Can multiple users concurrently edit a draw.io diagram in a Confluence page?

[Evan P]

If one user creates a diagram in a Confluence page, can other users edit the diagram concurrently?

[David Benson _draw_io_ · Accepted solution]

Update : draw.io for Confluence Cloud now has collaborative editing. This question is specific to Cloud, so if anyone has the question for server please create a new question.

[TomC]

David, Evan,

Is this question and answer discussing 'concurrent' (simultaneous) editing?  I assumed that draw.io like it's competitors did allow editing by other users, just not concurrent editing. Thx.

[David Benson _draw_io_]

My answer is for real time collaboration editing. Yes, currently users other than the diagram creator can edit the edit the diagram if they have permission to update other users attachments on the page the diagram is being edited on.

[Evan P]

I was actually asking about non-concurrent editing, but you've answered that question as well. I've updated the title and text to clarify in context with your answer. Thanks!

[Francesc Rul·lan Solana]

Hi, is this an implemented feature already? Thanks!

[David Benson _draw_io_]

No, it would require Atlassian to open up their concurrent editing API. There was talk of them doing that during summer 2016, but that's gone quiet now.

[Francesc Rul·lan Solana]

OK, thank you. Is this possible outside Confluence, though?

[David Benson _draw_io_]

If you store the file in Google Drive, yes, it's possible. You can store the file in Google Drive and embed it in Confluence Cloud using this plugin.

[Stefan Mueller]

>No, it would require Atlassian to open up their concurrent editing API. There was talk of them doing that during summer 2016, but that's gone quiet now.

Is that API still closed?

[David Benson _draw_io_]

It is, but we've implemented our own collaborative editing functionality. We'll be researching how to integrate it into Confluence Server this year, without causing performance issues.

[Stefan Mueller]

OK any idea when that will happen, roughly?

I was about to create a drawing and do exactly this. So the only option is still screen sharing. Google drive is not available at our data center instance.

[David Benson _draw_io_]

Not at this time, it's very much a research exercise and we can't be 100% certain it's technically possible without frying performance.

[Stefan Mueller]

At least there is hope that it will be available soon 😊

[Thomas Bowskill]

@David Benson _draw_io_ also interested in this. In the interim, is there any thought towards highlighting / identifying / Locking (always a dangerous feature) items edited by someone else.

First case today where someone came a cropper from editing separate pages with someone else. Managed to repair thanks to version history, at least. I know it will happen again, as people see something in Confluence and assume collaborative editing.

[David Benson _draw_io_]

We have discussed whether there's an interim solution. The thing is, we have the conflict resolution algorithm done (we cleared out the last issue about a week ago), what's left is back-end code to manage the locking. Once we have that, we have collaboration done.

I fully agreed last-write wins is really bad, but we're not that far away (relative to the age of this thread) from a point where we can start showing you concurrent editing. The locking style solutions, as you say, are actually really hard to implement in a safe way. The quickest route, at this point, is to just do the whole thing.

[Ludovic_DUSSART]

Nice, we also wait for this feature

[Thomas Bowskill]

@David Benson _draw_io_ thanks for the reply -- great to hear there is progress & potentially something in the works

[David Benson _draw_io_]

Actually, I lied. There was a really easy way to prevent last write wins, this will go into the next release (hopefully, next week).

What will happen now is if you save and another write has occurred since you opened for editing, you will be offered the chance to merge in the changes before saving again.

The merge algorithm is a proper intelligent merge, not an overwrite.

My next question for everyone is what % this fixes your problem vs what % importance true real time collaborative editing is?

[Thomas Bowskill]

@David Benson _draw_io_ even better!

For us (in context Confluence as an Intranet launched last month for 300 people, with only 30 or so (currently) clued up on Draw IO): 90% of the issues will be fixed by merge (assuming it is intelligent and that people's drafts they never edited don't count to the total).

Ask me in a year's time when I have banged the drum a bit more about our collaborative software, and more people have the chance to extract value, then maybe it changes. But generally for me this is catching the edge cases where last-write wins.

However, all that being said, if I could 'whiteboard' in meetings with Draw IO, with several people able to chip in on their laptops, then it would likely take off

[Stefan Mueller]

My next question for everyone is what % this fixes your problem vs what % importance true real time collaborative editing is?

as any saved change is saved in the confluence page history I prefer real time collaborative editing

[Deleted user]

Hi, any update on the collaborative editing feature?

[David Benson _draw_io_]

Merging went into the last version.  So, if you go to save and someone else has saved since you loaded, a merge will take place of your and their. If that's not a good thing, select all, copy, merge, and paste yours back over.

We've also added File->Synchronize in the draw.io editor menu. This gives you a way to manually sync saved changes from another user.

The problem part is still how to give real time notifications in a way that cannot affect Confluence performance.

[l_dussart]

Nice @David Benson _draw_io_ . It's a good workaround

Is this new version already available on Confluence Marketplace ?

[David Benson _draw_io_]

Yes, it's 8.3.7

[mawi]

re needs: Currently we use both draw.io and miro (previously realtimeboard). 

They are distinct but ideally, you want the concurrent editing as provided by miro, yet good/decent editing as in draw.io.

I think re problem solved, I look at concurrent text editing as an indicator. It has taken alot of time to take off, to have become comfortable for alot of people and to be commonly utilized - and it is still not, I would say. So its a shift in culture for alot of companies (some would likely find it more natural).

I think the same shift will come, albeit slowly for concurrent visual manipulation.

[David Benson _draw_io_]

Note, there's a card on our trello board, https://trello.com/c/afGTuc1m/128-add-realtime-collaboration, you can vote for and follow this issue on.

[Mads]

I too, am interested in this feature. This Coronathing, has made it all the more relevant, and while it works using a gdrive backend, using a Confluence backend would be very, very convenient.

[JAVA]

2020 july waiting for this feature. 

[David Benson _draw_io_]

draw.io for Confluence Cloud now has collaborative editing, I've updated my answer.