[IPython-dev] How to use notebooks with teams

Jason Grout jason-sage at creativetrax.com
Sat Jul 19 09:08:55 EDT 2014


On 7/18/14, 10:37, Paddy Mullen wrote:
>
> I'm a developer supporting a group of non-technical business analysts.
> We want to use the IPython notebook, but we are running into some
> problems. I was hoping to hear some best practices and other people's
> experiences.  Maybe there is a product that makes the IPython
> notebook easier to use for teams.
>
> Currently each business user is running their own notebook server
> that points at a shared directory.  This lets us distribute code to
> all business users relatively easily.  We run into problems when two
> users are working on the same notebook at the same time, their
> changes clobber each other.

The Sage Math Cloud (https://cloud.sagemath.com) has fully collaborative 
IPython notebooks, just like Google Docs.  Multiple people with multiple 
cursors, in real time.  If I recall correctly, when one person adjusts a 
slider, everyone else sees the same slider moving.

Or are you asking about an easy way to distribute and update notebooks 
to many users (but have each user run/tweak the notebook independently)? 
  I think you could use version control for that, but updates would 
overwrite changes the users made.

You could also make the notebook running depend on a configuration file 
containing parameters, or environment variables.  Users change the 
config file and rerun the notebook.

It would be great to figure out a good way to do this.  I can see this 
being a common use-case (sharing a library of notebooks, and having the 
notebooks update automatically and also having the user be able to make 
small changes).

Thanks,

Jason




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