Collaborative Whiteboard Application

A real-time collaborative whiteboard application that enables teams to work together on shared canvases, with support for offline editing and synchronization. App uses CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types) for synchronization.

Features

User Management

• User registration and authentication
• Team creation and management
• Role-based access control (Team Members and Administrators)

Whiteboard Features

• Real-time collaboration
• Multiple object types support:
  • Lines and shapes (rectangles, ellipses)
  • Text fields
  • Images and icons
• Object manipulation:
  • Move, scale, and rotate
  • Grouping
  • Object locking
• Undo/Redo functionality
• Comments on objects
• Board export to PNG

Offline Capabilities

• Continued editing without internet connection
• Smart synchronization system
• Merge request workflow for offline changes
• Visual diff comparison for changes
• Review system for offline modifications

Real-time Collaboration

• Live user presence indicators
• Real-time object editing visualization
• Concurrent editing support
• Active user list

History Management

• Detailed change history
• Version restoration
• Change tracking with user attribution

Getting Started

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/jmacuga/collaboard.git

cd collaboard

2. Fill in credentials

Add .env file based on .env.example

2. Install dependencies

npm install

4. Run db server

docker compose up

5. Generate prisma client

npx prisma generate

6. Initialize MariaDB by applying migrations

npx prisma migrate dev

7. Seed the db

npx prisma db seed

8. Run app node.js development server

npm run dev

Architecture

The application is built using:

• Frontend: Next.js 12, React, TypeScript
• Styling: TailwindCSS, shadcn
• Real-time: WebSocket
• Database: MongoDB
• Synchronization: Automerge, Automerge Repo
• Canvas rendering: Konva.js
• Authentication: NextAuth.js

Project structure

Each directory contains:

• components/: React components organized by feature
  • auth/: Authentication related components
  • board/: Whiteboard and canvas components
  • boards/ : Team boards view related components
  • ui/: Shared UI components
  • layout/: Layout components
  • teams/: Team management components
• lib/: Core functionality
  • services/: Services implementing buisiness logic
  • auth/: Authentication logic
  • utils/: Shared utilities
• pages/: Next.js pages and API routes
• db/: Database connections and models
• public/: Static assets and icons
• styles/: Global styles and Tailwind configuration
• types/: TypeScript type definitions