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I told some other folks that I'd had a measure of success with a=20
whiteboard app, and I was asked to describe my experiences here. So here=20
it goes. :-)

I used hiveboard, http://hiveboard.sourceforge.net/website/web/index.html
=2E It works. It has an open license, and the only thing I am unsure of is
that it's in java. But it's free, so we get what we (don't) pay for. :-)

It's a client-server system. Both the client and server are java apps. The
client comes in a stand-alone form and just runs. I've run it under NetBSD
using sun-1.4 JDK.

The server takes more work, but I have it running under NetBSD too. It
needs a Servlet Container and an SQL database. I used Tomcat and
PostreSQL. You can use MySQL and Jetty instead, if you want. The hiveboard
instructions were actually quite good. I only ran into a few issues.

1) follow the http://hiveboard.sourceforge.net/website/web/install.html
"Quick Installation" instructions.

2) You have to select a java-db interface. jdbc for PostgreSQL works fine,
however you have to take some extra steps, documented on the pg web pages,
to hook it into Tomcat. It took me a while to find this issue. :-) Mainly
you have to have a copy of the jdbc code in the Tomcat tree, or so said
postgresql.org. :-)

This step isn't in the "Quick Installation" instructions as this is a=20
"hooking one external thing to another" kinda step.

3) Minor issue, but if you chose to run hiveboard under a non-default SQL
user ID, log into postgres using THAT user ID when you create all of the
tables & such. :-) I created a "hiveboard" pgsql user and had tomcat use=20
it. It didn't work as I created the database with another user and=20
"hiveboard" didn't have access permissions.



The whiteboard works fine. You set up conferences ("Active Boards"), and
the "initiator" acts as moderator. The moderator controls who has write
access to the board at any time. If the moderator isn't logged in, there's
no way (that I know of) to change who has the write bit set.

The standard set of bitmapped drawing tools is there. You can add text,
draw lines, make boxes and cirles, etc.

The one oddity is that when you add text, it isn't sent to the server
until you start the next text box. I think that's so you can change fonts
& such. It takes some getting used to, as changing to draw a line or a box=
=20
doesn't push the just-entered text to the server.

You can take snapshots, but I haven't played with that.

I was actually pleased with it and pkgsrc. Everything I installed was out
of pkgsrc, which was neat.

Oh, it supports http and https access to tomcat. So all you have to do are
the "standard" things and it's secure.

The one final thing is that I may want to get a tablet if I use this much.
Drawing w/ a mouse is awkward.

Take care,

Bill

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