CommunityData:Etherpad

Our group typically takes real-time notes in Etherpad which is a little like Google Docs but for text files and with color everywhere to see who is working where and who has written what. There are a number of different Etherpad servers out our server is: https://etherpad.communitydata.science/

To create a new page, just go to https://etherpad.communitydata.science/ and type in the name of the page. It's a good idea to make it unique/descriptive and to include a date. A good name might be cdsc_cabal_meeting-20380119. Etherpads are public webpages. You can choose a pagename that is random or might be difficult to guess but you cannot make one that is truly private.

Semi Private Pads

You can make a semi-private one by including the word "private" in front of the pad name. For example, if you name your pad private-cdsc_cabal_meeting-20380119 people will be asked for a username and password shared with the group. You can ask other folks in the group for the username or password or you can find by searching the [[CommunityData:Email#Email Lists|email list] archives for the collective-XXXX@communitydata.science email lists.

Backing up Etherpads

Eventually, the Etherpad will likely be deleted (likely after a few months of no activity). Sometimes we want to keep copies of things as they evolve over time as well.

As a result, we have a system to backup our Etherpads. It runs once a days and keeps a backup copy each day. We can use the backups to go back to any old copy of any Etherpad so you can safely blow away old text and know you will be able to get the archived text back if you need it.

That said, we need to register every Etherpad that we want backed up first. To do that, we need to first check out cdsc-etherpads repository from the group Git repository with a line in your terminal like:

git clone git@code.communitydata.science:cdsc-etherpads

If you get a permission denied errors, follow the instructions on CommunityData:Git to get setup to use the CDSC git repository.

To start backing up a new Git repository, you should add a new line to the bottom of ETHERPAD_URLS. The lines should look like:

http://etherpad.communitydata.science/p/cdsc_cabal_meeting-20380119 # meeting notes from the winter 2038 cabal meeting

As you can see, comments following # are supported in the file. They are not required.

The complete workflow should look like:

git clone git@code.communitydata.science:cdsc-etherpads
cd cdsc-etherpads
vim ETHERPAD_URLS # or whatever your preferred editor is!
##### EDIT TO ADD NEW URL #######
git add ETHERPAD_URLS
git commit -m 'added new cabal URL'
git push