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Collaboration Kit

Real-time collaboration in Vaadin apps

The simple way to add real-time collaboration to Vaadin web apps.
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Real-time collaboration

What is Collaboration Kit?

Collaboration Kit is an integrated, simple way to implement real-time collaboration, such as simultaneous editing or a chat.

You can build collaborative features directly into Vaadin Flow applications: Don't rely on 3rd party tools, when you can directly integrate these features – giving you security, reliability, and complete control over all your sensitive data.

See who is there
Show your user avatar and see other active users in real-time.
View documentation
Edit a form together
Collaborate on the same form without delay and avoid conflicts when saving your work.
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Discuss
Chat, leave comments, and keep track of recent edits to any component or view.
View documentation

How does it work?

  • By providing integrated server logic, Collaboration Kit synchronizes user-state and data across multiple client instances of a web app in real time. It can be hosted on any on-premise server.
  • Ships with a high-level API tailored for specific use cases and low-level Topic APIs providing more fine-grained control over its features.
  • Fully supported with Vaadin's extensive free and commercial support services covering all aspects of the Vaadin platform.
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Installs with just a few lines of code

Collaboration Kit is easy to set up and integrate into new or existing Vaadin Flow apps. Use the Collaboration Avatar Group component to display active users in a specific area of the application, and simply subscribe to any Vaadin UI component, view, or application to a collaboration topic, using the API to enable collaboration capabilities.

You can enable all the features in only 4 easy steps.

See examples

Fully secure with on-premise hosting

Collaboration Kit can be hosted on any on-premise or cloud server that supports Docker. Sensitive data never leaves your servers, making it easy to ensure regulatory compliance and data security. 

Collaboration Kit is suitable for intranet or offline usage and supports a wide range of access control and security options.

Integrate with Vaadin components or build custom features

Collaboration Kit works with all Vaadin components out of the box. In addition, it supports custom UI components that comply with the widely-supported Web Components standard.

If our current or upcoming features aren’t an exact match for your specific requirements, then you can use the low-level Topic API to program them yourself. 

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Improved DX & Productıvıty

More great features to boost DX and productivity

Works with any Vaadin Component
Collaboration Kit works with all Vaadin components out of the box. In addition, it supports custom UI components to be integrated with Vaadin components.
Unparalleled development velocity
Simplicity and DX are at the heart of Collaboration Kit. Robust documentation, tight Vaadin integration, and an intuitive API, afford unmatched development velocity
Developed and optimized for Vaadin
Collaboration Kit was developed with Vaadin in mind. It works, and provides exceptional performance, out of the box. No tinkering or architectural changes are required.
Shrink your maintenance overhead
We provide all the updates, bug fixes, and security patches necessary to keep your app running smoothly— compatibility with new Vaadin versions and browsers is ensured.
End-to-end support for your application
Our extensive free and commercial support services cover all aspects of the Vaadin platform— including Collaboration Kit. If something goes wrong, we have your back.
Excellent user experience by default
Pre-defined behaviors and UX patterns that are easy to tweak, provide a solid foundation for building market-leading collaborative solutions for employees and customers.
Simple pricing

Pricing

Developing with Collaboration Kit is free.

You only need a license when taking your application into production. Start for free with 50 users per month or get unlimited users with our Prime and Ultimate subscriptions.

Core and Pro

 
 
Up to 50 application users
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Prime and Ultimate

 
 
Unlimited application users
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Have Questions?

Frequently Asked Questions

Learn the fundamentals of Collaboration Kit and watch a live demo with our introductory webinar.
Watch the webinar

How many licensed users do I get with my Vaadin subscription?

Core and Pro subscribers get 50 application users per month.

Prime, Enterprise, and Ultimate subscribers get unlimited access.

What happens to users who are not using collaboration features? Are they still able to use an application that includes Collaboration Kit?

Yes. If a user who has not been assigned a license interacts with a Collaboration Kit-powered component or view, they are presented with a regular, non-collaborative version of the component or view.

Developers can choose to enable collaborative features in specific UI components or views. In addition, they can use code to selectively use either CollaborationBinder or Binder depending on the application requirements.

How can I upgrade my user limit?

You get access to unlimited users by upgrading to Vaadin Prime or Ultimate. Contact our team and they'll be happy to set this up for you!

How long do I have to upgrade my user limit when I go over the user limit?

We give out a 30 day grace period the first time you go over the limit. Developers have control setting up a notification when the limit is exceeded. Collaboration Kit and your Vaadin application will continue to function normally. The grace period is reset upon upgrading, or on a yearly basis.

Is Collaboration Kit a stable, feature-complete and ready for production usage?

Yes. It has been extensively tested and is ready to be used in production. It is also feature-complete, in that it enables collaborative editing, but additional functionality will be introduced regularly over the coming months. For more information, please see our roadmap.

Which servers support hosting the Collaboration Kit?

Collaboration Kit can only be deployed directly on the application server (in-memory).

We're currently working on a BYOB (Bring Your Own Backend) approach, which means you will be able to reuse existing clustering infrastructure to distribute data within a cluster. 

How is the number of users calculated? Is it calculated per collaboration "topic", or the overall users of an application using collaboration features in a month?

The usage is calculated based on the total number of unique user ids encountered by the engine during the calendar month. It is not "per topic".

Will my application break if I go over the monthly user limit for Collaboration?

Your application will not break / be rendered unusable if you go over your limit. Instead, users over the limit will be assigned to separate "Topics", which will provide a non-collaborative experience similar to the regular Binder.

Which Vaadin version should my application be built on to use Collaboration Kit?

Vaadin 20 and newer versions include Collaboration Kit as part of the Vaadin platform. It can also be used in Vaadin 14 as a separate package. This means that the relevant dependency must be added to the pom.xml file of the application.

Why is Collaboration Kit free to develop but I still need a license?

There are no limitations or restrictions to develop with Collaboration Kit. A license or active subscription are needed only when going to production.

Does Vaadin host a cloud version of Collaboration Kit that I can subscribe to?

At this point in time, we only offer a self-hosted version of Collaboration Kit. A cloud version may materialize at a later stage.

What impact does enabling collaboration features have on my application server?

We estimate that up to 100,000 users should have no discernable impact on the performance of your application server. Advanced performance and scalability testing is currently underway. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

What programming languages does Collaboration Kit support?

Collaboration Kit initially ships with a Java API (Vaadin Flow). However, a TypeScript API (Hilla) is on our roadmap. If you're interested in this, send us a message!
Learn more about collaboration kit

Collaborative Experience Resources

Follow the links below to learn more about Collaboration Kit:
Documentation Demo app Release blog post Webinar recording What are collaborative experiences Collaboration for SaaS