janlo/spacedeck-open repository overview

⁠Spacedeck Open

This is the free and open source version of Spacedeck, a web based, real time, collaborative whiteboard application with rich media support. Spacedeck was developed in 6 major releases during Autumn 2011 until the end of 2016 and was originally a commercial SaaS. The developers were Lukas F. Hartmann (mntmn) and Martin Güther (magegu).

The spacedeck.com online service was shut down on May 1st 2018. We decided to open-source Spacedeck to allow educational and other organizations who currently rely on Spacedeck to migrate to a self-hosted or local version.

MNT Research GmbH⁠ has restarted development of Spacedeck Open in 2020.

We appreciate filed issues, pull requests and general discussion.

⁠Features

• Create virtual whiteboards called Spaces with virtually unlimited size
• Drag & drop images, videos and audio from your computer or the web
• Write and format text with full control over fonts, colors and style
• Draw, annotate and highlight with included graphical shapes
• Turn your Space into a zooming presentation
• Collaborate in realtime with teammates, students or friends
• Share Spaces on the web or via email
• Export your work as printable PDF or ZIP (currently being fixed, stay tuned)

⁠Use Cases

• Education: Virtual classwork with multimedia
• Creative: Mood boards, Brainstorming, Design Thinking
• Visual note taking and planning

⁠Requirements, Installation

Spacedeck requires:

• Node.js 10.x: Web Server / API. Download: https://nodejs.org⁠
• Graphicsmagick. On non-Linux, Download: http://www.graphicsmagick.org/⁠ On Linux, install via package manager.
• Optionally ffmpeg, audiowaveform and ghostscript. See "Optional Dependencies" below.

To run Spacedeck, you only need Node.JS 10.x.

To install all node dependencies, run (do this once) after cloning the repository:

npm install

⁠Configuration

See config/default.json⁠. Set storage_local_path for a local sqlite database or storage_region, storage_bucket, storage_cdn and storage_endpoint for AWS S3. mail_provider may be one of console or smtp. Also, omit a trailing / for the endpoint.

⁠Disable DB logs

...
"db_logs_disabled": true
...

⁠Configure color swatches

Add a custom array of swatches to your config/default.json.

You should include the swatch transparent (rgba(0,0,0,0)) so users can remove the color applied.

⁠Configure default colors

You can define text, stroke and fill color in your config/default.json.

You also should include the default colors in your custom swatches palette.

...
"spacedeck": {
  "default_text_color": "#E11F26",
  "default_stroke_color": "#9E0F13",
  "default_fill_color": "#64BCCA",
  "swatches": [
    {"id":8, "hex":"#000000"},
    {"id":30, "hex":"rgba(0,0,0,0)"},
    {"id":31, "hex": "#E11F26"},
    {"id":32, "hex": "#9E0F13"},
    {"id":33, "hex": "#64BCCA"},
    {"id":34, "hex": "#40808A"},
    {"id":35, "hex": "#036492"},
    {"id":36, "hex": "#005179"},
    {"id":37, "hex": "#84427E"},
    {"id":38, "hex": "#6C3468"},
    {"id":39, "hex": "#F79B84"},
    {"id":40, "hex": "#B57362"},
    {"id":41, "hex": "#E7D45A"},
    {"id":42, "hex": "#ACA044"}
  ]
}
...

⁠Run (web server)

node spacedeck.js

Then open http://localhost:9666⁠ in a web browser.

⁠Optional Dependencies

For advanced media conversion:

• ffmpeg and ffprobe for video/audio conversion. Download: https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html⁠
• audiowaveform for audio waveform rendering. Download: https://github.com/bbcrd/audiowaveform⁠
• ghostscript for PDF import. Download: https://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html⁠

⁠Data Storage

By default, media files are uploaded to the storage folder. The database is stored in database.sqlite by default.

⁠Other databases (Not officially supported)

⁠Postgres

Add the pg⁠ module and change the config/default.json to

"storage_dialect": "postgres",

Adapt the other values as needed

"storage_host": "localhost",
"storage_database": "spacedeck",
"storage_username": "username",
"storage_password": "password",

⁠Run with Docker

• configure config/default.json
• adapt your docker-compose.yml if needed.
• start the container with docker-compose up (use -d for background process and --build for rebuilding the image)

⁠Hacking

To rebuild the frontend CSS styles:

gulp styles

⁠License

The Spacedeck logo and brand assets are registered trademarks of Spacedeck GmbH. All rights reserved.

Spacedeck Open source code is released under the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3 (GNU AGPLv3).

Spacedeck Open - Web-based Collaborative Whiteboard For Rich Media
Copyright (C) 2011-2018 Lukas F. Hartmann, Martin Güther
Icons and original CSS design copyright by Thomas Helbig

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.