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We’ve Added Live Thumbs for Blocks and Anchor Links Control
I'm super excited to let you know that we've added two long-awaited quality of life features in Brizy that will drastically improve the ease of use on Blocks and Anchors. I'm talking about a live thumb feature for blocks and the ability to rename anchor links. Continue reading to find out more about these cool features.
More about how we plan to launch the PRO plus a list of all the features we’ll add in the coming weeks/months can be found in this article.
Here is what you’ll find in this article. Use the links below to jump to a specific section:
Live thumbs for blocks
The Problem
As you may already know, up until now the screen/thumb representation for each block was a static image. This is a problem especially when you modify the block you started from so much that it ends up like nothing you see on the thumb when you try to reorder it.
More problematic is when you've started a block from scratch because you get that "Started from Scratch" thumbnail that doesn't help you at all.
The Solution
Well, starting today, all that is over. We've created a feature that generates live thumbs for each block you create. This was how we've envisioned it will work from the start, but it took a couple of months to make it happen as it was a very challenging problem to tackle.
I'm proud to say that we are the first to implement a feature like this in the WordPress visual builders space. Here is how it works:
The screens are generated client side in the browser and it takes a couple of seconds for that to happen. The time varies and is dependent on your computer's processing power since this is handled directly in the browser. In our tests, we've got results between 5 seconds and 30 seconds on different configurations.
The live thumb for blocks is implemented in all the other places you might expect:
Saved Blocks
Global Blocks
Anchor links
Popups
Anchor links
The Problem
There was no way to control the name of the anchor links for the blocks. Brizy generated a random string on the front end for each block and that posed a problem for usability as well as for SEO. Starting today, this is solved.
The Solution
We've implemented a "Brizy way" to edit the anchor names directly in the Anchor popup from where you select the block you want to link to.
This anchor renaming feature goes hand in hand with the live thumb generation for the blocks as you will be able to see a clear 1 on 1 representation of the block you want to link to.
What's next
We are currently working on a bunch of things, a lot of improvements for features that are already in Brizy but also new features that are a long time coming.
Here are 3 things that we work on and are really close to being launched:
1. Containers Hover – Brizy doesn't let you control hover options … yet, but it will in the near future. We'll start with the containers (Rows and Columns) in the 1st phase and then extend the hover options to elements (the ones that make sense to have hover options).
2. Integrations - Form integrations will let you connect your form with the most popular email and marketing services. We'll start with 12 integrations at first and continue to add more.
The first 12 are: Mailchimp, Sendinblue, Zapier, Campaign Monitor, ConvertKit, Active Campaign, GetResponse, Mailjet, egoi, Hubspot, Mailerlite and Drip.
3. Facebook elements – We'll add 4 new elements in Brizy that will let you add a Facebook Button, Facebook Comments a Facebook Embed and/or a Facebook Page.
Conclusions
This is just the beginning, more cool features are coming to Brizy in the following weeks. Please add any suggestions/issues you have on GitHub. Also, consider joining our Facebook community where we discuss all things Brizy every day.
For a full list of all the fixes and improvements included in Brizy 1.0.56 visit this link.
Until next time.
January 18, 2019
Article by Dimi
One of the designers and co-founders of Brizy and ThemeFuse, Dimi has a passion for design, WordPress, and products with great usability. He is always happy to share and connect with others. Drop him a line.
