Excalidraw Complete: A Self-Hosted Solution

Excalidraw Complete simplifies the deployment of Excalidraw, bringing an all-in-one solution to self-hosting this versatile virtual whiteboard. Designed for ease of setup and use, Excalidraw Complete integrates essential features into a single Go binary. This solution encompasses:

• The intuitive Excalidraw frontend UI for seamless user experience.
• An integrated data layer ensuring fast and efficient data handling based on different data providers.
• A socket.io implementation to enable real-time collaboration among users.

The project goal is to alleviate the setup complexities traditionally associated with self-hosting Excalidraw, especially in scenarios requiring data persistence and collaborative functionalities.

Installation

To get started, download the latest release binary:

# Visit https://github.com/PatWie/excalidraw-complete/releases/ for the download URL
wget <binary-download-url>
chmod +x excalidraw-complete
./excalidraw-complete

Once launched, Excalidraw Complete is accessible at localhost:3002, ready for drawing and collaboration.

Configuration

Excalidraw Complete adapts to your preferences with customizable storage solutions, adjustable via the STORAGE_TYPE environment variable:

• Filesystem: Opt for STORAGE_TYPE=filesystem and define LOCAL_STORAGE_PATH to use a local directory.
• SQLite: Select STORAGE_TYPE=sqlite with DATA_SOURCE_NAME for local SQLite storage, including the option for :memory: for ephemeral data.
• AWS S3: Choose STORAGE_TYPE=s3 and specify S3_BUCKET_NAME to leverage S3 bucket storage, ideal for cloud-based solutions.

These flexible configurations ensure Excalidraw Complete fits seamlessly into your existing setup, whether on-premise or in the cloud.

Building from Source

Interested in contributing or customizing? Build Excalidraw Complete from source with these steps:

Using Docker (Recommended)

# Clone the repository with submodules
git clone https://github.com/PatWie/excalidraw-complete.git --recursive
cd excalidraw-complete

# Build the Docker image (includes frontend and backend)
docker build -t excalidraw-complete -f excalidraw-complete.Dockerfile .

# Run the container
docker run -p 3002:3002 excalidraw-complete

Manual Build

# Clone and prepare the Excalidraw frontend
git clone https://github.com/PatWie/excalidraw-complete.git --recursive
cd ./excalidraw-complete/excalidraw

# Apply frontend patches
git apply ../frontend.patch

# Build frontend
npm install
cd excalidraw-app
npm run build:app:docker
cd ../../

# Copy frontend build to correct location
cp -r excalidraw/excalidraw-app/build frontend/

# Build Go application
go build -o excalidraw-complete main.go

(Optional) Replace localhost:3002 inside of main.go with your domain name if you want to use a reverse proxy (Optional) Replace "ssl=!0", "ssl=0" with "ssl=!0", "ssl=1" if you want to use HTTPS (Optional) Replace "ssl:!0", "ssl:0" with "ssl:!0", "ssl:1" if you want to use HTTPS

Declare environment variables if you want any (see section above) Example: STORAGE_TYPE=sqlite DATA_SOURCE_NAME=/tmp/excalidb.sqlite

Start the server:

go run main.go --listen=":3002"

STORAGE_TYPE=sqlite DATA_SOURCE_NAME=test.db go run main.go --loglevel debug --listen=":3002"
STORAGE_TYPE=filesystem LOCAL_STORAGE_PATH=/tmp/excalidraw/ go run main.go --loglevel debug --listen=":3002"

Excalidraw Complete is now running on your machine, ready to bring your collaborative whiteboard ideas to life.

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Excalidraw is a fantastic tool, but self-hosting it can be tricky. I welcome your contributions to improve Excalidraw Complete — be it through adding new features, improving existing ones, or bug reports.