Description
The Confluence server must have the Graph Visualization Software (Graphviz) package installed in order for the Graphviz Plugin for Confluence macros to work. The Graphviz package is free and supports a variety of operating systems including those supported by Confluence.
Test your Graphviz installation
After you have installed Graphviz, make sure the dot executable is able to be run from a command line using the same environment (especially the path) used to startup Confluence.
Graphviz on Windows
- Download and run the Windows installer
- Defaults to install in C:\Program Files\Graphviz2.16 or similar
- Automatically adds this to your Windows path
- Confirm that you can run dot.exe from a newly opened command line
- Restart Confluence
Verify it works by creating a page with a simple flowchart macro like:
{flowchart} A -> B {flowchart}
Graphviz on Mac OSX
- Download and run the installer.
- The installer should set up everything so that dot is found on the path
Graphviz on Linux and Unix
- Install the graphviz.rpm, the graphviz-graphs.rpm, and the graphviz-gd.rpm packages
- Open the directory GraphViz is installed under and confirm the path
- Login as the user who runs Confluence or starts the Confluence service
- Append the path to the
bin
directory of GraphViz to the 'Path' variable
Last resort
This is not recommended, but, if you just can't get your path set correctly to find the dot executable, then this is an alternative.
If you get errors about not finding dot.exe
- Download the plugin jar file
- Unzip the jar to a temporary directory
- Edit the graphviz.properties file
Replace dot.candidate.paths setting with something like (yes, use forward slashes ):
dot.candidate.paths=c:/PROGRA~1/Graphviz2.16/bin/dot.exe
- Zip all files in the temporary directory to create a new jar file
- Uninstall the graphviz plugin and re-install your customized version
- GVIZ-1 will make this easier