Can users edit the notebooks on a public notebook server?
jupyter-notebook, python
Solution
Yes, that's right. A public iPython notebook server provides the full funcionality to everyone who connects to it via a browser. So everyone who has the server's password can edit/create/delete notebooks on this server.
As far as I know, there's no possibility to prevent users from persistently changing the notebooks on the server. A dirty workaround would be: Every student copies your central notebook (File --> Make a copy) and works in the copied notebook only. This, however, doesn't prevent abuse/unintentional changes by the students in the central notebook.
Problem
I'm considering IPython notebook for educational purposes. The idea is to provide the students with webbased demos that illustrate some topics of the lecture. I'd like the students to be able to change the parameters of the code so that they can study their impact or even create their own examples. I've learned that it is possible to setup a public Ipython notebook server. As I understand it, it provides the full functionality of notebooks (not just displaying them) but exposed to the public. Is that right? Bonus question: how can I prevent users from persistently changing the notebooks but provide the with a "session copy"?