Changes are not highlighted when switching document versions in OnlyOffice

Docs
1

ONLYOFFICE Docs Community Edition 8.3.3

When switching between document versions using setHistoryData and onRequestHistoryData, the expected behavior is to display highlighted changes between the current and previous versions. However, the following issue occurs:
The document successfully switches to the selected version
No changes are visually highlighted, there is no markup or diff display.
Instead, OnlyOffice simply loads the previous version as-is, with no visual indication of what changed.

2

Hi @Alikhan :handshake:

Could you please clarify if the change highlighting was implemented correctly in your integration?

Based on the behavior you described, it seems like the history switching itself works, but the visual diff isn’t triggered — this may happen if the required diff data isn’t passed properly.

Please double-check your implementation using our guide here:

How to open document history with changes highlighting

3

I didn’t fully transfer the data to refreshHistory, highlights are now working. However, I’m encountering an issue: when a version is selected, it shows the changes of the selected version with highlights, But the changes (data) from the previous version disappear, even though I downloaded the file of the previous version and confirmed that the data is present there. What could be the potential cause of this problem?

4

Hi @Alikhan

Thanks for the update! To ensure I fully grasp what’s going on, could you please share a short video demonstrating the issue? I’m particularly interested in seeing:

  • Version selection
  • Highlighted changes
  • And exactly how/when the previous version’s content disappears

A visual example will help a lot in understanding and resolving the problem. Thanks!

5

Hello Nikolas,
I have the same problem, but I couldn’t use the highlight feature in versions. Is not working for me.

  1. Could you share your final JSON used in setHistoryData to compare with mine?

  2. the changes files , should I point to onlyoffice changes urls, or do I need to download to my storage server as I did with the original document edited by onlyoffice?

  3. I am storing the file in changesUrl in my server with .changes extension. Should I use .zip, or should store the real json file unzipped?

Thanks Nikolas for your help.

This is my Json today to setHistoryData:

{
  "fileType": "docx",
  "key": "de7c31db-ec74-4545-851e-a0d4d9c5e490",
  "url": "https://mystorage/files/dygP.docx",
  "version": 8,
  "changesUrl": "https://mystorage/files/dygP.changes",
  "previous": {
    "fileType": "docx",
    "key": "78018965-c2d7-4d6d-8216-4d3edc047b45",
    "url": "https://mystorage/files/dygP-v7.docx"
  },
  "token": "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9"
}
6

Hey @manuelfhp, :wave:

Your structure looks mostly solid, but make sure the key for the previous version is unique and matches your storage setup.

The token should be a full JWT if you’re using JWT enabled.
For a complete example, check our guide here: Document History with Changes Highlighting.

Yes, you should store and serve the .changes files on your own server (just like the main document). Point changesUrl to that location — ONLYOFFICE will fetch it from there to compute the diffs. Don’t use ONLYOFFICE’s internal URLs; handle it via your storage.