Recent results on diffraction from measurements, using data taken with the H1 and ZEUS detectors at the ep collider HERA are presented. The cross section measurements are expressed in the form of a diffractive structure function F 2 D (3) ( β , Q 2 χ ℙ ) over an extended kinematic range. The χ ℙ dependence of F 2 D (3) is found to depend on β whereas no dependence on Q 2 is seen, indicating that simple factorisation does not hold. The assumption of a substantial gluon component in the diffractive exchange is compatible with the observed scaling violation in the form of a rising F 2 D (3) with log Q 2 for different values of β . A QCD analysis of F 2 D (3) and measurements of the hadronic final state in deep inelastic scattering like energy flow and yield of D * meson production as well as jet production in photoproduction further demonstrate the presence of a leading gluon component in the partonic structure of the diffractive exchange.