Conflict Resolution
Master the art of handling simultaneous edits in collaborative applications. Learn OT and CRDT approaches with interactive examples.
Why Conflict Resolution Matters?
When multiple users edit the same document simultaneously, conflicts are inevitable. Let's explore what happens without proper conflict resolution.
Original document: ABCDE
Alice deletes: D DELETE(3)
Bob deletes: B DELETE(1)
Expected result: ACE
Network latency is unpredictable, causing operations to arrive in different orders:
Possible execution orders:
ACEACD⚠️Different results = Inconsistent state!
This is why we need Conflict Resolution mechanisms! 🚀
Two Powerful Solutions
Meet the two main approaches to handle conflicts in collaborative editing
How it works:
- • Server receives operations from clients
- • Transforms operations based on current state
- • Broadcasts transformed operations to all clients
- • Preserves user intentions
Used by:
OT vs CRDT Comparison
Understanding the trade-offs to choose the right approach
| Feature | OT | CRDT |
|---|---|---|
| Consistency | ✅ | ✅ |
| Memory Usage | ✅ Low | ❌ High |
| User Intent Preservation | ✅ | ❌ |
| Implementation Effort | ❌ Complex | ✅ Simple |
| Peer-to-Peer Support | ❌ | ✅ |
Which One to Choose?
- • Memory efficiency is crucial
- • User intent preservation matters
- • You have a central server
- • Building document editors
- • Quick iteration is needed
- • Peer-to-peer architecture
- • Offline-first applications
- • Building design tools
Both approaches solve the fundamental problem of conflict resolution, but with different trade-offs. Choose based on your specific requirements.