nextcloud / nextcloud/whiteboard

Add support for importing and displaying PDF files in Nextcloud Whiteboard

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Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
215
Forks
39
Avg merge
1d 3h
Merged PRs (30d)
32

Description

Currently the Nextcloud Whiteboard app only allows images to be added to the canvas. For collaborative brainstorming workflows, it is essential to be able to import PDF documents directly, display them on the canvas, and annotate them in place.

Use case:
When working with teams on design reviews, architectural concepts or shared documents (such as meeting minutes, sketches, plans), PDFs are one of the most common formats. Users often want to bring existing PDF content (e.g. plans, diagrams, reports) into the whiteboard, annotate them together, and keep related annotations contextually integrated on the same canvas.

Proposed functionality:
1. Support uploading PDF files directly into the Whiteboard.
2. Render PDF pages so that they can be displayed inline (similar to images).
3. Allow users to navigate pages of a PDF within the board (e.g. by selecting page numbers).
4. Allow basic whiteboard interactions/annotations on top of the rendered PDF content.
5. Bonus: Option to export annotated PDF back to PDF with annotations embedded.

Benefits:
• Enables richer collaborative workflows without switching between apps.
• Reduces need for external screenshot-to-image conversion workarounds.
• Improves adoption of Whiteboard for workshops, design reviews and teaching.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue does not name files or tests. Start by locating the existing image import and display flow in the JavaScript Whiteboard code, then assess the requested PDF upload, page navigation, inline rendering, and annotation behavior. Done means PDFs can be added, browsed, displayed, and annotated on the canvas; exporting annotated PDFs is listed as a bonus.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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