Dev Diary Ep19 - Global Website Templates

[dan (Dan C.)]

Hey Weavers,

Sorry for the delay in this week’s video, but it’s finally here

And yes, we’re looking at Globals again — We’ve implemented a lot of your feedback and things are really starting to take shape!

Watch the video below to see how you can use Globals and overrides to create website templates. We’ve built Globals to be really flexible so what you see in this video is just one of the many ways you can use this flexible feature.

Dev Diary Ep19 - Global Website Templates

As always your feedback is invaluable to us, so let us know what you think of today’s video in the comments below.

I’ll be back next Tuesday as usual.

Cheers,
Dan & Team Realmac

[bryanrieger]

I really like the way templates (globals) are shaping up. I do have a few comments on the demo today:

1. Having the templates (globals) at essentially the bottom of the elements tab feels rather awkward. Given how important they are likely to be to a site, I’d much rather have them presented and managed in their own templates (globals) tab as I believe you had originally intended.
2. I like the break link metaphor when over-riding template elements and properties. I’m assuming you can always reestablish the link to the original template removing the overrides?
3. I noticed that even you were having a difficult time remembering to toggle the override switch while editing a template (global). I’m not sure what the answer is, but I suspect this is going to be a source of frustration for many users.
4. I don’t think the term ‘global’ is working, as even you began using the word template towards the end of the video. I do think it’s a much more natural way to view these ‘custom elements’ and clearly communicates their role. I also really like the idea that a template (global) can be as small as a button, or as big as a full page layout — the key is that these templates are reusable, updatable, and customizable throughout an entire site.

I can easily see folks sharing templates (globals) as recipes/patterns for building the underlying structure (not necessarily styling) of various page and site components. Navbars, tab groups, headers, footers, hero sections, carousels, etc.

[gfcreative (Eric Goodman)]

I like this next evolution of partials - becoming what will globals. Being able to break a global and change each one will save tons of time. Any way of making the globals list within the tab more prominent?

[Bill]

• For the globals that are shown in the element tab - do they only show up in that project file? I’m wondering if the same global was used in separate projects, if a change in a global in one project would affect another - hopefully not.

[bryanrieger]

Hmm, good question. I would assume templates (globals) are scoped to each project, but I can definitely see use cases where it might be useful to have global templates (global globals) that can be quickly dropped into any project/site. For instance, standard navigation templates, menus, footer templates, analytics templates, contact forms, etc.

Nova has something similar where code snippets can be scoped to extensions (installed plug-ins), a specific project, and ‘global’ (ie. always available in every project).

[Flash]

Just my thoughts…

This is coming along very nicely. Each week as you gain experience we can see where things are simply working better, both the code and the operator.

In regards to the naming conventions…

Rapidweaver Elements, I actually like the name. It’s catchy and explains what you are basically doing when you are building a website manually, one-element-at-a-time.

Elements, This is what HTML is, semantic HTML elements.

Structures, I prefer this name as opposed to Globals. These are prebuilt groups of elements, (Structures) that are saved and used anywhere within a project. Generally speaking the “structure” will be retained and the content within the structure will change.

Templates, I prefer the name templates for a full website design. A theme could mean the website editorial content theme, ie. sports, cars, dancing, fashion, finances, etc. A template is just that, a complete template consisting of Elements and groups of elements, Structures.

In respect to the sidebar…

It has become very cluttered – content, footer, core, layout, custom, faqs, global, at the very least. I’m not sure I immediately understand what all of them mean. The use of search will help a lot, but unless you already know the name of what you’re looking for, it is a hit-miss proposition. Perhaps making them collapsible accordions would help reduce the length.

In any case, there definitely needs to be sub-layers of organization (user defined?) to help keep this organized as well as a “Favorites” section to store the most common Elements and Structures used in a project. There are over a hundred html elements, that makes for a really long sidebar once they all get added to a sidebar library.

Please take this as constructive criticism. What you all are creating is awesome!

[upssjw (Steve W)]

Wow templates and globals, unlimited reusable / editable pages and elements. Really powerful
On the subject of the elements tree, this is probably not feasible just part of my wish list, if you were to click the icon of a section , container, grid, flex, header etc a window would pop up showing the view of the entire section / container or if it was just a single flex box or heading / text image . in the window would be some data ie a global not a global any other useful data, then a link to jump to that area of a page. That would be really cool and different. Smaller copy of your preview main screen.

[scottsteven]

Better use for the launch screen, I have a started replacing the Examples with projects that I use for Project files that I can open up and drag pages from while building a new project. Which I could relabel the example to My Library or something .

[dan (Dan C.)]

@bryanrieger

Having the templates (globals) at essentially the bottom of the elements tab feels rather awkward.

Yes, should be at the top I think

@bryanrieger

I like the break link metaphor when over-riding template elements and properties. I’m assuming you can always reestablish the link to the original template removing the overrides?

Exactly!

@bryanrieger

I noticed that even you were having a difficult time remembering to toggle the override switch while editing a template (global)

Yes, we’re thinking we should probably add a way to make the override toggle the default when dragging in a Global.

@bryanrieger

I don’t think the term ‘global’ is working, as even you began using the word template towards the end of the video.

haha, it’s mainly because I wanted to show how flexible Globals can be, everything from just a button right up to an entire “template”.

We were avoiding the term Template as this is used when building Elements (including custom Elements). There’s a template.html file - and if we called them the same thing there would be a lot of confusion

We like the name Globals… but I’m wondering if EVERYONE else thinks they should be called “Templates” then we’ll have to change the name – Maybe I’ll post a poll to find out…

[dan (Dan C.)]

@gfcreative

Any way of making the globals list within the tab more prominent?

Yes, I think we’ll move it to the top section…

[dan (Dan C.)]

@Bill

• For the globals that are shown in the element tab - do they only show up in that project file? I’m wondering if the same global was used in separate projects, if a change in a global in one project would affect another - hopefully not.

No, Globals are unique to the project. They are not shared between projects.

[dan (Dan C.)]

@bryanrieger

mm, good question. I would assume templates (globals) are scoped to each project, but I can definitely see use cases where it might be useful to have global templates (global globals) that can be quickly dropped into any project/site.

Yes, they are scoped to the project. I could see this changing (as an option) in the future, but for now we’re keeping it clean and simple.

[dan (Dan C.)]

@scottsteven

Better use for the launch screen, I have a started replacing the Examples with projects that I use for Project files that I can open up and drag pages from while building a new project. Which I could relabel the example to My Library or something .

I like this idea!

[scottsteven]

“Any way of making the globals list within the tab more prominent?”

Hmm just occurred to me what if the users could organise this by moving sections around so they could tailor the list in the order that fits their way of thinking. I would like it if I click say the command + click and hold I could move this up and down in the list. Also save this on a project by project Basis

[scottsteven]

I have not used any of the examples except for the first day I bought rapid weaver but I do use it now to store template projects where I can drag and drop recycled pages from them to new projects.

[thominator (Thom Hogan)]

I think the icon graphics are backwards. You have a grayed out link icon if an item is the global controls it, but then put a blacked in broken link icon if the item is overridden. Logically, this is backward to the way most people would think about this.

The link should be active (black) when the global controls it, gray when it isn’t. Color would also fix this: green for linked, red for not linked.

[Flash]

@dan , can Globals be copied and pasted between projects?

[RapidBase (Matthias Wolf)]

In addition to @Flash:
… or dragged and dropped from one project window into another?

[dan (Dan C.)]

@Flash

can Globals be copied and pasted between projects?

Yes, but they will not be linked with the first project they were created in. Globals are scoped per project and not shared.

@RapidBase

… or dragged and dropped from one project window into another?

Yes, dragging and dropping of Elements (and Globals) also works…

[Flash]

@dan

they will not be linked with the first project they were created in.

I can see this as a good thing. If you build one master template, it would then be possible to copy and past (d&d) from there. I wouldn’t want to risk modifying one website for a unique change only to unintentionally alter all my sites.

I do see the potential value of making it cross-scope optional, but very risky and perhaps a huge support headache.