Bill Studenmund <wrstuden <at> netbsd.org> writes:

> 
> I told some other folks that I'd had a measure of success with a 
> whiteboard app, and I was asked to describe my experiences here. So here 
> it goes. 
> 
> I used hiveboard, http://hiveboard.sourceforge.net/website/web/index.html
> . 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 
> "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 
> it. It didn't work as I created the database with another user and 
> "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 
> 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
> 

Hello,

I am the author of HiveBoard, so first of all thank you for reporting your 
experience with it and giving a few tips on installation. I may add these to 
HiveBoard web site some day (I need to add a FAQ section first).

I want to apologize if my message is regarded as off-topic by readers of this 
list.

For information, I have just released version 0.4.0 (yesterday ;-)) and I 
think it may be of interest to you:
- there is now an "embedded server" package which requires no external DBMS, 
no Servlet container. This can be installed from scratch in less than 5 
minutes (provided you have a Java JVM installed already).
- there are 2 new tools in the drawing palette:
1. Insert image: it allows to insert any kind of image file at any position of 
your whiteboard, within any size, with or without scaling, with or without 
transparency level
2. Highlighter: this is not for drawing actually, but showing information on 
the board during a conference. The highlighter is simply a free hand-pen tool 
which color and thickness are user-specific (defined in preferences) and that 
will disappear as soon as another drawing tool gets used; there is also 
a "clear highlight" tool that will remove all highlighted zones without having 
to draw anything new.

Now to answer some points raised in your original message:

1. If the moderator isn't logged in, there's no way (that I know of) to change 
who has the write bit set.
=> yes that's correct so far. In the future, I may add a feature for the 
initiator to transfer (temporarily) his "right to set the write bit" to some 
other participant, so that the conference can go on without him. But I have no 
real plan for this feature yet (I just discovered your message yesterday).
There might also be another way to implement such a kind of feature: 
automatically setting the write bit to the next person who have required it 
(maybe with agreement of the current writer); This would be an option of the 
board. I will think about it for 0.5.0.

2. The one oddity is that when you add text, it isn't sent to the server until 
you start the next text box.
=> I never paid attention to that problem before. I will investigate it and 
try to fix it soon. For me it is definately a bug, not a feature.

3. The one final thing is that I may want to get a tablet if I use this much. 
Drawing w/ a mouse is awkward.
=> Yes, this is definately worth it! Using a tablet makes life easier (I have 
a tiny one and I appreciate it much). However, what I would have liked in 
HiveBoard is to be able to change draw line thickness based on pen pressure. 
Unfortunately, it does not seem possible in Java, so you still have to set 
line thickness from the tool palette.

Hope you can enjoy HiveBoard latest version as much or even more than the one 
you currently use.

If you have further suggestions, please do not hesitate to let me know, I 
would be glad to add them to HiveBoard features list!

Cheers

Jean-Francois Poilpret

HiveBoard team, http://hiveboard.sourceforge.net