Squarelet: A cooperative online pinboard

Squarelet is an online pinboard that enables pupils (from age 10), students and knowledge workers to develop, display and share ideas together without barriers, by creating and connecting squares of different types such as text, links, images and embedded open content.

maintained by:

Prototype: squarelet.org (works best on Firefox desktop currently)

Wireframes: Google Slides (public comments)

Want to jump in?

• Improve the Design: Comment the Wireframes in our google slides presentation
• Bug hunt: Did you find a bug in the prototype? Please check existing github issues and create a new one if it is not listed yet.
• Use Cases: How would you like to use squarelet, in class or in your work? Please describe your idea as a comment to this issue
• Writing code: Ready to write some javascript with us? These issues are waiting..
• Discuss: There are still some open ended questions for this prototype. Join in on the discussion.

Current Features

• Offline first

  • All data is saved locally in IndexedDB using localForage.
  • Uses SW Precache Webpack Plugin to make it possible to use Squarelet even without internet connection.

• Square types

  • Markdown using SimpleMDE editor.
  • Image from an external URL or uploaded to the IndexedDB.
  • Website embedded using iframe.

• Connections

  • Create connection between the squares, automatically where the connection path is the shortest.
  • Change connection width.
  • Make connections dashed.
  • Change connection color.

• Board

  • Change background color
  • Change background image
  • Create multiple boards
  • Export a board to a file
  • Import a board from a file

Roadmap

Short term - What we are working on now 🎉

• Explain project and open it to the community
  • ✅ create wireframes
  • ✅ collect use cases
  • ✏️ create gifs of use cases
  • ✏️ create landing page
• create an MVP
  • ✅ squarelets can be saved online
    • ✏️ simple backend options
    • (more detailed description follows)
  • ✅ squarelets can be shared with others
    • (more detailed description follows)
  • architecture is prepared for future extensions
    • change UI library to prepare for easier mobile interface
    • option to include new square types
  • improve usability
    • fix main bugs
  • improve design

Medium term - what we're working on next! 🎨

• Collaborative real time editing
• Even better usability
  • Mobile view
• embedding open content
• Export options in other filetypes
  • pdf
  • html
• different views of squares
  • canvas view (standard)
  • structured view
• create templates for squares

Longer term items - working on this soon! ⏩

• Different views
• Option to include different square types
• "Content pickers" from open licensed content (Wiki commons / flickr etc)

Development

$ git clone https://github.com/okfde/squarelet
$ cd squarelet
$ npm install # or yarn install
$ npm run serve # or yarn run server

To build it:

$ npm run build # or yarn run build

the output is going to be generated at dist/ folder.