Differences between draw.io for Confluence Cloud and Data Center/Server

draw.io 30 Jul 2021

Share:

There are very few differences between the Cloud and Data Center/Server versions of draw.io for Atlassian’s Confluence. If you know how to create diagrams in draw.io on one, you know how to use it on the other!

In both Confluence Cloud and Confluence Data Center/Server, the security and privacy of your data is critical. When you create and edit a diagram, the data stays in your browser and is stored in your Confluence instance. Save/load operations are direct to Confluence’s server, we don’t even see the data in transit.

The diagram editor interface is the same in both Cloud and Data Center/Server.

The draw.io editor works in the same way on Confluence Cloud and Data Center/Server

Many additional Confluence-specific features work in the same way on both applications.

Add a new diagram to a page either by adding a macro via the Confluence page editing toolbar, or simply start typing on the page and select the macro from the context menu.

  • Confluence Cloud: /draw.io
  • Data Center/Server: {draw.io

Customise the draw.io app to set your corporate style by default, provide access to custom libraries and diagram templates. There are slight differences to which options are available when customising the draw.io interface, default styles, plugins, and so on.
JSON code for a custom style palette and custom default preset colours in the colour dialog in draw.io for Confluence Cloud

Custom templates are managed in different locations:

See all of the draw.io configuration and customisation options


The following features and functionality are different in Cloud versus Data Center / Server.

draw.io for Confluence Cloud

draw.io for Confluence Cloud has a several additional features based on Atlassian’s Cloud-only functionality.

Lockdown data transmission with configuration options. If you want to prevent all data traffic apart from between the your browser and your Atlassian instance server, set lockdown in the draw.io configuraton.

Access all draw.io diagrams in your instance via the contents list on the left. You need to publish the diagram to the page, and publish the page once for the diagram to appear in this list.
See all of the draw.io diagrams in the instance on one page in Confluence Cloud

Update draw.io automatically - no need to do anything. Like all Marketplace apps in Confluence Cloud, your draw.io app will automatically apply updates as they are released.

Change the size of a diagram on a page by changing it’s zoom percentage. As Atlassian hasn’t implemented a similar macro-resize function, you can only resize the draw.io diagram on a Confluence Cloud page.

Insert PlantUML and Graphiz DOT code to add an image of your diagram via Arrange > Insert > Advanced > PlantUML.

As external server connectivity is enabled by default, draw.io for Confluence Cloud allows you to do the following.

Generate PDF versions of diagrams with external fonts.

Open and convert vsd, vss, vdx, and vsdx files, including vsd and vsdx diagram files that contain embedded EMF images.


The following two features are available by default in Confluence Cloud but must be manually enabled via the draw.io configuration in Data Center / Server, should your company’s data policy allow connections to external services.

Third-party icon search in Data Center/Server

Enable the third-party icon search by allowing a connection to an external server to search for and serve the additional icons in the shape panel.

  • externaliconsearch=1

Google Drive and One Drive integration in Data Center/Server

Enable the Google Drive and OneDrive integrations to embed diagrams stored in Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive into Confluence pages.

Embedded diagrams in draw.io for Confluence Data Center and Server

Note: For PDF export from Confluence Data Center/Server, ensure that all the required fonts are installed on your Confluence instance’s server to render diagram text correctly on export to PDF.

Follow us on GitHub, Twitter, Facebook.

Share: