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Sharing and editing together

LosOS Cloud's files.

In LosOS Cloud, text files open in an editor that several people can type in at once. Each person sees the others' faces at the top, their cursors in their own colour with their name beside them, and who edited last under the text. Plain text opens this way: .txt, .csv, .json, .yaml and similar. A Markdown file opens in Notes, and its Edit brings you here.

On one box this works for anyone who can open the file. Once the box is in a mesh, you can also share a file or a folder with a person on another box, and write in it together across the two boxes.

Open a file to edit it​

Click a text file in Files. The editor shows:

  • the people in the file right now, as round faces;
  • Live while your browser is connected to the box;
  • Edited by the last person who changed it, and when.

The file on the box is saved a moment after anyone stops typing, so the desktop and phone apps see the change too. Each save is a version you can go back to. If an app changes the file while people have it open, the change appears in their editors.

Share with someone on another box​

Each person has an address of the form name@box, for example eva@kitchenbox.local. Yours is at the bottom of the share window.

  1. In Files, tick the file or folder and press Share.
  2. Type the other person's address.
  3. Choose Can edit or Can view, and press Share.

The list in the same window shows each person you shared with and where the offer stands: waiting, accepted or declined. Change what they can do there, or press the cross to stop sharing. Stopping takes the file away from their box too.

What you receive​

Files shared with you are under Shared with you. A new one waits for you to Accept or Decline it. After that:

  • a text file opens in the editor, together with its owner and anyone else it is shared with;
  • a folder opens as a list; its files open or download from there;
  • any other file downloads.

The file stays on its owner's box. Your box keeps a copy of a text file you edit, so you can keep writing while the other box is out of reach. The editor then says so, and Shared with you shows that your changes are waiting. When the boxes reach each other again, the changes from both sides come together without anyone losing a line.

How boxes find each other​

A box answers other boxes at https://<name>.local/mesh/v1/link, or at the public name the edge gives it. Each box has its own key. The first time two boxes talk, each remembers the other's key, and from then on refuses a box that comes with a different one under the same name. Nobody signs in to this address; the keys decide who is talking.

Settings​

These are on the Advanced pane:

  • losos.cloud.mesh.enable turns sharing across boxes on or off. It is on when the box shares its storage or computing with a mesh. Editing together on one box works either way.
  • losos.cloud.mesh.name is the name other boxes reach this box by, the part after the @ in people's addresses. It is <name>.local on the box's network, or the edge's name for the box when it is reached through an edge. Other boxes remember this box's key under that name, so a new name means sharing again.
  • losos.cloud.mesh.selfSigned lets the box accept another box's self-signed certificate. It is on unless the box is reached through an edge.