Towards Collaborative Coding in RIDE Web IDE

RIDE is an integrated development environment (IDE) suited for the Reflex language, specifically designed for creating control algorithms for cyber-physical systems. RIDE is based on Eclipse Theia and a host program running independent instances for each user. However, it does not provide collaborative experience. Eclipse Theia is designed for single-user; therefore, collaborative programming is hampered by security and ease of use issues. This paper outlines a server program architecture to add collaborative abilities to otherwise single-user web applications. The suggested approach is application independent. It is applicable to other single-user applications, making it possible to deploy them in the cloud as web services. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the problem, as well as the tools and frameworks used for implementing this design with RIDE. This implementation makes use of Docker for containerization, Python and Flask for host program, Google Auth for user authentication, and SQLite for the database.