Implementation of an on-line drawing board shared by distributed users

Abstract

This project is to implement an on-line drawing board using Java. An on-line drawing board that can be shared by distributed users will be very useful in the discussion of technical contents. The system provides three communication means, i.e. instant messaging, graphical drawing board, and file transfer. The software system contains three major components, namely the drawing module, the messaging module and the connection module. The drawing module allows users to post images, make free-hand drawings and put geometric shapes/text on top of the image. The display can be automatically synchronized such that drawing done by a user will be shown on the display of other users immediately. The messaging module supports instant messaging. The connection module is responsible for (i) coordinating the communications among users, and (ii) the transmission of text, files and graphic objects between users. The software system is implemented in-house and most of the codes are developed from scratch.