Collaborative online annotation offers a new kind of reading experience: instead of making notes in the margin of a book, readers can now share their reactions instantaneously and build a body of commentary about a text together.
The eComma (eCommentary Machine) open source drupal module allows its users to annotate texts at the word level and to share their annotations with others. The eComma drupal module was created by developers at the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) and based on a web application that was designed by a team of graduate students and faculty members of the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin. The project was started on a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as an IT Grants from the University’s Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services and is now funded by the U.S. DoE Title VI Program.
6. JAVASCRIPT TEXT RANGES
ecomma.js
ma_line").mouseup(function() {
if (window.getSelection){
sel = window.getSelection();
text = window.getSelection().toString();
}
else{
// IE.
sel = document.selection.createRange();
text = document.selection.createRange().toString();
}
if (sel.getRangeAt){
range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
}else if (document.createRange){
// Safari.
range = document.createRange();
range.setStart(sel.anchorNode, sel.anchorOffset);