Troubleshooting Gliffy for Confluence

Macro errors you may encounter

You may encounter the following Gliffy macro errors in your Confluence pages. Use the information below to troubleshoot and resolve the errors.

Error	Description
You do not have permission to view this diagram.	This error occurs when the viewer does not have permission to view the Confluence page where the diagram was originally created. When adding a Link to an Existing Diagram on a new page, the security settings of the original Confluence page apply to the diagram on any Confluence page where it is added or linked. Users who do not have permission to see the original Confluence page will not have permissions to view the diagram even when it is linked on a page they do have permissions to view. The permissions for a diagram are set on the page where the diagram is created and stored as an attachment. See Gliffy diagrams on the Confluence attachments page.
	A 500 error typically indicates a problem on your Confluence Server or Data Center Machine. You can troubleshoot the problem using the steps below. If these steps don’t resolve the problem, contact your Confluence administrator or your IT group to resolve the cause of you not being able to download attachments.
	A 404 error or “Cannot find a diagram with these parameters error” typically indicates that the GLIFFY DIAGRAM attachment is missing from the Confluence page's attachment list and you must restore the attachment using the steps below to resolve the error.
Unknown macro error	An unknown macro error indicates that Gliffy was uninstalled from your Confluence instance. The Gliffy diagram attachment is in the Confluence page's attachment list but because the Gliffy app was uninstalled, Confluence cannot read the attachment. Contact your Confluence administrator or IT group and ask them to reinstall the Gliffyapp. Or, replace the GLIFFY DIAGRAM on your Confluence page with the GLIFFY IMAGE attachment. Your users will not be able to make any changes to the diagram image but will at least have a picture of the diagram.

Important: When migrating from one Confluence instance to another, you must select to include images when making the backup and exporting the data from the original instance. Then, use that backup/exported file to import into the new instance. If you fail to include attachments when exporting/creating the backup of the original data, you will encounter macro errors and will be unable to see existing Gliffy diagrams on the Confluence pages in the new Confluence instance.

Resolving Gliffy macro errors

If you see a Gliffy macro error instead of the diagram, try these steps.

1. Check the Confluence page's attachment list and verify if the diagram name listed in the macro error (such as Reimbursement process in the examples above) has a matching Gliffy diagram attachment. See Gliffy diagrams on the Confluence attachments page.

If there isn’t a matching attachment, you must locate the missing Gliffy diagram attachment and restore it to the attachment list to resolve the macro error.

If you have a backup that contains the attachment this article explains how to retrieve the attachment: Retrieving File Attachments from a Backup - Atlassian Documentation. Or, your Confluence administrator can tell you were the attachment directory is stored on the Confluence Server or Data Center.

2. If the Gliffy diagram attachment does exist, try downloading the GLIFFY DIAGRAM attachment from the Confluence page's attachment list. Then add\upload the downloaded attachment back to that attachment list to see if this resolves the problem.

After you added\uploaded the diagram attachment, go back to the Confluence page and refresh it to see if the macro error is now replaced by the diagram.

Important: When you view the Gliffy diagram on the attachment list, you will see an arrow to the left of the diagram name if there are multiple versions. Click the arrow to see a list of all the versions of that diagram. You can then click a version (typically the most current) and you will be prompted to download it.

The file will download to your computer. The downloaded file should be the diagram name without a file extension. If the downloaded file has an extension, it is not a true Gliffy diagram attachment and uploading it again will not fix the problem.

Note: If the Gliffy Diagram attachment downloads with an extension, then it is not a true GLIFFY DIAGRAM attachment and uploading it again will not fix the problem.

Drag-and-drop the downloaded file from your computer onto the Confluence attachments page to add/upload it. You should see that a new version is added to the version list that you viewed prior to downloading the attachment.

If you do have multiple versions and this step did not resolve the problem using the current version, you may want to repeat this step with the other versions to see if any of those resolve the problem.

3. If you are unable to download the GLIFFY DIAGRAM attachment, the problem is likely with your Confluence instance. In this case, contact your Confluence administrator or your IT group to resolve the cause of you not being able to download attachments.

I saved a Gliffy diagram but cannot find it in Confluence

Confluence treats Gliffy diagrams as attachments in pages, so your diagram must be attached to a saved page. Unfortunately, if you did not save and name the page in Confluence where you started and saved the Gliffy diagram, the diagram has nowhere to attach to. This is unfortunately a limitation of how Confluence treats Gliffy diagrams.

You can search in Confluence for the name of the Gliffy diagram to try to retrieve it. Try typing com.gliffy.core.integration.confluence.isGliffyDoc:true in the Gliffy search to find all diagrams. But if the search results do not find the diagram, it may unfortunately be lost.

To prevent this issue, always create, name, and save the page in Confluence before creating the diagram so that if you encounter a web browser or connection issue and you need to quit, a draft of your diagram would still be attached to the Confluence page.

If you created a diagram on a Confluence page that is still a draft page, to display the diagram, save or publish the draft page.

If you have further questions, contact our support team (see Contacting support).

Unable to find any Gliffy diagrams in Confluence

You search in Confluence for Gliffy diagrams but the search returns no results.

As a workaround, in the Confluence search field, type com.gliffy.core.integration.confluence.isGliffyDoc:true.

If the search still returns no Gliffy results, your Confluence administrator may have to re-index the Confluence site. For more information, see https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Content+Index+Administration.

If only new diagrams are not found in search results, administrators can verify that the Lucene Compatibility Plugin is enabled. This is a plugin in Confluence that enables search indexing. You can check this in Confluence Administration > Manage Add Ons > User Plugin or System Plugin > Lucene Compatibility Plugin. If it's not enabled, re-nable it. Newly created diagrams will now be indexed.

Imported SVG images do not display proper colors

When you add an SVG image to a custom shape library (see Adding images or Adding custom shape libraries), sometimes, the color of the SVG image is not imported as expected. The color of the original SVG image is not retained in Gliffy. This occurs because, Gliffy does not support importing SVG image files that contain inline style sheets into the custom shape library. The following types of inline style sheet formats are not supported:

Type 1: Inline stylesheets without class attribute

Type 2: Inline stylesheets with the class attribute

The workaround for this issue is to edit the SVG file and convert the inline style sheet to the style attribute in the file. Then, re-import the file into the Gliffy custom library. The examples are as follows:

Workaround for Type 1:

xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

</svg>

Workaround for Type 2:

xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

</svg>

Error attempting to install or upgrade Gliffy (MySQL - 'ERROR: max_allowed_packet' variable')

When attempting to install the Gliffy Confluence Plugin some users have reported seeing the message:

An unexpected error occurred. Please refer to the logs for more information.

When viewing the Confluence logs, a line similar to the following will appear:

ERROR [pool-6-thread-1] [sf.hibernate.util.JDBCExceptionReporter] logExceptions Packet for query is too large (24838833 > 16777216). You can change this value on the server by setting the max_allowed_packet' variable.

-- referer: http://confluenceserver:port/plugins/servlet/upm | url: /rest/plugins/1.0/upgrades/all | userName: user

or

ERROR [pool-40-thread-2] [sf.hibernate.util.JDBCExceptionReporter] logExceptions Packet for query is too large (34647545 > 33554432). You can change this value on the server by setting the max_allowed_packet' variable. -- url: /rest/plugins/1.0/ | userName: user | referer: ERROR [pool-40-thread-2] [sf.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl] execute Could not synchronize database state with session -- url: /rest/plugins/1.0/ | userName: user | referer: ERROR [pool-40-thread-2] [atlassian.upm.manager.PluginInstaller] execute Failed to install plugin -- url: /rest/plugins/1.0/ | userName: user | referer: com.atlassian.upm.PluginInstallException: Failed to install OBR jar artifact at com.atlassian.upm.impl.ObrPluginInstallHandler.installPlugin(ObrPluginInstallHandler.java:114) at com.atlassian.upm.manager.PluginInstaller.execute(PluginInstaller.java:172) at com.atlassian.upm.manager.PluginInstaller.install(PluginInstaller.java:127) ... at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: There was a problem evicting or flushing a PluginData object at com.atlassian.confluence.plugin.persistence.hibernate.HibernatePluginDataDao.saveOrUpdate(HibernatePluginDataDao.java:65)

These errors are caused by the MySQL server max_allowed_packet variable being set too small.

Resolution:

Set the max_allowed_packet variable to a larger value in your MySQL server my.cnf (Linux) or my.ini (Windows) configuration files. We recommend setting this value to at least 256M or larger (occasionally a very high setting of 1024M or 2048M is required). You can find more information on how to set this configuration variable on the MySQL website: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/packet-too-large.html Please note that if you update the setting in your configuration file, you will need to restart your MySQL server for the change to take affect.

In addition, increasing the innodb_log_file_size variable to a larger value, like 1024M, may also be required for this problem to be resolved. Our add-on size is ~60mb, and each log statement can only increase the log file size by less than 10%. Thus, a value of greater than 600M is required here. Again, be sure to restart your MySQL server after changing the my.cnf/my.ini configuration file.

For more information about the above MySQL error as it's related to Confluence, please see the following Atlassian support articles:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/MySQLSyntaxErrorException%3A+Row+size+too+large

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Exceeds+Max+Allowed+Packet+for+MySQL

A link to a Confluence page is broken

When insert a link in a Gliffy diagram to a Confluence page, always use the Search option in the GliffyInsert Link window. For more information, see Linking objects and diagrams or Linking text.

Do not use the Confluence page's URL that you see in your web browser. This avoids broken links if the Confluence is ever renamed or oved.

When you rename or move a Confluence page, its SEO-optimized page URL will change. This means that any external web links pointing to that page URL will break.

For example, a page entitled "Employee Information" in the "Employee" space has a Confluence URL of wiki.yourcompany.com/display/EMP/Employee+Information. If you move this page to the "HR" space, the page's URL will change to wiki.yourcompany.com/display/HR/Employee+Information. Furthermore, renaming the page to "Employee Info" after this move would make the URL wiki.yourcompany.com/display/HR/Employee+Info.

When you search for and insert a link to a link to a Confluence page within the GliffyInsert Link window, Gliffy instead uses Atlassian's static tiny URLs, which always point to the same Confluence page, even if it is renamed or moved. The link that gets generated is relative and looks non-descriptive, such as /x/ZygVQ. This link will always point to this Confluence page, as long as it's clicked or accessed from within the context of your Confluence instance

There are two cases where tiny URLs break:

If your server's base URL is set up incorrectly (see https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Tiny+URL+Breaks+Due+to+Server+Base+URL)
After a Confluence Space import (see https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-27049)

Unfortunately links to Page Content (anchor links) are also affected by the same problem, since they are also regenerated when page content changes.

To reiterate: Gliffy Confluence Plugin has absolutely no way of knowing when a Confluence page is renamed or content is updated. The API hooks required to do this do not exist in the Atlassian ecosystem. This page renaming problem is a well-known issue with Confluence. You can view, watch, and vote on this issue in Atlassian's JIRA, at https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-2906.

Problems starting or enabling the Gliffy for Confluence plugin

If the Gliffy for plugin cannot start after a Confluence server restart, or after a plugin upgrade, when the Confluence server starts up, the Gliffy pConfluencelugin will appear in a disabled. This can occur because f many different problems. To resolve the issue, try the following:

Update the Atlassian Universal Plugin Manager (UPM) to the latest version.
Update the Gliffy plugin to the latest version (see Updating the Gliffy for Confluence plugin)
Make sure that the version of Confluence you are using supports the version of Gliffy that you have installed. For example, starting with Gliffy version 9.7.5, you need Confluence 8.0 or higher. See Gliffy Diagram for Confluence - Version history | Atlassian Marketplace for version details.
Perform a full uninstall and reinstall of the Gliffy plugin (see Uninstall and reinstall Gliffy).
If the problem still persists, please contact the Gliffy support team (see Contacting support).

Known issues with importing Visio diagrams

When you import Visio diagrams in Gliffy (see Importing diagrams), consider the following limitations and known issues.

Visio symbols that are not supported in Gliffy appear as a red box.
You may notice minor differences between the symbol in Visio and how it looks in Gliffy. All Visio shapes are currently imported as images with the exception of some simple lines.
The .vdx or .vsdx file must be exported directly from Visio.
You cannot import read-only Visio files into Gliffy. You must save the Visio diagram without the read-only restriction.
Blank pages do not import. Remove blank pages before you export from Visio.
Importing multiple worksheets is not supported. Separate your tabs/worksheets and then import them individually.
Importing binary Visio files (*.vsd) is not supported.
Lines connected to some shapes may pop into a different position when the shape moves.
You cannot adjust the line width, line color, fill color, gradient, or drop shadow of imported Visio diagrams.
Rotated shapes may have jagged lines.
Sometimes lines may import as shapes. When this happens, you cannot attach the imported line to another shape.
Paragraph formatting or tab formatting for text is not supported.
Only fonts available in Gliffy are supported. All other fonts default to Helvetica or Arial.
Shapes with shadows or gradients may cause file to not import

Here is a list of issues that may affect an entire class of diagrams.

Diagram type	Issues
ERD	ERDs in Visio rely heavily on text formatting that Gliffy does not support. We do not recommend importing ERD diagrams yet. Table text may not align correctly. Lines that have multiple text nodes attached (such as lines with cardinality text) import as an image. Not all arrow endings are supported. ERD-specific behaviors are not available in Gliffy
Swimlanes	You cannot modify the swimlane count.
UML	Lines that have multiple text nodes attached (such as lines with cardinality text) import as an image. Shapes with multiple text areas (such as class or object UML shapes) do not stretch and behave like they do in Visio or Gliffy. Instead, they stretch uniformly. UML-specific behaviors are not available in Gliffy.
Floorplan	Dashed lines and pattern fills do not appear. Line thickness may be different.
Sitemap	Embedded EMF files do not import and appear as red squares (which some of the site map shapes that ship with Visio are).
Network	Embedded EMF files do not import and appear as as red squares (3rd party vendor specific stencils can have these).
Images	Only png, jpg, bmp, and gif files are supported. Other formats appear as red squares. Bmp files are converted to png. Any bmp files with transparency are imported as png files without transparency.
User Interface	Text that relies on tabs or margins for positioning may not align as expected. Microsoft icons may not render correctly if they are not a supported image type.