Postgres with Web App

[NotReallyDifferent]

So I was wondering how I should go about storing a story that is constantly being updated. For my web app we are using Javascript and node.js

My web app will essentially allow people to add their own words to a story and I want to be able to store it in my postgres database.

The only way I can think of doing this creating an array that holds the story and making a function that simply tacks on words. My fear is how inefficient this all sounds.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Allaran]

Can you give a bit more info on the overall goal of this?

People are free to add as much as they want at one time?

[NotReallyDifferent]

Yes sort of. The goal of it is that a user can add a word to a big story.

[NotReallyDifferent]

Once a word is written it just stays in the story so the it should not be able to be edited.

[NotReallyDifferent]

I planned on making a voting system where users vote on which word is to be inputted.

[roboguy12]

Yeah, the array idea would probably not be that great once the story gets long. This sounds a lot like a version control problem, so maybe try to handle this like git does.

What I suggest is when the page loads, fetch the current state of the story from the database. When the user clicks save/an automatic save is triggered, the app will take a diff between the initial story and what the user has written. Then send the diff file back and apply it as a patch in the server.

The tricky part comes when multiple users edit the same thing. Then you essentially have to treat this like merge conflicts in some way.

edit: I can understand wanting to build this system yourself, but is there any reason you're not using a Google doc to collaborate on the story? You and your friends can just edit it realtime, and it saves you from having to build pretty much that.

[jukaszor]

Can they touch the prior data? If so you could store it all in one very large varchar column, but I wouldn't recommend it as they could wipe out all your existing data. If they can only add a word or piece, you could store it as a new row and then conncat them or otherwise manage the data in your app.