Template dialog box does not appear when creating or opening draw.io

[minimejdh]

I am using the desktop app on a Mac. I have the most current version. I can get to it through the Arrange menu. But I am used to having it be there when opening the app or creating a new item. How can I get it to appear?

[draw-io-triage-bot[bot]]

The template dialog is part of the start screen, and draw.io no longer shows that screen by default. Since 27.0.0 the desktop app opens straight into a blank diagram, and File > New opens a new window with a blank diagram too. In 30.3.13 the old Extras > Show Start Screen menu item moved into the configuration. If you had it switched on before, that setting wasn't carried over.

To get it back:

1. Go to Extras > Configuration.
2. Find Show Splash on Start (type splash in the search box) and set it to Enabled. On the JSON tab this is "showSplashOnStart": true.
3. Click Apply, then quit and restart draw.io.

After that, the app and every window opened with File > New start with the Create New Diagram / Open Existing Diagram dialog. Create New Diagram opens the templates. The option is listed as showSplashOnStart at https://www.drawio.com/docs/reference/configure-diagram-editor/#autosave-and-storage.

Notes for maintainers

Behaviour change, not a bug. Checked against 32.0.2 (2201e54); desktop 31.7.0 has the same code.

• Init.js sets urlParams['splash'] = '0' unless showSplashOnStart is true in DRAWIO_CONFIG or in localStorage['.configuration']:

  drawio/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/Init.js

  Lines 355 to 394 in 2201e54

  	{
  	// Cannot use mxSettings or Editor.config here
  	var showSplash = (window.DRAWIO_CONFIG != null) ?
  	window.DRAWIO_CONFIG.showSplashOnStart : null;
  	if (isLocalStorage)
  	{
  	// Handles lockdown and splash screen configuration
  	try
  	{
  	var value = localStorage.getItem('.configuration');
  	if (value != null)
  	{
  	var config = JSON.parse(value);
  	if (config != null)
  	{
  	if (config.lockdown != null)
  	{
  	urlParams['lockdown'] = config.lockdown;
  	}
  	if (config.showSplashOnStart != null)
  	{
  	showSplash = config.showSplashOnStart;
  	}
  	}
  	}
  	}
  	catch (e)
  	{
  	// ignore
  	}
  	}
  	if (showSplash != true && urlParams['splash'] == null)
  	{
  	urlParams['splash'] = '0';
  	}

• With splash=0, desktop startup (loadArgs -> checkDrafts) creates a blank file instead of calling loadFile() / showSplash():

  drawio/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/App.js

  Lines 4753 to 4767 in 2201e54

  	else if (urlParams['splash'] != '0')
  	{
  	this.loadFile();
  	}
  	else
  	{
  	try
  	{
  	this.createFile(this.defaultFilename, this.getFileData(),
  	null, null, null, null, null, true);
  	}
  	catch (e)
  	{
  	// ignore
  	}

• On desktop, File > New with a file open sends newfile, and the main process just calls createWindow, so the new window goes through the same startup and also opens blank:

  drawio/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/ElectronApp.js

  Lines 679 to 691 in 2201e54

  	// Replaces new action
  	var oldNew = this.actions.get('new').funct;
  	this.actions.addAction('new...', mxUtils.bind(this, function()
  	{
  	if (this.getCurrentFile() == null)
  	{
  	oldNew();
  	}
  	else
  	{
  	electron.sendMessage('newfile', {width: 1600});
  	}

• The showSplashOnStart toggle is in the General group of the Configuration dialog (ConfigEditor.js, label cfgShowSplashOnStart), and it is documented.

History: 27.0.0 changelog says "Disables splash screen by default". 30.3.13 says "Moves ... Show Start Screen options to the configuration". Up to 30.3.12 the setting was showStartScreen in .drawio-config (mxSettings). From 30.3.13 only showSplashOnStart in .configuration is read, and nothing migrates the old key. So anyone who had Extras > Show Start Screen enabled lost the start screen silently when they updated past 30.3.13.

_{Automated first response by the draw.io triage bot.}