whiteboard contents are not saved

[l3ochan]

I was able to setup the server and have my nextcloud instance connect to it. I can create new whiteboards but whatever I draw in them is not saved. If I close the whiteboard, when I go to reopen it, It's empty.

[sbe-arg]

same

[sbe-arg]

@l3ochan just as fyi whiteboard requires a backend... but in my case does not work with the backend XD
just checking whats your backend setup

[l3ochan]

I have the backend, all setup and working. The docker container. I use apache as reverse proxy to access it over the internet and I have cloudflare's proxy to hide my public IP. I have the green checkmark in my administrator settings. I can write stuff on the whiteboards. Only weird thing is that when I close them, then reopen them, they are empty.
The not so funny thing is that I learned that after having layed out my new home network organization... I lost quite some time there 🥲

[manumitted]

When I first set up, I noticed if the backend isn't working properly, it would time out very quickly.

I was just testing the whiteboard with a few colleagues and ... after a while it stopped saving. I noticed it blank out, then go back to an old version of the drawing, then go to the latest version of the drawing, but I can very well see from the file app that the size and date hasn't changed for over a half hour. (Maybe it will update when we all exit the editing session?) There's no indication other than the above that it isn't working, but I'm assuming it's not saving our recent edits. I was able to copy via clipboard to a new file, though.

[hweihwang]

@l3ochan Could you check your whiteboard backend logs for any errors? It seems there might be issues with API calls between the whiteboard backend and Nextcloud when saving - possibly the whiteboard backend can't reach the Nextcloud backend, or an API communication issues. Checking the logs should help identify the specific problem.

Quick note on how saving works: Changes are kept in memory and only saved to Nextcloud when either everyone leaves the whiteboard or when the Node.js server shuts down properly. This helps reduce network traffic and disk I/O.

[EricMeallier]

the http://nextcloud.domain/settings/admin/whiteboard will tell you if the configuration is working.
For me:
URL http://nextcloud.domain/whiteboard/

PS: I config a nginx reverse proxy to handle this, on the same host/server than nextcloud main server

[manumitted]

Now I see that it will only save when everyone leaves, as stated above.

Today I was editing one solo and at some point it didn't save. I left and returned to check if it saved. A number of my last edits hadn't been saved, although many/most of what was done had been saved. I wonder if the trouble began when I added a frame around a portion of the diagram. (edit: or maybe there's some race condition between leaving and re-editing?)

I'll have to look into how to get a log from the whiteboard server (in docker).

[mvvvmd]

@manumitted docker logs whiteboard-docker-nextcloud-whiteboard-server-1

For me it turned out to be DNS issues in docker.

[Markus87]

Just had the same issue, of course I did not install the backend. (its just an app! 🤦‍♂)

For the user of the "App" there is no indication that there is something wrong.
It would be great if the App would at least inform the user that any work will be lost.
Or if the app just could save the file that was created anyway in nextcloud? (Standalone mode / without backend?)
I could live without any collab features that would require the backend.

[l3ochan]

@hweihwang Hi,
I can confirm my whiteboard backend has access to my nextcloud instance. There's no log reporting an issue accessing my nextcloud.

[seblveb]

Hello,

I'm experiencing the same issue when using the whiteboard in collaborative multi-user mode: all browser sessions need to be closed for the document to save. This is quite risky, especially since we use Excalidraw for sensitive meetings, and losing notes would be a real problem.

For now, I’m testing a workaround by restarting the Nginx service every 5 minutes using a cron job, but this solution is far from ideal. I understand that my setup is functioning as intended, but I believe it would be safer to have an alternative, like a manual save button.

[MaryEaston]

I am encountering an issue where the Whiteboard data is not being saved in Nextcloud. The Collaborate server is running, and it shows the message Whiteboard backend server is configured and connected under settings/admin/whiteboard. However, when attempting to edit the Whiteboard, the following log is got in Whiteboard backend server:

Logs when entering the Whiteboard editing screen on browser:

[46782] NOTF4uRDQf1E9hrkAAAv has joined 46782
[46782] Syncing room data
[46782] No data provided or existing, fetching from server...
FetchError: request to http://localhost:8082/index.php/apps/whiteboard/46782 failed, reason:
[46782] Fetched data from server:
null
    at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (file:///app/node_modules/node-fetch/src/index.js:108:11)
    at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at emitErrorEvent (node:_http_client:103:11)
    at Socket.socketErrorListener (node:_http_client:506:5)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at emitErrorNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:170:8)
    at emitErrorCloseNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:129:3)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21) {
  type: 'system',
  errno: 'ECONNREFUSED',
  code: 'ECONNREFUSED',
[46782] Room data synced. Users: 1, Last edited by: null, files: 0
erroredSysCall: undefined
}
[46782] Fetched data from server:
null

Logs when exiting the Whiteboard editing screen on browser:

[46782] Syncing room data
[46782] Room data synced. Users: 1, Last edited by: mary, files: 0
[socket:9tsjS-WnB5kXx4NRAAA1] Disposing room
[46782] Mary has disconnected
socket rooms [ '46782' ]
[46782] Mary has left 46782
[46782] Syncing room data
[46782] Room data synced. Users: 0, Last edited by: mary, files: 0
[46782] Disposing room
[46782] Saving room data to server: 1 elements, 0 files
[46782] Room is empty, removed from cache
FetchError: request to http://localhost:8082/index.php/apps/whiteboard/46782 failed, reason:
    at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (file:///app/node_modules/node-fetch/src/index.js:108:11)
    at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:531:35)
    at emitErrorEvent (node:_http_client:103:11)
    at Socket.socketErrorListener (node:_http_client:506:5)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at emitErrorNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:170:8)
    at emitErrorCloseNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:129:3)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21) {
  type: 'system',
  errno: 'ECONNREFUSED',
  code: 'ECONNREFUSED',
  erroredSysCall: undefined
}