Realtime Collaboration on maps means MindMaze lets you work with a map by multiple users simultaneously. The users can
Prerequisites
Realtime collaboration is facilitated via Google Drive Realtime API. As such, pre-requisites are same for using Google Drive as storage option. Read pre-requisites for Google Drive storage here.
Starting a collaborative session
Realtime collaboration is implemented as an extension. This is because this reduces load time and processing time for people not using it. To integrate realtime collaboration functionality, click on 'Extensions'. This pops another window. You can see the available extensions in this window. Check 'Realtime Collaboration' and close the window. Mindmaze will now load 'Realtime Collaboration'. You will see a new top menu named 'Collaboration' next to 'Extensions'.
To start a collaborative session, click on 'Collaboration'->'Start'. (it has a play symbol). This starts a collaborative session on the load map. During a collaboration session, the original map copy is unaffected. It stores the collaborative map in Google Drive under the filename you gave as 'Description' in the next step. Regardless of whether the original map resides in 'Mindmaze storage' or Browser storage or Github, a copy of the map is stored in Google Drive.
On clicking 'Collaboration'->'Start', it pops up another window asking you to give a descriptive name for 'Collaboration session'. The collaborative map will be stored under this description. When you invite other users they also see this name. So give a meaningful description.
If you are using 'Collaborative Session' for the first time with the currently logged Google Account or you are not logged to any Google Account, you will see a message 'This operation requires authentication through Google Drive Realtime! Click here to authenticate' at the top, below menu bar.
Click on 'Click here to authenticate' and authorize MindMaze to your Google Drive Account for real-time collaboration.
After this operation, Mindmaze saves a copy of the map to your Google Drive account and sets it up for realtime collaboration. If you check the 'Collaboration' menu now, it has different options like 'Who is Online?', 'Invite collaborators', 'Leave Current session'.
On clicking 'Who is Online?', it pops up another window where it shows the users currently joined for the collaborative session. To invite another user for this collaborative session, click on 'Invite Collaborators'. It opens a window where you can set access privileges for the document (you can make it as a private or public map). You can also set access privileges per user. That is, you can let some users only view this map while letting some other users with 'modify/edit' privileges. This is much like the way you share a private map stored in Google Drive with your contacts.
With necessary edits, you can make your collaborative session private or public. During a session, data is never passed through our servers. It is passed directly between your browser and Google. You can pass/store sensitive information as long as you trust Google.
On clicking 'Leave current session', it lets you 'sign out' or 'leave' the current collaborative session. You can join another collaborative session or work with an individual map.
As collaborative map is stored as a file in Google Drive, you can invite your contacts for collaborative session by directly sharing the URL from MindMaze. In this case, you have to set access privileges for individual users by going to Google Drive and set it manually. This is explained in Working with google drive.
During a collaborative session, check what your fellow users are doing and follow them. Many types of collaboration are possible with mindmaps. Sometimes, you are the 'boss' and you let many users work with individual tasks and you want to monitor them. Sometimes the whole team works with mindmap and other people should watch and make comments on the same work.
As you invite and more people join to the collaboration session, you see their profile photos adjacent to the nodes they are currently working. This photo is same as that attached to their Google profile. On clicking these profile photos, you can follow someone automatically so that you can always monitor what they see.
If the photo is transparent, that means you are not following that person. On clicking a photo, it will become non-transparent - and you are following that person. From now on, your screen will move, when they move the screen. On clicking again on the photo, it becomes transparent again and you are no longer following that person. Another way to select to follow someone is to click on 'Collaboration'->'Who is online?'. On the window that pops up, you can select another contact to follow.
Joining an Existing session
You can also join an existing collaborative session instead of starting a new one. For instance, if one of your contacts has invited you for a session, you can join them. To join an existing session, click on 'Collaboration'->'Join an existing session'. It brings up another window where it shows different collaboration sessions shared with you.
The description of each collaborative session will be the description you or someone else set when they created the collaborative session. To join a session, click on it and the click 'Select'. Then mindmaze loads the corresponding map and lets you proceed with collaboration session.
Opening an existing collaborative session
Another way to join a collaborative session is to open the link for a collaborative session. Note that when you join a collaborative session, MindMaze tries to log into Google with the currently logged in Google Account in your browser session. If you haven't logged onto a Google Account, MindMaze will ask you to log in.
Sometimes authentication errors can occur even if you are using the correct Google Account. In this case, we suggest you to log off from all other Google accounts and then again try logging in from Mindmaze. If you are using 'Multiple Sign-in' feature of Google and has logged into multiple accounts concurrently, we suggest you to log-off from all accounts.(Some users has reported problems while using 'Multiple Sign-in' feature of Google. Workaround is log off from all accounts.) Then try logging in again from Mindmaze.
In case, you are trying to load a collaborative map and you haven't loaded 'Realtime Collaboration' extension, MindMaze will show the message to approve the extension. Click the given link to configure extensions, approve Realtime Collaboration and click on Close. After clicking 'Close' button, MindMaze will reload and the map will be opened for you (only if the map creator has shared the map with you).
The collaborative maps session you just accessed are also displayed in the File menu, just like File menu showing the recent maps you worked with. You can see all Collaboration maps associated with a Google account by clicking 'Collaboration'->'Join an Existing Session' or by clicking the file directly from Google Drive.
Note that collaborative map is a file stored on Google Drive - but you cannot edit/modify it directly. It is persistent - every time you make a change, it will be automatically synchronised with the file in Google Drive. Even if all collaborators leave from the session, the map is persisted.
Also, downloading the file won't give you the map worked in collaborative session. It just gives a shortcut. It is providing only a shortcut for two reasons:
- Suppose you want an auto-save feature with maps stored in Google Drive, you can have it with a workaround. Create a collaborative map and don't invite anyone. As it is a collaborative map, Google will auto-save it automatically every time you make a change.
- To copy the contents of a collaborative map, back it up as a file (like a Mindmaze file) or take it offline. After exporting the map, you can then import it to different file storage (like Mindmaze or Google Drive) so that you have a copy of collaborative map to work with.