Chrome on the same computer and editing + saving, the changes aren’t reflected.
- The ‘Collab Link’ on the Gear Settings in Firefox and Google Chrome on the same computer is not visible. https://user-uploads.perchance.org/file/dcfd4bbe830cb45bace2f9b4a9e506c8.webp
- On Edge Incognito, Opera GX, Opera OG, Arc Browser, then opening the page without the collab link, ‘Collab Link’ is visible, but when clicked nothing happens. It should be opening the prompt for the collab password like https://user-uploads.perchance.org/file/db195a0cd8a6733e92a36cc102d2ad14.webp
Notes
- If the gen owner CTRL-Zs, it affects everyone’s edit if they are editing in real time.
- Changes are to the editors are LIVE, but a reload/auto-reload is needed for generator viewers to see the changes in the preview window.
- It needs the owner to ‘save’ the generator to create a backup of the old edit.
- If there are changes made by other collaborators and the gen owner tries to refresh the page, there would be a prompt that there are unsaved changes, but the changes are still applied to the page.
- Opening the ‘Collab Link’ on Edge Incognito, Opera GX, Opera OG, and Arc Browser on the same computer and editing + saving works.
I think all the weird browser issues are fixed (I think it was to do with bad cache headers resulting in different versions depending on when editor was first loaded in the browser being tested), but please let me know if not.
If the gen owner CTRL-Zs, it affects everyone’s edit if they are editing in real time.
Thanks! I think this is fixed now, if not let me know.
It needs the owner to ‘save’ the generator to create a backup of the old edit.
I’m not sure what you mean by “create a backup of the old edit” - but to be clear it should be possible for anyone with the collab link to save - i.e. not just the owner. Please let me know if that’s not the case.
Changes are to the editors are LIVE, but a reload/auto-reload is needed for generator viewers to see the changes in the preview window. If there are changes made by other collaborators and the gen owner tries to refresh the page, there would be a prompt that there are unsaved changes, but the changes are still applied to the page.
The “unsaved changes” prompt is actually correctly warning you in the sense that you need to save the changes to be sure that they’re not lost, since (currently) if all collaborators leave, then the collab server will (eventually) “garbage collect” the session. I could make it so the session state is persisted to disk - that would perhaps be more intuitive (this may have to wait for now though, so the warning should be taken seriously until it no longer appears).
Also, in https://perchance.org/collab-testing-01-01 you have
Password: hello(or maybe someone else added that), but it’s not possible to manually set an “edit password” (unless I’ve forgotten a feature I added…). It should be a random string of letters/numbers. Note that the edit password is different to the collab password/link. Edit passwords are really only necessary for anon-created generators, which is why you’re not given an edit password for generators that are created when you’re logged in. The “edit password” gives you more permissions than the collab password. For example, the edit password has the capability to disable/enable collab links. Whereas the collab link/password just gives you the ability to edit/save a generator and participate in the live editing session.By creating a backup, I mean something like the version control on perchance in which every save creates a version of the previous generator without the changes. If you are editing with the collab link, and you aren’t the owner/creator of the page, there is no ‘backup’ icon on the top right, meaning the changes aren’t saved in a version although the changes are saved on the generator, thus I think it requires the owner to manually save to create a backup version, unless I’m mistaken.
As for the edit password, I’ve attached an image on my previous comment of the example prompt that shows up when I click the “Collab Link” on another generator that I don’t own. For example, on this one, I clicked the “Collab Link” on /beautiful-people and it shows this prompt:
Also, when I previously created a collab link, it asked me for an edit password, but now I don’t see it, which is why I provided the
Password: hellopreviously since I’ve set it to that, and checking with you if there should be an edit password if you don’t have the collab link.
Sweet!
In my test, it requires the gen owner to save to apply any edits. Gen user won’t see any updates even after refreshing the tab. And the collab editor saving the gen will making a new copy.
All of the above seems similar to previous logic, but what about collab editors could make save like Google doc or Office 365? If it requires the gen editor to save it, it doesn’t help much in a gen requires daily frequently updated by multiple different admins. It doesn’t do much different then people just sharing the main account and taking turns.
it requires the gen owner to save to apply any edits […] And the collab editor saving the gen will making a new copy.
Hmm this definitely shouldn’t be the case. Anyone with the collab link should be able to save/apply the edits. Can you try again, and if you’re able to reproduce it, can you let me know the steps to take to replicate?
If someone with the collab link saves it, it should just save it as if they were the gen owner (i.e. not make a new copy).
Hello hello mystery solved. It’s that collab editor could not be logged in user, because they save the gen as new gen. Instead, a good collab editor should be logged out to save any edit, which isn’t mentioned??
Ah thank you! Fixed. It shouldn’t save as new gen when you’re using a collab link anymore, even if you’re logged in and not the gen’s owner.
