Node.js Whiteboard App for Team / Educational Collaboration

Question

I'm looking to build/adapt a shared whiteboard app for team and educational collaboration. Draw on a board, write some text, save picture, clear board, etc. We've already got a simple chat system setup with node.js and socket.io so probably want to stay on that route.

1. What open source apps exist that might be pluggable / adaptable for this use?
2. What node.js / javascript / html5 technologies might be useful for this task?

Answer 1

As far as node.js technologies you would need the following

• express to handle your http server
• socket.io to handle communication

As far as rendering on the client I would recommend

• rapheal as an SVG rendering

Apart from that you need some kind of database, Redis, mongoDB & CouchDB are popular.

Apart from that just write it. Any other libraries you think you might need along the way can be found on the npm registry

However I can offer some package.json examples for my chat and my blog to give some inspiration as to what libraries are useful