We’re thrilled to share some exciting news: you can now create Element Dev Packs! This is a game-changer and a major step forward in our vision for Elements. With Dev Packs, users and developers alike can create, and next year will be able to distribute add-ons seamlessly within Elements and through the upcoming Elements Marketplace.
In today’s video, I dive into what this means and walk you through the process of moving your custom components into a Element Dev Pack. This makes them readily available for all your projects — simple, streamlined, and super powerful!
And here’s the cherry on top: a new beta release featuring everything I demo in the dev diary (and more!) is coming later today. Be sure to keep an eye out for it!
Docs & Code Examples
We’re actively expanding our developer documentation, adding more code examples, and planning even more resources over the coming months. In the meantime, here are some helpful links mentioned in the video to get you started:
We’re kicking off a brand-new series of developer-focused videos! Here’s the first episode, where we dive into how to add custom icons to your components.
Thanks for your Feedback
As always, we couldn’t have reached this milestone without your feedback and support. Thank you for being on this journey with us — we can’t wait to see what you create with Dev Packs!
I’m not a developer. Most of that would require me watching it numerous times and reading documentation. But it seems like a pretty straight forward solution. Anxious to see what actual developers think.
We’ve built Custom Components and Dev Pack creation into the app so it’s not just “developers” that can benefit from it, I think a lot of users are going to dig it — I know I’m biased, but as a user of Elements myself, I love this stuff
I’m not a developer at all, but I have already built some custom components. I’m going to see if I can manage to put them into a pack. It all looks incredibly inspiring once again!
I really like that you have to go external to the Elements App to make changes i.e. use an editor (in my case Sublime Text) to make changes, effectively making a Dev pack component not able to be edited in the Elements App.
I will have more of a play with this tomorrow.
@dan and team, you are to be congratulated on reaching this milestone; well done to you all.
Since I’m the only dev that has been giving public feedback on Elements - this has got to be said, so everyone is aware of the implications:
First, RMS wants full control over products and plans to take 25% cut of all sales.
It would require devs setup and manage Stripe, which is not the prefered payment method for some devs.
So how do I feel about this as a dev without going nuclear? - Well, I’ll try, so here goes.
This approach has been tried before and failed miserably. Rapidweaver used to be in the App Store, but there has always been the the loss of various aspects of control over offerings and the loss of a big chunk of their profits.
If RMS didn’t like those things and moved away from that approach when on the receiving end, why would 3rd party devs put up with that any more than RMS did?
Just so everyone is clear a launch of Classic/Elements is well into 7 figure income - which is fine, but 3rd party devs are not in that financial position as their sales at best have been a microscopic fraction of that.
So here’s the options as I see them:
Go with the huge hit to what little income we get, which will almost certainly drive the few of us left out of business.
Dramatically increase our prices to account for all the additional costs and headaches involved, most of you are penny-pinching and won’t like the prices and that will dramatically kill income (see first option).
RMS gives the basic existing capability that has been in Classic/Stacks to check for updates and install updates. Without any fees.
It’s up to everyone in this community to let the 3rd party devs and RMS know which option you want to go with.
I don’t care if you are not in the beta - I expect EVERYONE reading this, ie, hundreds, if not thousands of responses to this question - This answer will determine the future of elements.
The distribution model we’re rolling out is all about creating a smooth, secure, and consistent experience for everyone. By standardizing payments through Stripe and having Realmac manage the marketplace, users can trust they’re getting reliable, high-quality content, while developers are freed up to focus on creating great add-ons without the headaches of handling distribution, security, or updates. Updates will also be seamless, so users always have the latest features with zero fuss—and to top it off, all purchases will be safely backed up in the Elements cloud, meaning they’ll be available on any Mac whenever needed.
We completely understand that the platform commission might raise some concerns. However, it’s an essential part of supporting and improving the platform—covering everything from development tools to documentation and support, all of which make building with Elements easier and more efficient. These investments ultimately benefit both users and developers, ensuring a thriving ecosystem for all.
Putting users first has always been our priority, and this system is no different. By centralizing and simplifying, we’re creating a marketplace that’s built on trust, security, and ongoing innovation.
We’re genuinely excited about the future of Elements, the Marketplace, and the opportunities it’s going to unlock for everyone involved.
As always, the videos are an excellent guide, along with the online manual. The process is very logically structured. As a result, I was able to create a Dev Pack fairly quickly, including the icons.
I’m not in the beta but if the question is do we want Elements to be AWESOME, then my answer is YES. How that all shakes out so we arrive there, I will let others decide.
Just a quick update; we’ve started to put together a Playlist of videos to help you get started with creating Element Dev Packs. Here’s the latest video
Be sure to check out the different playlists on the Realmac YouTube homepage; there’s lots of great Elements content you may have missed
And finally, do let us know what type of videos you’d like to see. Perhaps more custom component videos? Or maybe videos on how to create certain websites or layouts?!
I think it’s safe to say that what was happening before was a big miss. It worked for a short time for some, but it was not sustainable.
I can’t know for sure if this will be any better, but I like the attitude, the transparency, the app, and the openness of how components can be shared. If RM is going to use the money for long-term growth and to ensure quality and integrity, then I say let them try.
What was going on before wasn’t great for the majority of people trying to build a simple brochure website. Elements is already better at this. Custom components have also proven to be a hit. A number of people have voluntarily shared theirs, and some have all but announced possible components for sale.
So far, the focus has mainly been on creating custom components based on HTML. It might be interesting to highlight the other possibilities as well in separate videos.
Is there any word on the standard components being added back in (banners, call to action, footers etc)?
One thing I’m wondering about - and I feel this would be particularly relevant for new users - is the new document ‘blank page’.
I guess once the base components are back it will be less daunting but I’d like to see a new document have default page with a banner, logo, nav bar, footer etc - with responsiveness set - as a starting point. They could be placeholders in a similar way to Pages themes has placeholders.
It would be a step short of a theme but it’s the sort of thing I imagine people could freely share and you could assign a default page to any new document.
Without the base components the very easy, super quick, drag and drop site creation from the early videos seems to have been lost.
This is a game-changer and a major step forward in our vision for Elements. With Dev Packs, users and developers alike can create, and next year will be able to distribute add-ons seamlessly within Elements and through the upcoming Elements Marketplace.
