Background / Current Behaviour

When editing a draw.io (diagrams.net) diagram embedded in a Confluence Cloud page, the editor now opens embedded within the Confluence editor frame, rather than in a true full‑screen editing experience.

This change is described publicly in the Atlassian Community thread:

• “Draw.io view changed – how to revert back?”
  Draw.io view changed - how to revert back?

Key points from that discussion:

• Previously, when a user clicked Edit on a draw.io macro, the editor opened in full screen, effectively taking over the browser window.
• After a recent update, the editor opens only as a partial view inside the Confluence page editor, leaving significant unused/greyed‑out space and making work on large diagrams much more difficult.
• The draw.io/diagrams.net team have confirmed in that thread that:
  • The change is related to their migration to Forge, and
  • Forge does not currently support full‑screen in the same way their previous implementation did.
  • They filed a Forge platform ticket in 2021:
    FRGE-557: Fullscreen custom UI modalsResolved

At the moment:

• There is no specific Confluence Cloud bug/suggestion tracking “draw.io editor should be full‑screen again”.

• The underlying capability is tracked as a Forge platform feature request:
  FRGE-557: Fullscreen custom UI modalsResolved

Problem Statement

For users working with medium‑to‑large diagrams, the loss of the full‑screen editor significantly reduces usable canvas space and introduces more scrolling/zooming, which:

• Degrades productivity (more panning/zooming to see context),
• Makes it harder to work on complex diagrams on standard laptop screens,
• Causes confusion for existing customers who were accustomed to the previous full‑screen behaviour and perceive this as a regression.

Administrators cannot:

• Toggle this behaviour via Confluence or draw.io settings, or
• Roll back to the previous full‑screen experience.

The current workarounds (browser full‑screen, collapsing Confluence side panels, zooming out) only partially mitigate the issue and do not restore the previous editor behaviour.

Desired Behaviour / Proposal

Provide a way for apps like draw.io to offer a true full‑page or full‑screen editing experience again when editing embedded diagrams in Confluence Cloud.

Concretely:

• Platform capability (Forge)
  1. Expand Forge UI / modal capabilities to support a full‑page or true full‑screen editing surface suitable for rich editors like draw.io.
  2. This is aligned with the existing Forge feature request:
     FRGE-557: Fullscreen custom UI modalsResolved
• Confluence + macro/editor integration
  1. Allow macro‑based apps (like draw.io) to open their editor in that full‑page/full‑screen context when a user clicks Edit on the macro.
  2. Preserve or approximate the previous user experience where the diagram editor filled the entire browser viewport, with Confluence UI de‑emphasised in the background.
• Admin / user control (optional enhancement)
  1. Provide an option (per user or per space/site) to choose between:
     1. Embedded editor (current behaviour), and
     2. Full‑page/full‑screen editor (new/old behaviour), so customers can adopt the mode that best fits their workflows.

Justification / Impact

• The change is already reported and discussed by customers in the Community:
  Draw.io view changed - how to revert back?
• The draw.io team has publicly explained that this is driven by a Forge limitation, not by customer choice.
• Customers describe a “hit in productivity” when working with larger diagrams due to the reduced canvas size and additional scrolling/zooming.
• The previous full‑screen editing experience set an expectation that complex diagramming is first‑class within Confluence; the current constrained editor feels like a regression.

Restoring a first‑class full‑page editing surface would:

• Improve usability for complex diagrams and larger canvases,
• Reduce friction for existing long‑term draw.io + Confluence customers,
• Align with expectations set by the historical Connect‑based experience.
• Workarounds (Current)

Users can partially mitigate the issue by:

• Using browser full‑screen mode (e.g. F11 on Windows, Ctrl+Cmd+F on macOS),

• Collapsing Confluence navigation/side panels to maximise the in‑page editor area,

• Zooming out in the browser (e.g. to 80–90%) to see more of the canvas at once.

These do not fully replace the previous full‑screen editor and are only stopgaps.