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:

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

# git checkout tags/v0.17.3
# Fix docker build (fix already implemented upstream)
# git remote add jcobol https://github.com/jcobol/excalidraw
# git fetch jcobol
# git checkout 7582_fix_docker_build

# Adjust URLs inside of frontend.patch if you want to use a reverse proxy
git apply ../frontend.patch
cd ../
git checkout dev
docker build -t exalidraw-ui-build excalidraw -f ui-build.Dockerfile
docker run -v ${PWD}/:/pwd/ -it exalidraw-ui-build cp -r /frontend /pwd

(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
(Optional) Change ip:port of Go webserver at the end of main.go if you want to customize it

Compile the Go application:

go build -o excalidraw-complete main.go

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

Start the server:

./excalidraw-complete

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

---

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.