Question About Adding File Upload Support (Especially PDFs) in Excalidraw

[yashop7]

I’m exploring the idea of adding a feature to upload and share PDFs directly on the Excalidraw whiteboard, but I’m unsure if it’s truly necessary given the challenges it presents. I’d like to outline the problems & suggest an alternative, and get your perspective on this issue & if so, how we should approach it.

Problems I’m Facing

Large PDFs: If someone uploads a bigger PDF, especially multi-page ones, it could slow down the whiteboard or even crash it during collaborative use.

Memory Overload: Excalidraw is lightweight by design, and adding file uploads might overload memory, affecting performance.

Ongoing Maintenance: With every new version of Excalidraw, we’d need to keep the upload feature compatible, which could mean constant updates and bug fixes.

A Suggested Alternative
Instead of uploading PDFs to the whiteboard, what if we introduced a feature to share them via messages or links? It feels quick & simple

Time Investment If It’s Needed
However, it’d be a big task—changing the Excalidraw codebase to handle file uploads would require modifications for file processing, rendering, caching and syncing. I estimate it’d take around 350 hours to do it right. So, we’d either can shift the upload feature to messages (which would be quicker) or extend the project timeline to accommodate this.

What Do You Think?
From my upper-level perspective, this looks like a challenging problem, but I am ready for it. Is the direct PDF upload a must-have for Jitsi-meet, or would sharing via messages work for most cases? If it’s the former, are you okay with the extra time it’ll take? I want to make sure my effort fits the project’s needs, so please let me know your thoughts so I can plan accordingly. @saghul @mihhu

[saghul]

IMHO it's too big of a lift and the maintenance burden is way too high.

[yashop7]

IMHO it's too big of a lift and the maintenance burden is way too high.

Then, Sir, what do you recommend, should I stay on this path of File sharing, or should I keep my focus on images

I also have an additional Doubt,
I also read some Community Posts, & I know Firebase is a default option in case of excalidraw, but I understand it may not align with our open-source alternative of jitsi-meet, For instance, can you please advise me on platforms I can plan to integrate to store images such as Supabase, Appwrite, or MiniIO offer various features that might be suitable

[saghul]

Some S3 connector type might be best, like MiniIO I think.

[yashop7]

Then, Sir, what do you recommend, should I stay on this path of File sharing, or should I keep my focus on images

@saghul, Now, should I divert my focus to images? as your answer would help me in planning better for the Project

[saghul]

Image storage with a pluggable backend would be good.

[wilsonfurtado2000]

Image storage with a pluggable backend would be good.

I am planning to store image on the collaboration server and run a cron job to delete the image files(every day), is that a good option ? @saghul

I have already submitted a proposal on GSoC btw :)

[yashop7]

Image storage with a pluggable backend would be good.

@saghul I have coded the Pluggable Backend Logic for the Image Storage that goes with any Backend, Now I am creating the proposal for the Project, I want your advice on Whether I should mention the PDF Upload Feature ?

[saghul]

Only if Excalidraw also supports it.

[yashop7]

@saghul @mihhu

I’ve just submitted my full proposal on the GSoC website and followed your approach of Pluggable Backend, please take a look when you get a chance, and let me know if there’s anything else I can clarify or expand on. I appreciate your guidance and look forward to any feedback!

Hope to work with you soon!

[yashop7]

Hey @saghul, I might have found an efficient way to upload files, which is by using SimplePDF I just want your opinion on it

Based on this PR excalidraw/excalidraw#6810, we can use the web embed feature to display PDF via SimplePDF (https://embed.simplepdf.eu/editor).

Like when a user uploads a PDF, we will store it in MiniIO, from where we will generate a URL which can be shared with other users via the collaboration server

We will have to embed the PDF URL with Simple PDF’s URL like that https://embed.simplepdf.eu/editor?open=PDF-URL

(tried this => https://embed.simplepdf.eu/editor?open=https://file-examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/file-sample_100kB.pdf) works👍

The main part is to open the WebEmbedded Tool option for the other user, when they get the PDF URL

Implementing this will be efficient or we will have to go to the option of converting each PDF page into Image one by one and also will have to find a way to show them effectively. I mean, simplePDF is already providing the feature to seamlessly interact with the PDF by also giving the option to edit & interact the PDF at the same time

Can you tell me if we can use this Approach, so I can start working on this

[saghul]

Sounds good! It should also support using our own simple PDF server, since it fits the self-hosting story better.

[yashop7]

OK @saghul , noted! I’ll use SimplePDF and plan for self-hosting support