Excalidraw - Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams

[jdaviescoates]

Details about self-hosting https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw#self-hosting :

We publish a Docker image with the Excalidraw client at excalidraw/excalidraw. You can use it to self-host your own client under your own domain, on Kubernetes, AWS ECS, etc.
docker build -t excalidraw/excalidraw .
docker run --rm -dit --name excalidraw -p 5000:80 excalidraw/excalidraw:latest
The Docker image is free of analytics and other tracking libraries.

At the moment, self-hosting your own instance doesn't support sharing or collaboration features.

We are working towards providing a full-fledged solution for self-hosting your own Excalidraw.

Shame self-hosting doesn't have collaboration features yet, but this still looks well worth having.

[avatar1024]

Would be great to see the self-hosted version gain the collaboration feature soon and then get it on Cloudron! So far it seems one of the best Free Software whiteboard / canvas tool out there in terms of simplicity and feel. So far I'm not finding the Nexctloud whiteboard tool very convenient, intuitive or pretty.

[jdaviescoates]

@avatar1024 said in Excalidraw - Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams:

So far I'm not finding the Nexctloud whiteboard tool very convenient, intuitive or pretty.

Presumably you're trying the new Whiteboard Integration app and not the Whiteboard app?

This one:
https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/integration_whiteboard

Not this one:
https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/whiteboard

[avatar1024]

@jdaviescoates indeed, using the integrated whiteboard. I think the other app been depreciated.

[marcusquinn]

This does look good, and probably evolved since first posted. Worth another look?

• https://excalidraw.com/
• https://libraries.excalidraw.com/
• https://plus.excalidraw.com/excalidraw-plus-vs-excalidraw

[marcusquinn]

We now have tldraw, but just a quick bump on this post for those interested to compare: https://plus.excalidraw.com/excalidraw-plus-vs-excalidraw

[jdaviescoates]

@marcusquinn said in Excalidraw - Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams:

We now have tldraw, but just a quick bump on this post for those interested to compare: https://plus.excalidraw.com/excalidraw-plus-vs-excalidraw

What is not at all clear to me is whether or not Excalidraw Plus is self-hostable or not - have you managed to work that out?

[marcusquinn]

@jdaviescoates I can't see a repo for it. Kinda typical of the FOSS as marketing model, which is fair enough, choices of features to hold back might be questionable though.

[jdaviescoates]

@jdaviescoates said in Excalidraw - Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams:

Shame self-hosting doesn't have collaboration features yet

I note those lines about the self-hosted version not having collaborative features are no longer present on the GitHub repo, and so presumably the the self-hosted version does indeed now have those features!

[Sam_uk]

Anecdotal but I just tried to collaborate on a self-hosted version and it didn't work

[timconsidine]

@marcusquinn said in Excalidraw - Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams:

We now have tldraw,

Given that tldraw wants their ball back, it wold be worth looking at Excalidraw.

The lack of collaboration of features within self-host (unless they have changed that) is a shame but not a blocker to having this on Cloudron (imho).

[robi]

@timconsidine Cryptpad has a collab whiteboard built in btw

[timconsidine]

Yes, but it (meaning the whiteboard library) is from Russia - can't touch it.
Also bit simplistic, or that's their examples.
Excalidraw is best I have seen so far.

[robi]

@timconsidine Ah, perhaps you can let them know of the better option?

Looking at their docs https://docs.excalidraw.com/docs/@excalidraw/excalidraw/installation#dimensions-of-excalidraw
It's just an npm install, so should be easy to package for Cloudron and if need be swap out an integration that also uses an npm install by changing the target name in the code, like Cryptpad if they're not interested in a switch.

[chetbaker]

Just pointing out I would also be interested in seeing developments on Cloudron side to hopefully self-host this in case it's possible.

[samuk]

I'd use this

[josephcosta]

The library is also usable in nextcloud:
https://github.com/nextcloud/whiteboard/blob/main/README.md

I use it (not in cloudron) with a simple docker-compose:

services:
  whiteboard:
    image: ghcr.io/nextcloud-releases/whiteboard
    restart: always
#    ports:
#      - 3002:3002
    environment:
      - NEXTCLOUD_URL=https://your.nextcloud.url
      - JWT_SECRET_KEY=KEYsome-strong-one

[Grienauer]

I used the SAAS Version. And it is quite good and a nice tool!
lg Nico

[timconsidine]

I have packaged Excalidraw for Cloudron as a custom app.

My git : https://git.cloudron.io/timconsidine/cloudron-excalidraw
Built cloudron docker image : tcmbp132021/cloudron-excalidraw:v2

Available for convenience on CCAI (custom app installer) https://ccai.appx.uk

The GitHub release is v0.18.0 (2025-03-11) but this version number does not reflect the wide and stable deployment of Excalidraw, so I feel it can be considered for official adoption, even though it has not reached the normal criterion of a v1.0 release.

I have been running Excalidraw on a plain VPS via docker-compose.yml, but can now remove it from there and deploy on my primary preferred production server (Cloudron).

[robi]

Nice Christmas present

Thank you