MySharelatexManager

MySharelatexManager is an UI tool to manage users and projects for Overleaf/ShareLaTex self hosted instances (Community edition). Only data (users and projects collections) from Mongo database are required.

Disclaimer: MyShareLatexManager is a personnal tool hosted to my Github account. There is no affiliation with the company that publishes Overleaf/Sharelatex, it's completely unofficial. Any issues related to the MyShareLatexManager tool should be reported on the MyShareLatexManager repository : github.com/mickaelbaron/mysharelatexmanager.

Main functionnal features supported by MyShareLatexManager:

• List all users,
• Edit user,
• Transfert owner projects to other one,
• Remove user as collaberator to all projects,
• List all projects,
• Edit project.

Technicals concepts with MyShareLatexManager:

• front-end in Vue.js, Vite.js, (PrimeVue and Boostrap),
• back-end in Java 11 with the MicroProfile specifications and KumuluzEE implementation (JAX-RS and CDI),
• using the given/when/then style for Java unit test,
• full build with Docker,
• deployement with Docker.

Software requirements

• Docker (that's all)

MySharelatexManager building and deployement have been tested on:

• macOS Ventura (with DockerDesktop),
• Linux Ubuntu 20.04.01

In fact, all operating systems that support Docker can build and test MySharelatexManager.

Screenshots

• Login

• Display all users

• Edit the user parameters

• Transfert the owner projects

• Remove collaberator confirmation

• Display all projects

• Edit the project parameters

Build MysharelatexManager

Configure before

In the case you do not need a subpath, go to the next section.

• If you want to use a subpath to deploy MySharelatexManager (i.e. http://localhost/YOUR_SUBPATH), edit the mysharelatexmanager/mysharelatexmanager-rp/subpath.conf file and replace all the YOUR_SUBPATH strings by your preferred value (i.e. mysharelatexmanager).

server {
    listen 80;

    location /YOUR_SUBPATH/server/ {
        proxy_pass http://backend:9991/;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Connection "";
    }

    location /YOUR_SUBPATH/ {
        rewrite ^/YOUR_SUBPATH(/.*)$ $1 break;
        proxy_pass http://frontend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

• Edit the mysharelatexmanager/mysharelatexmanager-vuejs/.env.subpath file and replace all the YOUR_SUBPATH strings by your chosen value (i.e. mysharelatexmanager).

VITE_APP_SERVER_URL = /YOUR_SUBPATH/server
VITE_APP_SUBPATH = /YOUR_SUBPATH/
NODE_ENV = production

Build

• To build without subpath: https://localhost, execute this command line:

$ docker compose build --build-arg script_name=build

• To build with subpath: http://localhost/YOUR_SUBPATH, execute this command line:

$ docker compose build  --build-arg script_name=subpath

• To check if the images are been built, execute this command line:

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                     TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
mysharelatexmanager/rp         latest              48030aad5995        3 seconds ago       20.4MB
mysharelatexmanager/server     latest              d8456b59f4f3        28 minutes ago      185MB
mysharelatexmanager/vuejs      latest              8c5b713e6b83        3 hours ago         22.8MB
...

Run MysharelatexManager

Configure before

We suppose Sharelatex/Overleaf is deployed by Docker and a Docker network is existing (Docker network is used for communicating between containers).

• Edit the mysharelatexmanager/docker-compose.yml file and match the name of Sharelatex network you use (name: sharelatexnetwork).

...
networks:
  mysharelatexmanagernetwork:
  sharelatexnetwork:
    external:
      name: sharelatexnetwork

• We suppose that Sharelatex network is already existing, create a Docker network for MySharelatexManager called mysharelatexmanagernetwork

$ docker network create mysharelatexmanagernetwork

Run

• From the root of the project, execute this command line:

$ docker compose up -d

• Open the http://localhost (without subpath) or http://localhost/YOUR_SUBPATH (with a subpath) URL with your favorite web browser.

Bonus (to have a local Overleaf/Sharelatex database)

In this section, we present how to test MySharelatexManager with a dataset (without install a full instance of Overleaf/Sharelatex). Only, MongoDB will be installed by Docker. We suppose you have an existing instance of Overleaf/Sharelatex in production.

• From the server where Overleaf/Sharelatex is running, extract the dataset.

$ docker run --rm --network sharelatexnetwork -v $(pwd)/mongodump:/backup mongo:4.4.19 bash -c 'mongodump -d sharelatex --gzip --archive=/backup/sharelatex-dump.gz --host sharelatex-mongodb:27017'

Please, adapt the version of MongoDB Docker image.

The result of this extraction will be available into the mongodump directory. Copy the mongodump directory to your computer.

From your computer (where you want to test MysharelatexManager), create an empty instance of MongoDB database.

$ docker network create sharelatexnetwork # Optional if this Docker network is existing
$ docker run --name sharelatex-mongodb -p 27017:27017 --network sharelatexnetwork -d mongo:4.4.19

From the mongodump directory location, import the content

$ docker run --rm --network sharelatexnetwork -v $(pwd):/backup mongo:4.4.19 bash -c 'mongorestore /backup --gzip --archive=/backup/sharelatex-dump.gz --noIndexRestore --host sharelatex-mongodb:27017'