drawio-desktop README

The project's README from github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop. As one markdown file: README.md.

About

drawio-desktop is a diagramming desktop app based on Electron that wraps the core draw.io editor.

Download built binaries from the releases section.

Can I use this app for free? Yes, under the apache 2.0 license. If you don't change the code and accept it is provided "as-is", you can use it for any purpose.

Windows installation

Three flavours of Windows download are published on the releases page:

The Microsoft Store (APPX) build is also installable per-user without admin rights via the Store.

Windows on Arm

draw.io Desktop is built natively for Windows on Arm (ARM64) and is supported on Windows 11 ARM64 devices. Two native ARM64 downloads are published with every release:

The MSI and Microsoft Store builds are x64 only and run under emulation on ARM64 devices. ARM64 builds up to and including 31.4.4 were shipped with auto-update disabled; install a newer release manually once, after which the ARM64 build updates itself like x64.

Linux installation

If you manage AppImages with AppImageLauncher, you need a 3.0 release of it (currently labelled beta). Since 31.4.2 the AppImage uses the static AppImage runtime so that it no longer depends on the end-of-life libfuse2, and AppImageLauncher 2.2.0, the last stable release, cannot load a static runtime. The app then fails to start with:

fuse: memory allocation failed
squashfuse 0.5.2 (c) 2012 Dave Vasilevsky
...
Can't open squashfs image: Bad address

Install a current AppImageLauncher from its releases page, which provides .deb packages, or uninstall AppImageLauncher altogether. It is not needed to run the AppImage. See #2538 for the detail.

Security

draw.io Desktop is designed to be completely isolated from the Internet, apart from the update process. This checks github.com at startup for a newer version and downloads it from an AWS S3 bucket owned by Github. To disable the update check entirely (e.g. for centrally-managed installs), set the DRAWIO_DISABLE_UPDATE=true environment variable or pass --disable-update on launch. All JavaScript files are self-contained, the Content Security Policy forbids running remotely loaded JavaScript.

No diagram data is ever sent externally, nor do we send any analytics about app usage externally. The Content Security Policy on the web part of the interface forbids remotely-loaded JavaScript and restricts the application's own network connections to itself, so the app cannot transmit your diagrams or otherwise phone home. Note that a diagram can reference external media - for example an image, background or font loaded from a URL embedded in the diagram - and these are fetched when the diagram is opened so that it renders correctly. Opening a diagram from an untrusted source may therefore trigger a request to the referenced URL, which can reveal metadata such as your IP address to that server; no diagram content is transmitted.

Security and isolating the app are the primarily objectives of draw.io desktop. If you ask for anything that involves external connections enabled in the app by default, the answer will be no.

Support

Support is provided on a reasonable business constraints basis, but without anything contractually binding. All support is provided via this repo. There is no private ticketing support for non-paying users.

Purchasing draw.io for Confluence or Jira does not entitle you to commercial support for draw.io desktop.

Developing

draw.io is a git submodule of drawio-desktop. To get both you need to clone recursively:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop.git

To run this:

  1. npm install (in the root directory of this repo)
  2. [internal use only] export DRAWIO_ENV=dev if you want to develop/debug in dev mode.
  3. npm start in the root directory of this repo runs the app. For debugging, use npm start --enable-logging.

Note: If a symlink is used to refer to drawio repo (instead of the submodule), then symlink the node_modules directory inside drawio/src/main/webapp also.

To fork the project, make your own changes and build an (unsigned) app for personal use, see doc/BUILDING_FOR_PERSONAL_USE.md.

To release:

  1. Update the draw.io sub-module and push the change. Add version tag before pushing to origin.
  2. Wait for the builds to complete (https://travis-ci.org/jgraph/drawio-desktop and https://ci.appveyor.com/project/davidjgraph/drawio-desktop)
  3. Go to https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases, edit the preview release.
  4. Download the windows exe and windows portable, sign them using signtool sign /a /tr http://rfc3161timestamp.globalsign.com/advanced /td SHA256 c:/path/to/your/file.exe
  5. Re-upload signed file as draw.io-windows-installer-x.y.z.exe and draw.io-windows-no-installer-x.y.z.exe
  6. Add release notes
  7. Publish release

Local Storage and Session Storage is stored in the AppData folder:

Not open-contribution

draw.io is closed to contributions (unless a maintainer permits it, which is extremely rare).

The level of complexity of this project means that even simple changes can break a lot of other moving parts. The amount of testing required is far more than it first seems. If we were to receive a PR, we'd have to basically throw it away and write it how we want it to be implemented.

We are grateful for community involvement, bug reports, & feature requests. We do not wish to come off as anything but welcoming, however, we've made the decision to keep this project closed to contributions for the long term viability of the project.

drawio-desktop (jgraph/drawio-desktop)

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63.5K ·GitHub
Drawio-desktop
What is this?drawio-desktop is the official Electron build of draw.io, a desktop diagramming app that wraps the core draw.io editor so you can build flowcharts and diagrams without a browser.
Do I need anything besides the installer to just run the app?No - the released binaries run standalone. Building it yourself requires Node.js and cloning the repo recursively (it pulls in the draw.io editor as a git submodule), then running npm install and npm start.
Any install pitfalls I should know about?Windows ARM64 builds up to version 31.4.4 shipped with auto-update disabled, so you need to manually install one newer release before updates work again, and on Linux, older AppImageLauncher (2.2.0) can't launch the static AppImage runtime used since 31.4.2 and will fail to start.
Which operating systems does it run on?Windows (x64 and native ARM64), macOS, and Linux (via AppImage) are all supported with official downloads.
Does the app send my diagrams anywhere?No - the app is designed to be isolated from the internet except for its startup update check, and it never transmits diagram content or usage analytics externally.
What are the license and cost?The README says the app is free to use for any purpose under the Apache 2.0 license as long as you don't modify the code and accept it 'as-is'; GitHub's repo metadata lists the license as GPL-3.0.
Why use the desktop app instead of draw.io in a browser?The desktop build isolates itself from the network except for its update check, so your diagrams and usage data are never sent anywhere, unlike using the hosted web app.
What happens if a diagram links to an external image or font?Opening the diagram will fetch that URL to render it correctly, which can reveal metadata like your IP address to that server, even though the diagram content itself is never transmitted.
Can I turn off the automatic update check?Yes, set the DRAWIODISABLEUPDATE=true environment variable or launch the app with --disable-update, useful for centrally-managed installs.
What are similar projects?easyread, Zettlr, krita, get-it, Mailspring, forel, QymCAD, edex-ui
Which topics is it in?drawing, flowchart, electron-app, offline-first, graphics, app, design, electron, pdf, desktop, gplv3, productivity
Creator
jgraph
Size
3.4 MB
Stars
63.5K
Updated
CommitOct 16Releasev32.4.1Oct 09
Age
9y
Commits · 90 Days