🐝 Bee Board: Collaborative Real-Time Whiteboard

Unleash Creativity, Together.
A high-performance MERN application for seamless real-time brainstorming, mind-mapping, and strategic planning.

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🚀 Overview

Bee Board is a sophisticated collaborative whiteboard designed for teams that need to visualize ideas as they happen. Whether you're conducting a sprint retrospective, mapping out a new feature, or brainstorming your next big product, Bee Board provides the speed and flexibility of a physical whiteboard with the power of digital collaboration.

✨ Key Features

📡 Real-Time Synchronicity

• Live Collaboration: See your teammates' cursors and actions in real-time.
• Socket-Powered: Minimal latency using Socket.io integration.
• Multi-User Interaction: Draw, move, and edit elements simultaneously without conflicts.

🛠️ Advanced Toolset

• Dynamic Elements: Use Sticky Notes, Text Boxes, and customizable Shapes (Rectangles, Circles, Arrows, Lines).
• Freehand Drawing: Express ideas naturally (coming soon).
• Priority Zones: Special canvas areas to organize and rank ideas instantly.
• Voting System: Contextual upvoting/downvoting on elements to gauge team consensus.

📑 Session Management

• Granular Privacy: Create Public, Private, or Password-Protected sessions.
• Templates: Jumpstart your meetings with pre-built session templates.
• Integrated Communication: Contextual Chat and a dedicated Q&A section with upvote support.
• Professional Export: Save your collaborative hard work as high-quality PDFs.

🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React, Vite, TailwindCSS, Konva.js
Backend	Node.js, Express.js
Real-time	Socket.io
Database	MongoDB & Mongoose
Auth	JWT (JSON Web Tokens)

🏁 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js: v16.0.0 or higher
• MongoDB: A running local instance or a MongoDB Atlas URI

📥 Installation & Setup

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/JAi-SATHVIK/bee-board.git
   cd bee-board

2. Install Dependencies

   npm install

   This will install dependencies for both the frontend (client) and backend (server).

3. Environment Configuration

   • Navigate to the server/ directory.
   • Create a .env file (or use the pre-configured one).
   • Ensure MONGODB_URI points to your database.

🏃 Running Locally

To launch the entire stack (Client & Server) concurrently:

npm run dev

• Client: http://localhost:7000
• Server: http://localhost:5000

📁 Project Structure

bee-board/
├── client/          # Vite + React Frontend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── pages/   # Application screens
│   │   ├── hooks/   # Custom React hooks
│   │   └── contexts/# Global state (Sockets, Auth)
├── server/          # Express.js Backend
│   ├── models/      # Mongoose Schemas
│   ├── controllers/ # Business Logic
│   └── sockets/     # Real-time event handlers
└── shared/          # Shared utilities and types