Using draw.io diagrams in Jira Cloud

By |2023-02-22T10:13:44+01:00February 18th, 2020|learning|
Reading Time: 7 min

Diagrams help you visually plan, debug problems and explain solutions quickly and clearly. This is why it makes sense to be able to attach and display them in your Jira Cloud issues.

Here are some situations where diagrams help you understand the information quickly.

  • Existing infrastructure diagrams on a network upgrade or troubleshooting issue.
  • Existing software UML diagrams to issues for new features.
  • Flow chart explaining the steps to resolve a customer’s problem.
  • Proposed layout of a conference floor to an event planning issue.
  • BPMN diagrams on any issues raised to improve business processes.

Add diagrams directly to Jira issues

Jira administrators: Before any diagram can be added to a Jira issue, an administrator must install the draw.io app in the Jira Cloud instance.

Instead of pasting in an image of your draw.io diagrams into an issue description, the draw.io app for Jira Cloud lets you embed diagrams in issues in three different ways:

  • Create a new diagram and store it in the issue itself.
  • Add a diagram from OneDrive, GoogleDrive or local hard drive.
  • Embed (and synchronize) a diagram from Confluence, Google Drive, OneDrive or from URL.


If you choose the last of the three options, you won’t be able to edit the diagrams within the draw.io for Jira app. Any changes you make to the diagram file stored in Confluence, Google Drive, or OneDrive will automatically update the embedded diagrams in Jira issues.

You can embed diagrams from Google Drive and OneDrive into Confluence Cloud. A single diagram stored in your cloud storage platform can be embedded in multiple places – multiple Jira Cloud issues and Confluence Cloud pages – and automatically updated.

By default, the icon is not displayed to keep your Jira issues as uncluttered as possible. Once you have used one of the three options mentioned above, the draw.io icon will appear beneath the issue title.


Embed or add a new diagram to a Jira issue

Clicking the draw.io icon opens the diagram section of your Jira issue (right underneath the attachments and issue description). From now on, you can also use the draw.io menu to add a new diagram, or embed an existing diagram.

  1. If you decide to store the diagram file in the Jira issue, click on Add diagram.
  2. Create your diagram in the draw.io editor. When you save your diagram, you’ll be prompted to provide a filename.

Your diagram will be added as an attached file to the issue, and the draw.io Diagrams section will show it as a thumbnail. Click on the diagram thumbnail in this section to view it in the lightbox, or hover over the thumbnail and click on the pencil icon in the toolbar to edit the attached diagram.



Embed a diagram stored in Confluence Cloud, Google Drive, or OneDrive

Just like you can embed draw.io diagram files stored in Google Drive or OneDrive in Confluence Cloud, you can embed them into Jira Cloud issues.

  1. Click the Embed Diagram button in the draw.io Diagrams section.
  2. Select the Confluence, Google Drive, or the OneDrive tab. If you haven’t allowed draw.io to access your files on the platform you selected, click the blue Authorize button, and follow the prompts to allow access.
  3. Click Choose, search for and select the diagram you want to embed in the Jira issue.
  4. Check that the preview is of the correct diagram and click Submit.

Similar to how a draw.io diagram is attached to the issue, an embedded draw.io diagram adds an attachment specifying where the embedded file is located. A thumbnail will appear in the draw.io Diagrams section. Click on this thumbnail to see the diagram in the lightbox.

See which diagram is embedded and which is attached: When you hover over the thumbnail, the lack of the pencil edit icon in the toolbar shows you that the embedded diagram can not be edited from within Jira Cloud.


Get draw.io for Jira Cloud from the Atlassian Marketplace

The draw.io app for Jira is one of the highest rated apps on the Atlassian Marketplace, and is available for Jira Cloud, Jira Server and Jira Data Center.

Note: Embedding diagrams from the OneDrive and Google Drive cloud platforms is a feature available in draw.io for Jira Cloud.

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