Saltcorn 0.5.6 - builder user experience

By Tom Nielsen
Published on 

Saltcorn 0.5.6 is focused on improving the user experience of the drag-and-drop builder. On that theme, there are the following improvements:

  • The builder has been slightly rearranged, in an effort to avoid buttons jumping around in position when different contents are selected.
  • Elements can now be duplicated; there is a duplicate button next to delete button at the top of the settings area.
  • Element can also be added to a library of reusable component assemblies. If you add a component with contests (such as a container or a card) this will include the elements inside the content. This library is shared across different pages and the different views that use the builder, to enable you to reuse content in many different places. There is a new wiki page about the builder library. The library is currently empty until you fill it yourself, in a future release it will be pre-populated with common assemblies.
  • You can now undo and redo inside the builder. This was super easy to implement as the underlying library we use, craft.js, added this feature recently with excellent documentation and example code.
  • You can now upload images from inside the builder. This means that when you want to upload an image to use in a page all of you, you no longer have to exit the builder to do so. In the image component settings, switch the source to “Upload” and pick the file you want to use.
  • You now also set the field values of a fixed state of a view embedded in a page directly in the builder, which greatly simplifies the use of fixed states. This also means that page editing is no longer a “wizard” and editing the page itself and editing the pages properties has been split into two different links.
  • Delete and backspace now act as keyboard shortcuts for deleting an element. Further keyboard shortcuts may be introduced in the next release.

There are some new layout options in the builder:

  • In text elements, you can now set the font family
  • Buttons can now have custom colours (background, border and text). Previously these were dictated by the bootstrap theme.
  • Containers can now be rotated by a set a number of degrees.

There are other improvements not related to the builder:

Files have now been demoted to the settings menu. Since files can now be uploaded from inside the builder, there are fewer reasons to go to the files menu.
Menu items can now be chosen to belong to a buttom mobile menu. This will appear as a fixed row of buttons on themes that support it.

Ownership of rows can now be declared by a formula instead of a fixed field. This is somewhat more flexible. 

You can now restore a backup from the page on which you create the first user. That means that your restored users all come from the back up, including the admin user and their password


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