How to debug Etherpad Lite

Michael has written a superb blog post on how to debug Etherpad Lite. If you do need to debug Etherpad, Etherpad lite might be your best option as it has a more simple, easy to understand architecture and now thanks to Michael, better documentation!

Getting involved with the Etherpad project

We are looking for new talent to get involved with the Etherpad foundation. We have a pretty exciting few months ahead of us as we plan to launch the next evolution of the Etherpad software.

Why get involved with the Etherpad foundation?

Collaborative editing gives everyone an equal say, this makes the world a fairer place. Our goal is to make collaborative editing the defacto standard for web content editing. We aim to do this through building a community built around a completely open piece of software.

Have a look at our getting involved page for details.

German police raid Etherpad deployment

German police have confiscated the popular Etherpad deployment at Piratenpad. The Etherpad deployment was being used for structured debates around the protests in Spain so this is a major cause for concern from a libertarian perspective. We believe the polices main reason for the raid is because PiratenPad was being used by the group “anonymous” to organize an attack. The server is currently in possesion of the German authorities.

We entirely support PiratenPad in it’s struggle, we believe that Etherpad deployments and really-real time collaborative document editing should be a right for all people, great and small.

The main cause for concern is that all Etherpad deployments are used by various groups completely openly so we can assume that all German Etherpad deployments are now at potential risk of being impounded by the police. Please be vigilant and help support your Etherpad deployments as they are used every day to draft new laws in countries such as Lybia and Tunisia.

DNS Issues

Update: We have moved to a new DNS provider and also migrated doc.etherpad.org to a new hosting provider, which means that it will hopefully be more stable in the future.

We are currently moving DNS from an old (unreliable) provider to a shiny new one that is super reliable. doc.etherpad.org and our email is currently broken. Our apologies, we made a mistake and it wont happen again!

Apt / debian package location now fixed

Apologies to everyone who tried to grab the 1.1 .deb package via apt. This is now fixed!

Here is a picture of Egil schooling me, Mark and Joe as a sweetener.

Etherpad v1.1 released

EtherPad Foundation today released a new version of its free EtherPad web-based collaborative text editor. This is the second major release since the foundation took over active development of the code base, following the Google Open Source release. The new version includes many new features and improvements:

Easy upgrade – Installation scripts checks your java and scala versions
Easier management – Improved Admin interface including an easier to understand plugin manager
Improved import and export of file documents – support for import and export out of the box
Easy start pro mode – Teams are supported by default
Pad Cloning and template creation – Pad cloning allows you to create template pads and copy them to create new pads with a standard content
Sitemap support and improved SEO support – Pads tagged as public will automatically be added to a sitemap.xml file so that they are spidered correctly by search engines such as Google
Improved documentation – There is documentation for installation all the way through to the plugin manager. We also hope to release youtube videos with basic user guides over the next few weeks
Easy rebranding – You can easily rebrand your Etherpad with your company or site name.
Better debug support – FireBug Light and other tools to ease debugging while developing plugins on non-firefox browsers
File upload support – Files can be uploaded and embedded into pads
Image support – Images can now easily be inserted into Etherpad pads
Real time recent changes – An admin can see in real time what is being edited
Delete Pad – Pads can be deleted using the site admin screen
Improved theme support, includes micro and nano theme – Three themes are included: the standard default theme, a micro theme which has no brand or management content on the page and a nano theme which is a pure collaborative editor with no toolbar intended for embedding in other webpages
Replacement of unfree libraries – Some of the items included in the original Etherpad package weren’t free software so we have replaced them with free software equivalents
License and Language easy tagging of pads – Pads can be tagged with a license and with a language using drop-down menus

About EtherPad: EtherPad is a web service that allows real-time document collaboration for groups and teams.

About EtherPad Foundation: EtherPad foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development of EtherPad and collaborative text editing.