Etherpad is a real-time collaborative editor [scalable to thousands of simultaneous real time users](http://scale.etherpad.org/). It provides [full data export](https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/Understanding-Etherpad's-Full-Data-Export-capabilities) capabilities, and runs on _your_ server, under _your_ control.
Etherpad is extremely flexible providing you the means to modify it to solve whatever problem your community has. We provide some demo instances for you try different experiences available within Etherpad. Pad content is automatically removed after 24 hours.
* [Rich Editing](https://rich.etherpad.com) - A full rich text WYSIWYG editor.
* [Minimalist editor](https://minimalist.etherpad.com) - A minimalist editor that can be embedded within your tool.
* [Dark Mode](https://dark.etherpad.com) - Theme settings to have Etherpad start in dark mode, ideal for using Etherpad at night or for long durations.
* [Images](https://image.etherpad.com) - Plugins to improve provide Image support within a pad.
* [Video Chat](https://video.etherpad.com) - Plugins to enable Video and Audio chat in a pad.
* [Collaboration++](https://collab.etherpad.com) - Plugins to improve the really-real time collaboration experience, suitable for busy pads.
* [Document Analysis](https://analysis.etherpad.com) - Plugins to improve author and document analysis during and post creation.
* [Scale](https://shard.etherpad.com) - Etherpad running at scale with pad sharding which allows Etherpad to scale to ∞ number of Active Pads with up to ~20,000 edits per second, per pad.
This package runs on any Windows machine. You can perform a manual installation via git for development purposes, but as this uses symlinks which performs unreliably on Windows, please stick to the prebuilt package if possible.
Similarly, `--credentials` can be used to give a settings override file, `--apikey` to give a different APIKEY.txt file and `--sessionkey` to give a non-default SESSIONKEY.txt.
**Each configuration parameter can also be set via an environment variable**, using the syntax `"${ENV_VAR}"` or `"${ENV_VAR:default_value}"`. For details, refer to `settings.json.template`.
If you are planning to use Etherpad in a production environment, you should use a dedicated database such as `mysql`, since the `dirtyDB` database driver is only for testing and/or development purposes.
If you have enabled authentication in `users` section in `settings.json`, it is a good security practice to **store hashes instead of plain text passwords** in that file. This is _especially_ advised if you are running a production installation.
Please install [ep_hash_auth plugin](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ep_hash_auth) and configure it.
If you prefer, `ep_hash_auth` also gives you the option of storing the users in a custom directory in the file system, without having to edit `settings.json` and restart Etherpad each time.
Etherpad is very customizable through plugins. Instructions for installing themes and plugins can be found in [the plugin wiki article](https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/Available-Plugins).
If you want to find out how Etherpad's `Easysync` works (the library that makes it really realtime), start with this [PDF](https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/raw/master/doc/easysync/easysync-full-description.pdf) (complex, but worth reading).
that allows your web application to manage pads, users and groups. It is recommended to use the [available client implementations](https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/HTTP-API-client-libraries) in order to interact with this API.
Etherpad offers a plugin framework, allowing you to easily add your own features. By default your Etherpad is extremely light-weight and it's up to you to customize your experience. Once you have Etherpad installed you should [visit the plugin page](https://static.etherpad.org/) and take control.
The etherpad-lite [logo](https://thenounproject.com/icon/16723/) in this repo – created by [Parallel Digital Studio](https://thenounproject.com/Parallel) – is licenced under [CC BY 3.0 Unported](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
