lucidchart-reference-architecture

Lucidchart Reference Architecture

Overview

Design a version-controlled integration layer for the Lucidchart diagramming platform. Document versioning is the primary driver, so every shape mutation is tracked for diff, rollback, and branch operations while an async export pipeline renders diagrams without blocking collaboration.

Instructions

1. Provision the prerequisites below and register a Lucidchart OAuth2 application.
2. Deploy the document sync service to reconcile local snapshots with Lucidchart state.
3. Start the collaboration event consumer to capture shape deltas in real time.
4. Configure the export worker pool with deduplication via Redis SETNX.
5. Tune the sync interval and version retention policy for your document volume.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+, TypeScript 5, PostgreSQL 15, Redis 7, RabbitMQ or SQS
• Lucidchart OAuth2 credentials with document:read, document:write, export scopes

Architecture Diagram

Client --> API Gateway --> DocumentSyncService --> Lucidchart API
                                  |
                   +--------------+--------------+
                   v              v              v
             Version DB    Collab Event     Export Worker
            (snapshots)     Consumer       (PNG/SVG/PDF)

Service Layer

class DocumentSyncService {
  constructor(
    private api: LucidchartApiClient,
    private versions: VersionStore,
    private events: EventPublisher
  ) {}

  async syncDocument(docId: string): Promise<DocumentSnapshot> {
    const remote = await this.api.getDocument(docId);
    const local = await this.versions.getLatest(docId);
    if (!local || remote.revision > local.revision) {
      const snapshot = await this.versions.save(docId, remote);
      await this.events.publish('document.synced', { docId, revision: remote.revision });
      return snapshot;
    }
    return local;
  }

  async exportDiagram(docId: string, format: ExportFormat): Promise<string> {
    await this.events.publish('export.requested', { docId, format });
    return this.api.requestExport(docId, format);
  }
}

Caching Strategy

class DocumentCache {
  constructor(private redis: RedisClient) {}

  async getMetadata(docId: string): Promise<DocumentMeta | null> {
    const raw = await this.redis.get(`doc:meta:${docId}`);
    return raw ? JSON.parse(raw) : null;
  }

  async setMetadata(docId: string, meta: DocumentMeta): Promise<void> {
    await this.redis.setEx(`doc:meta:${docId}`, 120, JSON.stringify(meta));
  }

  async deduplicateExport(docId: string, format: string): Promise<boolean> {
    const key = `export:lock:${docId}:${format}`;
    return (await this.redis.setNX(key, '1')) === true;
  }
}
// TTLs: doc metadata 2 min, shape data not cached (version store is truth)

Event Pipeline

class CollabEventConsumer {
  constructor(private queue: MessageQueue, private versions: VersionStore) {}

  async start(): Promise<void> {
    await this.queue.subscribe('collab.shape_changed', async (evt: ShapeEvent) => {
      await this.versions.recordDelta(evt.docId, evt.revision, evt.delta);
    });
    await this.queue.subscribe('collab.user_joined', async (evt: PresenceEvent) => {
      await this.versions.recordCollaborator(evt.docId, evt.userId);
    });
  }
}

class ExportWorker {
  async processExport(job: ExportJob): Promise<void> {
    const url = await this.api.pollExportStatus(job.exportId);
    const buffer = await this.api.downloadExport(url);
    await this.storage.upload(`exports/${job.docId}/${job.format}`, buffer);
  }
}

Data Model

interface DocumentSnapshot {
  docId: string; revision: number; title: string;
  pages: Page[]; collaborators: string[]; capturedAt: Date;
}
interface Page {
  pageId: string; title: string;
  shapes: Shape[]; connectors: Connector[];
}
interface Shape {
  id: string; type: string; text: string;
  position: { x: number; y: number };
  size: { width: number; height: number };
}
interface ExportJob {
  exportId: string; docId: string;
  format: 'png' | 'svg' | 'pdf'; requestedAt: Date;
}

Output

Running this architecture produces a versioned document store with full revision history, a real-time collaboration delta stream, and on-demand diagram exports to PNG, SVG, or PDF with deduplication.

Scaling Considerations

• Partition the version store by document ID to isolate write-heavy diagrams
• Export workers are stateless; scale horizontally based on queue depth
• Deduplicate concurrent export requests for the same document/format via Redis SETNX
• Distribute sync jobs across OAuth tokens to respect per-user rate limits

Error Handling

Component	Failure Mode	Recovery
Lucidchart API	429 rate limit	Exponential backoff, pause sync for that token
Version Store	Write conflict	Retry with latest revision, merge divergent deltas
Export Worker	Render timeout	Re-queue lower priority, notify after 3 failures
Collab Consumer	Out-of-order events	Buffer and reorder by revision before applying
Redis	Cache eviction	Rebuild metadata from version store on next read

Examples

# Sync a document and capture its current revision
curl http://localhost:3000/api/documents/abc123/sync
# Request a PNG export of a specific diagram
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/documents/abc123/export?format=png

Resources

• Lucidchart API Reference

Next Steps

See lucidchart-deploy-integration.