textserver¶ ↑

textserver is a daemon to notify changes of a text file via HTTP long-polling. It enables Firefox to synchronize contents of textareas or input elements with an external file. You will be able to edit textareas on Firefox using an external text editor.

A guide in Japanese: d.hatena.ne.jp/tarao/20091105/1257463316

How to use it¶ ↑

You need to have Firefox and Greasemonkey extension installed.

1. Run Firefox.

2. Install textserver daemon to your local machine. (see below)

3. Add retrieve-remote-text.user.js to your Greasemonkey.

4. Move focus on a textarea or an input.

5. Write something to text file and save it.

6. You will get the textarea or the input synchronized with text file.

Installation¶ ↑

If you are using Windows, you can either install by the installer or use Ruby command as in other platforms.

Using installer (Windows)¶ ↑

A demo on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eI12gmzv6Y

Get the installer of the latest package from up.orezdnu.org/release/textserver.msi.

text file will be accessible from your desktop (via a shortcut named textarea) and retrieve-remote-text.user.js can automatically be opened just after the setup.

How to run with source code (all platforms)¶ ↑

You need Ruby 1.8.7 or later. After cloning the repository, don’t forget to do

git submodule update --init

or install modules from github.com/tarao/gnn-rblibs.

1. Install Ruby modules listed below.

2. Make directory dir for the daemon.

3. Write ‘:dir: dir’ to a YAML file config.

4. Run the daemon with specifying config like ‘ruby textserver.rb -c config’.

You can stop the daemon by ‘ruby textserver.rb -c config –stop’.

Linux¶ ↑

• rubygems (required)

• gnn-rblibs (required)

• inotify (recommended)

Windows¶ ↑

• rubygems (required)

• gnn-rblibs (required)

• win32/api (required)

• win32/process (required)

• win32/ipc (recommended)

• win32/event (recommended)

• win32/changenotify (recommended)

Build installer on Windows¶ ↑

If you have all applications listed below, you can build the installer by the following command.

rake win32

• Rake

• Exerb

• Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset

• Microsoft Platform SDK

Advanced feature¶ ↑

If you are using GNU Emacs, try elisp/textarea.el. Put this file some where in your load path and write the following code to your .emacs.

(require 'textarea)
(setq textarea:dir "your-textserver-dir")

Then, ‘M-x textarea’ opens text as *textarea* buffer with auto-save mode, ‘M-x revert’ on *textarea* buffer retrieves contents of the current textarea on the browser.