PDF Export with multiple tabs and links

[Michael Arns]

Hi guys,

we test the confluence plugin "draw.io" on a confluence server and compare it with "gliffy diagram"). While I very much like "draw.io", I came across one problem and I would like to ask you for your experience/help:

At the moment we use Visio to showcase "business processes" (Format BPMN 2.0). Those processes are typically splitted/displayed in multiple tabs/slides in Visio or draw.io. And we need to export all those tabs as PDF to share them with stakeholders. A PDF export from Visio can be up to 100 DIN A4 pages long. 

Here are my questions:

1. Is it posible to create an PDF Export for multiple tabs/ slides in draw.io? A PDF print is possible, but I am unable to do the PDF export for multiple tabs/slides. It always only exports the currently viewed tab.
2. It is possible to create links within draw.io to a different tab/slide. In Visio I can also include those links in the exported PDF document. Is the link export possible in draw.io as well?

Thanks heaps for your help.

Cheers,

Michael

[John Almeida]

Hi Michael,

John from Gliffy here. I jumped into Draw.io and saw that when I went to File -> Export As -> PDF, it gives you an option to export "All Pages" or "Current Page".

When I selected "All Pages", it pulled all my diagram tabs into 1 PDF. Check it out here.

Sadly, I am not seeing a way to create a link within the PDF.

I really hope this helps and keep diagramming!

[Michael Arns]

Hi John,

thanks heaps for your fast response. I also found this funktion in draw.io. Sadly it doesn't work for me. When I click on "All Pages" it only exports the current view and not all tabs.

However, I have the same problem with Gliffy as well. Is there an option for exporting multipe tabs into one PDF (with links) in Gliffy?

Thanks a lot.

Michael

[John Almeida]

Hi Michael,

Unfortunately, we don't support multiple tabs in Gliffy. We are happy to add this to our roadmap discussion and potentially get this functionality in our queue.

That said, there is a work around. Heads up, like most work arounds, it's not perfect.

1. Since Gliffy doesn't have multiple tabs, you would publish each diagram to your desired confluence page.
2. Once published, you can create a link through our embedding functionality. Paste each link below the diagram in Confluence.
3. In Confluence, you can export the page to PDF. See the embed link and page export in a GIF here.

Again, I know this isn't perfect, but I hope it opens the door to get you the end solution you are looking for.

[Michael Arns]

Hi John, 

you are so fast, amazing! Thanks a lot for your help!

Thanks for the work around in "Gliffy". Our teams create diagrams with links and multiple pages on a daily bases, so we need a "very easy to use" solution - not a work around.

Please let me know if there is a timeline for the new multiple tab funktion. I would love to join the Gliffy comunity with my 50 users :-) For now I think we keep using good old Visio.

Thanks,

Michael

[John Almeida]

Of course, happy to help! I will keep you updated Michael.

[Michael Arns]

delete

[David Benson _draw_io_]

Is this Confluence Server or Cloud? If server, what are the versions of Confluence and draw.io please?

[Michael Arns]

Hi David,

thanks for your answer. This is Confluence Server 6.15.2 and we use mxGraph V 4.0.1 draw.io app 8.3.13.

Cheers,

Michael

[David Benson _draw_io_]

So, yes, the built-in PDF export doesn't support links, that's a limitation we're not able to work around, unfortunately.

But, we do allow you to connect to an external image/PDF server. There are some details at https://desk.draw.io/support/solutions/articles/16000090156-how-to-use-external-image-generation-in-draw-io-server-products.

The external image generation in done using headless Chrome, which renders (including PDF links) a JavaScript app a lot better than Java does.

What I've just realised is we don't have an option to point at your own image generation server. The code is open source, https://github.com/jgraph/draw-image-export2, so you can run your own version if sending data to our servers were an issue. As a workaround, you could change your network/hosts file to point exp.draw.io at that server so it's used in preference to ours. I've added https://trello.com/c/dVJPvCQF/210-allow-configuration-of-url-of-external-server-for-image-generation to track that.

If you want to automate the PDF generation, note that the desktop draw.io build has command line parameters from release 10.7.5, https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases/tag/v10.7.5, that allows scripted image/PDF generation from draw.io diagram source(s).