How to link to a Confluence Page from a Diagram?

[Jodie Miners]

I am trying to research ALL the options for creating diagrams with links to confluence content. Does anyone have a definitive answer that really works?

For this client the Gliffy and Creatly plugins are out - for 500 users and only 3 to 4 that need to create diagrams, the 1:1 licence matching is a killer, so have not tested either to see if it does this.

This option needs to work in both 3.5 and 4.x as the client is upgrading soon.

Options looked at:

Graphviz

+vs

• Would love to use this, as it seems really easy to create diagrams.

-vs

• Not available in 4.x.

Word

+vs

• Easy to use, then upload the document.
• Add the link to a Shape (not the text in the shape) and it works when uploaded to Confluence.

-vs

• Smart Art does not show up in 4.x (Tested in OnDemand).
• Links have to be full Confluence links - big disadvantage.

Lucid Charts

+vs

• Seperate Licencing model - so you can get a 5 user licence

-vs

• Not a particularly seamless chart creation process.
• Not as easy to use as Visio if you are already a visio user.
• You can add a link to a shape, but it's not clickable when it's in the Confluence page.

Visio Plugin

+vs

• You can use visio.

-vs

• Only works with IE - need I say more :(
• Not available for 4.x

Any other ideas? How do you do it?

[JamieA · Accepted solution]

The graphviz plugin generally works on 4+, you should give it a go.

Bob says there are a few issues to fix before he marks it compatible, but generally it works.

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

Graphviz will be available with a 4.x compatible/tested version as soon as it is approved by Atlassian. The current version will mostly work on 4.x.

[Carolyn McDonough]

This isn't an answer, it's an additional question: 

It would be so cool if one of these would allow you to use a chart as a data map. For example, if you have a drawing with boxed labeled Data A and Data B both flowing to Data C, wouldn't it be great if you could click any one of the three boxes to drill down and find the relevant link? In the case I have, it's literally 20 data sources and data buckets.

[Jodie Miners]

OK Graphviz is the winner, it is fantastic and easy to use. It produces simple diagrams, but it as "a picture tells a thousand words" that's all you need.

And I worked out how to link to pages

{flowchart}
Box1 [URL="Page for Box 1"]
"Box 2 with space" [URL="Page for Box 2"]
Box1
Box1 -> "Box 2 with space"
Box1 -> "Another Box with no link"
{flowchart}

Works Great

[Daniel Borcherding]

Just as an update to this question. Looking in the marketplace, it looks like Graphviz is now supported through 4.2.12.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/257

[Jodie Miners]

OK, I've got Graphviz set up now. How do I link to a page from a Graph I tried just [PageName] but that doesn't work.

[Jodie Miners]

Thanks, I am checking it out right now (only on 3.5 at this stage). Ah, damn, just realised it needs server installation. I don't have access to the server, and the people that do are less than useful. :( It will have to wait for another day.