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File format for the template library

The template library file is a structured list of all of the template diagrams available in the draw.io template library, as well as any custom shape libraries that should be opened when a new diagram is created from a template diagram defined in this file.

Use the templateFile configuration parameter in the draw.io configuration to use your own collection of custom template diagrams and specify which custom shape libraries to open when you create a new diagram from any particular template.

To add individual templates to the template library without replacing it entirely, use the customTemplates configuration parameter instead. It accepts an array of entries that support the same attributes as the <template> tag described below, for example: {"customTemplates": [{"section": "basic", "url": "https://example.com/template.xml", "title": "My Template", "preview": "https://example.com/template.png"}]}

The online draw.io editor at diagrams.net uses diagrams.net/templates/index.html by default.

Excerpt to show structure

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<templates>
  <clibs name="example">
    <add>Uhttps://jgraph.github.io/drawio-libs/libs/integration/additional_or_support.xml</add>
    <add>Uhttps://jgraph.github.io/drawio-libs/libs/integration/ai_machine_learning.xml</add>
  </clibs>
  <template section="Title" subsection="Subtitle" url="http://example.com/diagram.xml" title="Diagram" name="Tooltip" preview="https://example.com/diagram.png" libs="general;basic" clibs="example" tags="term1;term2" />
</templates>

Note: The XML type declaration at the start of the file is required when it is downloaded via the proxy server using the URL parameter (9.2.5 and later).

<templates> must contain one or more <template> and/or <clibs> tags.

<clibs> contains a list of custom shape library files, with a unique name.

  • Each custom library URL is enclosed in an <add> tag, and refers to a file that uses the mxLibraryFile format.
  • A template diagram may require a clibs="..." attribute which refers to the name of a defined <clibs> tag.
  • When a new diagram is created using a template that has one or more clibs attributes, those custom shape libraries will be opened in the shapes panel.

<template> describes a template diagram file.

The following attributes are required in the <template> tag.

  • section="..." The name of the template library section in which the template should be placed. The built-in section names (basic, business, charts, cloud, engineering, flowcharts, layout, maps, network, other, software, tables, uml, venn and wireframes) display a localised section label; any other name adds a new section that uses the name as its label.
  • url="..." The URL of the diagram file, with the default extension .xml.
  • title="..." The title of the template diagram, visible when you hover over it in the template library dialog.

The following attributes are optional in the <template> tag.

  • subsection="..." A subsection with the template category defined by the section attribute.
  • name="..." A description of the diagram that is displayed as a tooltip when hovering over the template in the template library.
  • preview="..." The URL of a preview image of the diagram to be displayed in the template library dialog. The default if this is not defined will use the address in the url attribute, replacing the file extension with .png. This default only works for files below the templates/ path of the draw.io server, so a preview must be defined for templates that are hosted elsewhere.
  • libs="..." An optional semi-colon delimited list of the built-in shape libraries that should be displayed in the shapes panel when a new diagram is created from this template.
  • clibs="..." An optional semi-colon delimited list of custom shape libraries that should be displayed in the shapes panel when a new diagram is created from this template. This may refer to a clibs entry defined at the start of this template library file, or the encoded URL of a custom library file, for example:
    clibs="Uhttps%3A%2F%2Fjgraph.github.io%2Fdrawio-libs%2Flibs%2F%2Farista.xml"
  • tags="..." An optional semi-colon delimited list of terms describing the template diagram. These are used when searching for a template in the template library dialog.