Web Notepad

A lightweight, browser-based text editor backed by a small Flask API. It looks and feels like a classic desktop notepad — menu bar, line numbers, keyboard shortcuts, modal Open/Save dialogs — but your files are saved server-side to a storage directory instead of your local machine, so they persist across sessions and devices that reach the same server.

Scope: This is a single-user editor. It is not a real-time collaborative tool — there is no multi-user syncing or conflict resolution. (An earlier version of this repo was named "Collaborative Notepad"; it has been renamed to describe what it actually does.)

Features

• Notepad-style UI — File/Edit menu bar, live line numbers, tab-to-indent.
• Server-side file storage — create, open, edit, duplicate, and delete text files that live in a configurable storage directory.
• Nested paths — organize notes in subdirectories (e.g. notes/todo.txt).
• Safe filenames — path input is sanitized to prevent directory traversal outside the storage root.
• Duplicate handling — saving over an existing name prompts to overwrite or auto-create a numbered duplicate (file_1.txt, file_2.txt, …).
• Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl/Cmd+S save, Ctrl/Cmd+O open, Ctrl/Cmd+N new.

How it works

The Flask backend (app.py) exposes a small JSON REST API and serves a single-page front end (templates/index.html + static/). All file operations go through a sanitize_path / get_file_path pair that resolves every request inside the storage root and rejects anything that would escape it.

Method	Endpoint	Purpose
GET	/	Serve the editor UI
GET	/api/files	List all stored files
GET	/api/files/<path>	Read a file's contents
POST	/api/files	Create a new file (409 if it exists)
PUT	/api/files/<path>	Update an existing file
DELETE	/api/files/<path>	Delete a file (and prune empty dirs)
POST	/api/files/duplicate	Copy a file to an auto-numbered name

Requirements

• Python 3.9+ (developed and verified on Python 3.14)
• Python packages in requirements.txt: Flask, python-dotenv

No database or native system libraries required — files are stored as plain text on disk.

Setup

# 1. Clone and enter the project
git clone <your-repo-url>
cd collaborative-notepad

# 2. Create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate        # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# 3. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4. (Optional) configure via environment
cp .env.example .env             # then edit if you want non-default paths/ports

Running

python app.py

Then open http://localhost:5000 in your browser. Notes are written to the storage/ directory (created automatically) by default.

Configuration

All settings are optional and read from the environment (or a .env file):

Variable	Default	Description
STORAGE_PATH	./storage	Directory where notes are saved
FLASK_HOST	0.0.0.0	Interface to bind (use 127.0.0.1 for local)
FLASK_PORT	5000	Port to listen on

Usage & controls

• File → New / Open / Save, or the equivalent Ctrl/Cmd + N / O / S shortcuts.
• Edit → Cut / Copy / Paste / Undo / Redo. Clipboard actions use the browser's Clipboard API and require a secure context (localhost or HTTPS); if the browser blocks clipboard access, use the native Ctrl/Cmd + X / C / V shortcuts instead.
• Open lists existing files; click one (or type a name) and confirm.
• Save prompts for a name when the document is untitled; saving over an existing file offers Overwrite or Create Duplicate.

Notes & caveats

• This uses Flask's built-in development server. For real deployment, run it behind a production WSGI server (e.g. gunicorn) and set FLASK_HOST=127.0.0.1 or a proper reverse proxy.
• There is no authentication — anyone who can reach the server can read and write files in the storage directory. Intended for local/personal use as-is.

License

No license file is currently included. Add one (e.g. MIT) if you intend others to reuse this code.