Direct integration of Whiteboard into Collectives?

[SeajayDan]

Integrate Whiteboard creation directly into Collectives

I use Whiteboard to diagram out architectures, show flows, and more. When creating a Collectives page describing a certain feature or functionality, I would like to have a button integrated into the Collectives toolbar (it can be in the ellipsis section) that would be "Create Whiteboard". Clicking this would open the Whiteboard app, allow me to edit the whiteboard, and when closing the Whiteboard, save a link to the Whiteboard in the Collectives body task. The rest of the integration is already existing; clicking on a Whiteboard link in Collectives opens the Whiteboard directly. I just want the ability to create the Whiteboard directly, too.

Currently doing a workaround. When I am editing a Collectives page that needs a Whiteboard, I open Files, then go to the Collectives section, then find the proper folder, then I click the "+New" at the top and select "New Whiteboard". Once I am done editing the Whiteboard, I create a share (link) to the Whiteboard, copy it, then go back to my Collectives page and paste it in.

[SeajayDan]

OK, so I poked around with Claude to add this functionality. Now when you create a Collectives page, you can directly create a Whiteboard. I do my whiteboard edits, download an image, and then close the whiteboard. I can drag and drop the image to the Collectives page. And then I can add a link via the SmartPicker, so I can edit the whiteboard directly when needed.

It's a single executable script, that builds the entire Collectives release with all the appropriate hooks. The README.txt tells you how to install.

Perhaps this functionality can be added for the future, so that whiteboards are better supported within Collectives?

install-whiteboard-direct.sh
README.txt

[mejo-]

Rhanks for sharing @SeajayDan. I took a look at the script and the idea is not too bad. It adds a "Whiteboard" button next to the "Edit/Preview" button which does the following: it checks if a <pageTitle>.whiteboard file exists next to the markdown file and if not creates one with an empty whiteboard template as default content. If the file doesn't exist, it also inserts a link to the file into the editor content. Then it opens this file using the Viewer.

I agree that this feature would be useful, but I wonder about the best implementation UX-wise. We already have an integration for adding new attachments in Text, see nextcloud/text#6676. But for some reason these options aren't visible in the Text menubar in Collectives. Probably it would be best to figure out why and change this.

@marcoambrosini for input from Design team.

[max-nextcloud]

I think this could be achieved with a smart picker integration for the whiteboard app. You can already create deck notes directly from collectives that way.
It would create a new whiteboard and embed a preview of it in the collective page.

[SeajayDan]

@mejo and @max-nextcloud - I agree, it would be better in the edit bar, being able to just add a whiteboard. Ideally I'd want multiple white boards on a single collective; I use them for quick flow charts, architecture sketches, etc. They are VERY handy, but at least I can have a bit more ease of using them now.

Doing a "create and then add/insert" would be ideal.